It’s easy for us to remember and recognize the people who do great things on a daily basis. Like doctors. Doctors and surgeons save people’s lives every day. Somehow, the ordinary people who do extraordinary things get looked over.

I always begin to feel guilty when I think about how grateful I am that my brother is alive. And it makes me mad when say that the only reason my brother walks on his own two feet is the trauma team and doctors and other medical personnel that treated him. All the other people that contributed to saving my brother’s life are often forgotten.

Five years ago, my brother was in an almost fatal car accident. Although I was too young to fully understand what was happening, I’ve often discussed it with my family and I understand everything now. I now understand that we are lucky to have my brother, Darren, living life with us.

Darren was eighteen and just like and other eighteen year old boys. He and his friend played poker all night at a casino and were driving home around seven o’clock in the morning. Darren’s friend drove while he slept in the passenger’s seat. His friend fell asleep at the wheel and the car crashed. They were both ejected from the car and the car proceeded to roll over Darren.

Both boys were flown to Syracuse hospital, though it took the paramedics forty-five minutes to stabilize my brother. Darren was revived more than once, and first the doctor’s told us he may not make it. Then they said they were almost positive that he would be paralyzed below the shoulders. The next day he moved his toes. Now my brother walks and runs and plays sports and is able to function like any other person.

And while my family has every right to be grateful to the doctors and the trauma team, they overlook the people who first saved Darren’s life and allowed the doctors to save his life again. When the car crashed, it crashed into a temporary cement barrier. There was a construction crew on a bridge very close by. These are the men that saved my brother’s life. These are the men that I will forever be grateful to.

I don’t know how these men acted the way they did. I’d like to think I would in the same situation, but it’s hard for me to imagine such a scene. The men of this construction team kept Darren and his friend still and called the paramedics. They kept Darren’s injuries to a broken neck, back, and shattered ankle and potentially saved his life.

So, I just wanted to say thank you to them, although I’ll never know who they are. I’ll never meet them and be able to personally say thank you to the men who saved my brother’s life. But I can’t let it go unnoticed. They should have been recognized before. They should have the label of “hero”. They are the true definition of a hero.