Driver Falls Asleep at the Wheel in Big Pine Key, Florida Causing Catastrophic Injuries for Passenger
It is unfortunate that even if you are just a passenger in a vehicle, you can still sustain serious, permanent and catastrophic injuries when the driver of the vehicle is either inattentive or actually falls asleep behind the wheel.
Sadly, that was the case of the victim in this Florida automobile accident. The victim was only 19 years old at the time and was asleep in the front passenger seat of the vehicle, when the driver apparently fell asleep, causing a “heavy foot” on the gas pedal, resulting in the pickup truck accelerating, crossing the center line and slamming head on into an oncoming semi-truck. The impact virtually obliterated the front half of the pickup truck.
The victim was forcibly extracted from the front passenger compartment of the demolished pickup truck and rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital via trauma hawk/helicopter, where he was placed in the intensive care unit. He had sustained multiple lacerations and fractures to his face, head and knee, (requiring stitches and staples), a complete fracture to the left side of his jaw (which required his mouth to be wired shut with hooks that were attached to his teeth), severe injuries to his left eye (that had to be reset due to bone fractures around his eye and lacerated eye lids). In addition, he had one tooth completely knocked out, another one chipped and a third tooth was cracked.
This victim was hospitalized for 16 days at Jackson Memorial Hospital and underwent a grueling seven hour operation performed by a team of surgeons that involved a complete reconstruction of his face including the use of multiple titanium plates and screws. Based upon the full extent and severity of the horrific facial lacerations, fractures and injuries, this young man will never look the same again.
He remains unable to close his left eye and it remains to be seen whether he will ever be able to completely close his left eye or see out of that eye with the same vision and clarity as before the accident because his left eye continues to remain blurry with severely reduced vision. Finally, his left eye remains droopy and will require surgery to repair in the future.
In addition, the left side of his mouth is also droopy and doctors have stated that only time will tell whether this will return to normal or remain disfigured due to permanent nerve damage. The victim continues to experience facial numbness both under his eye and in his cheek areas. He also continues to experience complete numbness of the three middle toes on his left foot.
