Lerk,

Take it from someone certified in CPR, you did everything right. The very first thing you do in such an emergency is take charge. Choose someone, and order them to call 911. The next thing is to make sure the victim is not in harms way. You did all that flawlessly.

Here are other things you did right...

You did not give the brother the time of day, you gave your witness account to the police and let them hash it out. (they can tell when someone is trying to pin blame)

You kept her awake and gave her comfort where ever you could--you kept her calm.

You kept your head in the face of a rattling event.

As for the outcome, the driver may have gotten a $25 fine, but your friend's insurance company lawyer is going to come in and do a bit of expense recovery. Not to mention your friend's lawyer coming in to recoup through a little pain and suffering litigation. It ain't over for this irresponsible driver.

Re: You are a Hero
 

thanks, I had three neck vetebra fused: removal of two disks and insertion of cadaver donor bone, all secured with a metal plate and some screws.

I'm fine now, with a wonderful scar from the clavicle to the jaw line. A friend suggests I should either claim its from a razor fight in a bar or a dueling scar...heh.

thanks for saying so. I know at the time I didn't really think too much, I just reacted (or acted). It wasn't until afterwards that I realized how bizarre it was for me to do that: if you ever saw how disorganized my desk is, you'd be amazed.

heh.

Lerk how is your recovery going?
 

That is a pretty major "oil change" everything to do with backs/spine/neck is major.

And If you do not mind one asking what was the impetus for the surgery? I am sure you were in mind numbing pain before and after, but what caused the problem in the first place?

heh -- "major oil change" :)

Not sure if related, but 25 years ago in college I had a diving board accident, where I compressed my neck as it struck the board. For a time I wore a neck brace and had some pain, but the pain went away so I thought nothing of it. fast forward twenty five years, and about 9 months ago, I started having excruciating pain in my neck, with numbness and pain down both arms. I couldn't feel my thumb and forefinger of my left arm. The pain was so bad I literally was in tears when I tried to lay down to sleep and I couldn't sleep. I couldn't turn my head very far without lancing pain, and even though I was popping over the counter and prescription pain pills like candy, to no avail. I finally broke down and went in to the doctor. I thought I was getting bad arthritis. He xrayed my neck and came in and said "this is bad. You will end up needing surgery". He showed me the xray...between the C5, C6 and C7 vertebra there was no space. There should have been a disk in between but the xray showed them rubbing together.
Turns out the disks were extremely herniated: one disk to the right and interior to the spinal cord, and the other to the left and interior to the spinal cord. In addition, an interior bone spur was scraping and damaging the cord itself, and spinal fluid was leaking INTO the cord, which it shouldn't do. What the surgeon said was "you and I are walking down the street. We both fall. I get up. you don't. All it takes is one fall, one minor fender bender and you'll end up a paraplegic." well, that was a bit scary.
So I got the surgery, and since then, I go days without taking pain meds at all! my range of motion is almost complete, which is an improvement since pain kept me from moving much before surgery.

The diving board accident could have caused it, and it took 25 years to flare up, or it could have been something unrelated. The doctors wouldn't speculate except to say "its bad now, whatever the cause, and we have to fix it"

Wow, I'm sure that knowing all that put your experience with your co-worker in the crosswalk into a different perspective: had it been you the outcome could have be dramatically different.

Glad to hear you are all fixed up!

yes, my wife pointed out that had I been 10 seconds faster, I would have been hit instead and probably paralyzed or dead. Even though she wouldn't wish that my coworker got hit, it was better her than I (in my wife's view) of course, I'm sure the coworker might disagree :)

You have to be there to know how it feels...
 

As a cop, I've responded to incidents involving pedestrians which have been struck by vehicles. I've always handled them professionally, as trained, and they didn't bother me too much. A few years ago, I actually witnessed someone being struck by a car and flung about 30-40 feet. To put it mildly, it made me feel physically ill. If I wouldn't have been caught up in being a first responder (I was off-duty at the time), there's no doubt that I would have barfed (sorry). Nothing has ever made me feel the way I felt when I witnessed this and it's probably the only time that I ever felt truly traumatized (until September 11, 2001 came along).

I'm happy to hear that you (lerkfish) and the victim are both recovering. It sounds like you did everything that you could have done to help the victim and it's too bad that the law didn't provide a more severe dose of justice to the driver.

Cheers,
Rob J

a $25 fine.....
anybody here think a small email letter campeign to the local police/mayor is in order?
the guy was driving (or so it seems) with a suspended license (in NJ thats a jailable offense) AND hit someone AND there was a reliable witness.

maybe its that I just spent a weekend in DC with activist type people but I feel there is something that can be done here beyond us all telling lurk (correctly) that he did good.

Hey lurk, you work for a newspaper, any chance they can do a followup about how small a response the law has to such a situation?

just my two cents

also for the record:

WAY TO GO LURK!
keeping your wits and doing the right thing is tough and you did it, so I join the rest of the crowd in congrats.

knowmad
(edited for spelling and typing)

the executive editor of the paper wrote an editorial the next week on the incident and it was more a reminder about being careful (vs. careless) when driving. Apparently he could see the whole thing out his upper office window and was one of the people that called 911 (though they'd already received notice of the accident)
he made a special visit down to my cubicle to tell me I did a good job. (not often the upper brass comes to visit me...well, ok, they never do).

I told the coworker I'd be happy to testify at any civil trial, but never heard back yet on that.

This was in Canada, but I am sure it is the same in the US....

I once sat beside a judge on a flight and was asking him why the system let people off so easy. He was honestly under the impression that most of the public wanted the system to work that way :rolleyes:

While I can understand that if some dumb kid makes a mistake when he is 14 or so, that we don't hang him, I get upset when I see repeat offenders, or in this case someone fully aware of what he is doing get off lightly. I imagine this was truly was an accident, so I suppose he shouldn't hang either :), but I think everyone would agree that a $25 dollar fine is not sending the right message.

I would add a letter to some judicial body as well as to the others you mention.

Cheers,

Re: Re: You are a Hero
 

There was a small movie called The Big Fix with Richard Dreyfuss...

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0077233/

...and was not really all that great, but most of the funny bits are people asking him how he broke his arm (it was in a cast the entire movie) and his various replies were great and may give you some inspiration.

Am very glad that all went well in your surgery!!