Published Sunday, May 11, 2008
Accident victim says thanks to responders who saved her
The Times-Herald
On April 1, 2006, Laura Gage nearly died in a head-on collision that did claim the life of the driver who was at fault.
For two months following the accident, Gage remained hospitalized while her body healed from serious injuries. Even today, Gage doesn't remember a thing from six months before the accident or two to three months after.
Rather than dwell on her continuing limitations -- which include balance problems, double vision and difficulties with patience -- Gage, 42, pushed herself to be independent and learn to drive again so she could personally thank the emergency responders responsible for saving her life that night. She's also dedicated herself to church and sharing her faith with the community.
On April 1, 2006, Gage was returning home from her job at Delta Airlines at approximately 12:45 a.m. -- though she admittedly has no recollection of the incident herself. Gage was on Millard Farmer Road nearing her subdivision when 20-year-old Renard Hill approached in a Toyota truck traveling at a high rate of speed. He crossed the centerline on a hill and struck Gage head-on.
"From what I understand, I never saw it coming," said Gage.
Hill was ejected from his vehicle and pronounced dead on the scene. Personnel from Coweta Fire Station 1 in Moreland and Coweta County emergency medical responders from Vital Care Ambulance Service arrived at the scene and extricated Gage from her 1999 Nissan Altima. From what Gage has learned during her long road to recovery, Firefighter Eddie Estes helped cut her out of the vehicle and John Brooks of Vital Care kept Gage alive until the helicopter ambulance could transport her to Grady Memorial Hospital.
Gage was hospitalized at Grady from April 1-24. She was kept in a drug-induced coma for the first six days. Tragically, Gage's family wasn't notified of the accident. They didn't even know she had been hospitalized until four days after the accident when a friend of the family's read about the wreck in The Times-Herald and relayed the message to Gage's twin sister, Loretha. For the first four days, Gage had been considered a "Jane Doe."
Loretha Gage called Grady, and the hospital couldn't verify that Gage was there because of HIPAA patient privacy laws. Loretha showed up at the hospital and, as she approached a nurse's station, she saw her sister in a room hooked up to life support. In the accident, Gage suffered three cerebral hemorrhages, a spinal fracture and a compound fracture on her right ankle.
Gage's sister squeezed her leg and told her she was there, then she let her know not to worry that she would take care of Gage's two dogs, who had not been taken care of for four days by that point. Both dogs were OK -- though they were quite hungry and thirsty and were eager to go outside.
On April 24, Gage was transported to Walton Rehabilitation Center in Augusta, Ga., to begin the rough road to recovery. Gage didn't "come around" until the second week in May. As she came to for the first time, she was told that she asked why she had a cast on her leg -- she didn't realize she was wearing a neck brace, too.
"What's going on," Gage asked her mother. She asked if she'd had a leg surgery, and her family explained the details of the wreck.
Gage remembers the ordeal was hard to understand. When her family told her that the other driver had died -- doctors had advised them to withhold that information because it might interfere with her recovery -- all she remembers thinking is, "I hope he knew Jesus."
In addition to the amnesia surrounding the accident, Gage awakened with short-term memory loss. Her physical therapists would ask her daily to remember their names, and daily she would forget and need to be retold. Gage had to retrain herself to remember by constantly writing details down.
Gage went through speech therapy while at the rehabilitation facility. Ironically she could remember the phrase, "I am a conqueror," and she would proclaim it repeatedly on her way to therapy as she rolled herself down the hall in her wheelchair.
"It was my promise I held on to," said Gage.
Gage was finally discharged to go home on June 1, 2006. She continues her recovery even now, two years later. She has problems with anger and a quick temper, as is consistent with someone who suffered severe head trauma. Gage is also incapable of crying. She can feel sadness, but she cannot produce tears. She has ongoing problems with double vision, for which she sees a neurologist and eye doctor and takes daily medication. She also loses her balance often and falls down, so she has to be careful and walk slowly.
A friend from Delta reminds Gage that she was a "go-getter" before the accident and nothing has changed about her personality following that day.
When Gage successfully started driving again in June 2007, her first order of business was to thank the people responsible for saving her life the night of the wreck.
"I always wanted to find them," said Gage. Gage's older sister, Annette, works for Atlanta South Ambulance Service; and so Gage knew that emergency responders rarely get a thank you for doing their job. What she didn't know was that her older sister had worked with Brooks, one of her rescuers.
Gage spent a lot of time searching for her rescuers to no avail and gave up around December 2007. Later she was shopping when she overheard a woman talking about how wonderful the fire department was and it "renewed [Gage's] faith to find these people."
Not long after that incident, Gage was at a gas station when she saw a woman dressed as an emergency responder. The woman told her that more than likely Moreland would have responded to an emergency call on Millard Farmer Road, and that woman gave Gage their phone number.
The Moreland Fire Department referred her to Vital Care where she got in touch with Brooks. The day she hoped to meet Brooks at the fire station in Moreland, he was off duty and instead she ran into Estes. After Gage explained why she was there, Estes told her that he remembered that accident because he was the one who cut her out of her car. She fed the fire department and presented Estes with a New Testament Bible.
"God is so amazing -- [Brooks] took the day off, and I still found someone to thank," said Gage. She later returned to the station and met with Brooks to present him with a New Testament Bible. "It was important to me to tell them thank you. I feel relieved that I accomplished what I wanted to do."
Since the accident, Gage has a new outlook on life. She will admit to having a few moments of dwelling on the "unfairness" of the accident -- but "you've got to let it go."
Following the accident, Gage decided to commit herself to God. She began attending Oak Lawn Baptist Church on Pine Road. Before she could venture from her home, she would watch evangelists on television. Though her blurry vision made reading the Bible difficult, she spent time daily forcing herself to read.
Gage has decided her new focus is on spreading God's word until she's well enough to return to work.
"[The accident] has been a blessing to me -- I could not trade a moment of it."