It was on March 1, 2017 when I learned how precious life is, and that nobody should regret life. I got woken up by my mom to get up to go to school at 6:45 A.M. When she woke me up I said “I threw up this morning at 3:30, I can’t go to school today”.

She said, “ok fine I guess, I’ll let you get some rest”. 

So I fell asleep. Then next thing I know my mom woke me up again at 7:30 A.M. saying “Jeremiah! Zach was in a head on accident, he’s going to the hospital and were leaving soon”.

When I heard my mom tell me this, I still wasn’t awake completely. I was trying to process what she just told me, I didn’t think it was true. I didn’t want it to be true.  After 15 minutes I was able to gather myself, so I could go to the hospital with my sister and my god father. On the way to the hospital it was a very quiet ride, and I didn’t know any more than what everyone else knew. I didn’t know if he was going to be okay or not. So the whole ride I was thinking about all the memories of my brother and I such as playing sports with him. I was thinking of what he was going through and how the accident happened, and if we were going to lose him, what I would do without him.

Then next thing I know I’m at the hospital, and my whole family is there and we are all waiting to hear the status of my brother. After about two hours we get pulled into this little room. This little room made me think that things weren’t going to be ok with Zach. It made me think that because I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t just tell us out in the waiting room.  So when the nurse started talking she said, “He had a ruptured diaphragm and they had to remove his spleen. We were also told, “he had multiple facial fractures his upper palette was broken in four places, he also has a broken tibia and fibula on his right leg, broken femur on his left leg and a broken pelvis, fractures in his feet, fractured left shoulder, and shattered L4 vertebrae which if it was any lower he would have been paralyzed.” After this information we learned that he was eventually going to be okay. And just knowing that relieved me. But I knew that he was going to have a very long road of recovery, and he will overcome everything on that road, and he will need a lot of support.

Later on that day after some surgery’s, we got to go in and see him.  When I went in to see him I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. I was looking my helpless brother that I couldn’t do anything for him, he was in rough shape, and I have no clue what he was feeling. But at the time he wasn’t feeling anything because he was sedated, which was best for him.

The next day I stayed home from school again because, I didn’t want so much attention.  I still wasn’t feeling good so I rested the whole day. That day I was getting messaged, “is your brother okay?” and I didn’t respond because, I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I didn’t want to talk to anyone because it was hard for me to talk about the accident.  So that whole day I spent watching television series that my brother and I watched. I did that because I just wanted to remember what we watched together.

The night before my brother’s accident, we were watching one tree hill, and I fell asleep on one side of the couch, and he fell asleep on the other side. Early the next morning, around 3:30 A.M. when I woke up to throw up he, was still sleeping on the couch and had to go to work in a couple hours. I just thought about how he was just with me in perfect shape, nothing wrong with him, and that it only took a split second for things to change just like that.
 

That’s when I realized that people need to care more about people and not be so mean and cherish every moment you possibly can with somebody that you love, because before you know it, they could be gone in a blink of an eye. This accident that happened to my brother isn’t only going to change him but it’s going to change everyone in this family, because it made the family realize how much we love one another and how we need to take advantage of seeing each other as much as we can.  So that whole day I was home, I spent thinking about my brother and I.

The next day I went and seen him at the hospital.  He looked was so much better than the day of the accident, but he didn’t look fantastic. He had a Trachea in so he couldn’t talk. He was breathing with a ventilator, and he already had so many surgery’s and many more to come. 

We came up with a nickname for Zach and that is iron man, because he’s going to have so much metal in his body.  We would also joke about bringing him to an airport and having him go through a metal detector.  We joked about that because he would have to have so many papers for each metal part in his body.  With the accident happening to Zach it brought our whole family closer. It’s too bad that our family would have to get closer this way, but it’s still nice to have a big family to lean on one another and be behind Zach and support him the whole way to recovery. On the second day after Zach’s accident, Zach’s uncle brought up the idea of making shirts to help raise some money for all the bills. Zach’s uncle, had his friend make shirts saying, “Team Zach” on the back and in the front saying “he’s kind of a big deal”.  The reason for the front of the shirt to say “he’s kind of a big deal”, is because whenever he wanted to go somewhere and my mom would always ask him why, he would say, “because I’m kind of a big deal”.  That’s how the shirt got decorated.

Now five days after the accident he still can’t talk and won’t be able to talk for a while now and he’s still very sedated but he is going to get his stomach closed and he’s not very awake and responsive.  He is also waiting on his back surgery.  Ten days after his accident we found out that the accident was not his fault at all but he still has fines and has some court days, which he will not be able to go to because he won’t be out of the hospital and he can’t walk, talk or even sit up.

Week 6, he is started to be more responsive he is more awake he can talk, and he finally had his back surgery.  The nurses and doctors have now found a balance between the sedation meds and the pain meds. He is starting to be able to remember things but he still doesn’t know exactly what happened. He tried to write hi but he wasn’t very happy with it because it didn’t look pretty.  He is starting to show more emotion and realizing what’s going on around him. We still don’t know exactly how long he is going to be in the hospital. We imagine he will be out of the hospital once he is off the ventilator.  He will be going to a home for rehab and after a couple months he will be able to come home and do rehab there to.  His rehab will take years to get back to his normal shape if he can get back to his normal shape.  He might not be able to reach his normal shape, because he might be limited on lifting.  But he might be able to get back to his normal shape if he does not have lifting limitations and if he is motivated to get back to his normal shape.