October 11, 2023, i was borderline obese, 23 and just started my masters degree. Little did I know that this could happen to me because I lost my grandfather and mother form similar accidents. Even worse, my father died a month before I fully recovered. 

As I got struck in a crosswalk while the green light still present, it felt like my life was changed forever. But interestingly, the fellow that struck me immediately picked me up and sent me to the ER, where I learned that my right tibia was seriously cracked and unstable from a CT scan and MRI. It was a seriously critical health emergency. In other words, one of the doctors said “it’s not good”.

The surgery alone reveals an alarming amount of hemorrhage, with redder colors of my muscles and surrounding bones. The tibial plateau that suffered the fracture was significant that it was almost impossible to repair it but the surgeons did everything they can and thankfully the difficult procedure went remarkably successfully. 

Surgery exposes that it was worse than I ever thought. It went successfully and the fellow managed to cover all costs of medical treatments and physical therapy. The gentleman I’m only referring as “Bryon” is a normal man who was on a rush to get to his family home. The accident was an accident with no ill intent. We became friends as he was always by my side ever since. The injury alone was overwhelming but not as dramatic as my emotional well being because of everything that was going on. I pull it through, I managed to walk, run, climb, swim, kick soccer and work out again like I always used to do.

While I am still heartbroken my father was no longer with us a month before I can fully walk on my own again, I know he would be grateful that I made an amazing recovery. Because of that physical pain resulted from the car impact as a pedestrian, I officially lost 50 lbs and the pain finally went away (currently 154 lbs). The accident taught me that while it can happen to you if don’t know what to do or are unaware of your surroundings before it happens, it is best for me to be more aware of my surroundings and never let my injury define me or change my life permanently. Today I kept the weight off, being physically stronger than ever before. 

Getting hit by a car as a pedestrian is not worth it. The surgery exposes how serious it was.