August 22, 2015. Keturah, my sister in law and best friend, was visiting me for a girls weekend.
That evening, we went out for drinks with Jordan (my boyfriend). Jordan took us out to this restaurant, we got drinks, it was a great evening out. We had been shopping earlier in the day, a totally normal weekend.
Keturah’s flight was super early the next morning. So I went at 5AM to take her to the airport.
I dropped her off for her flight, said our goodbyes and I headed home at 5:30AM. I was driving south on the freeway and it was pitch black.
There were two cars in front of me in different lanes. And then this driver started coming up next to me.
Then, an oncoming pickup truck with aftermarket LED headlights and a LED bar started coming towards us. It definitely looked like the pickup trucks high beams were on.
The driver next to me must have been blinded like I was. He swerved, hitting the car next to him, and then spun out. Then, he spun into me.
When he hit me, my car spun out.
I braced the wheel with both hands, and I was like, okay, this is going to happen. And then, it all went black.
I remember thinking (it was happening so fast) “there’s no way I can get out of this lane” And thinking “Oh my God, this is going to happen. This is really going to affect me.”
I hit the wall on the freeway head on. I was going 65 miles an hour at the time. I do remember him spinning out towards me but I don't have any recollection after that.
The next thing I remember is being rushed on a hospital stretcher very much like what you see in the movies.
I couldn't open my eyes or be present in that moment, all I could see was a bright white light. I remember trying to sit up and trying to move my neck but I heard mens voices around me on both sides saying: “No, no, Olivia, don't do that. We got you. We got you.”
“We're rushing you in. We're going to get you help. Don't move. Don't move your neck. Whatever you do, don't move your neck, you're stable.”
“Just stay still. We're getting you help”. They just kept repeating that. It was all white and a split second of it is all I remember.
My car was totaled immediately.
Nobody else was hurt, except for me in this situation. Other witnesses called 911. What happened was, a couple of Marines had seen it happen and pulled over. They were angels.
They actually had equipment with them, so they pulled me out, laid me on the ground, put a brace on my neck, stabilized me, called 911, and then they called Jordan from my phone as well.
They went into my medical ID, which funny enough, I didn't even know I had. Pro tip, make sure your emergency contact is up to date on your phone, because these Marines went in there and they called Jordan.
It was 5:30 in the morning. He knew I was driving back from Long Beach, and he was like, “Hey, babe, how's it going?” He thought I was just calling him on my drive back, but it actually was this voice of a man he didn't know.
This man told him, “Your wife's been in a car accident, we called for help, we're going to get her help, but I just want you to know. Olivia has been in an accident.”
Then the police showed up and they couldn't give Jordan more information over the phone, so they disconnected the call. Jordan ended up calling 911 to figure out where my ambulance was routed. And they wouldn't tell him at all about my condition. They wouldn't tell him what happened, even though he's my husband. All they did was tell him where my ambulance was going.
He didn’t know if his wife was alive or not.
He also called Kotora, my sister in law. She canceled her flight and took an Uber to the hospital.
When I woke up, they both were there waiting for me. I have a photo from when I was conscious again at 3:00 PM.
For some reason, I thought I was pregnant. We weren't even close to having kids, but in that state of delirium, that's what I thought was going on. So I asked the nurses: “Is the baby okay? Is the baby going to be okay?”
They said: “Honey, you're not pregnant. There's no baby. You're fine.” I was like, “Can I have babies still? Am I still going to be able to have babies?” I was still able to have children, but yeah, for some reason, it's just strange that was my first initial thought.
In terms of what my injuries were… When I hit the wall, the collision impacted my driver's side.
My biggest injury was breaking my pelvis. Also, fracturing my hip, breaking my nose, fracturing my cheekbones, orbital fractures and a severe concussion.
It did take several weeks to be able to walk. Because of that pelvis and hip break, I was extremely lucky. I didn't need pins or a cast or any kind in my pelvis.
The impact being so strong on the driver’s side, actually had curved my nose. I ended up getting nose surgery right afterwards.
I worked with a physical therapist throughout that week. First it was just sitting up because I couldn't even do that.
They would put this bar in front of me. I held onto the bar, and try to pull myself up on it a little bit at a time. That felt like a huge victory just to be able to do that.
Once I could do that easily, they started helping me out of bed. They would have me walk, taking tiny steps around the room. That felt like a really big victory.
I had a walker to learn how to rewalk and see if I could put pressure on my legs. To be honest, it was so brutal. I hated that physical therapist. She was a lovely woman, but I dreaded when she came because I knew I had to push my body.
Eventually after the walker, I transitioned to crutches because I only needed them on the one side that I had the hip break.
Jordan could actually help me up the stairs to our apartment, as we had no lift. We have this really sweet photo that just embodies all of him being there for me throughout this process. He was just so helpful.
And so with Jordans help, I was able to navigate and get up three flights of stairs, a week and a half after this traumatic accident regularly.
At the time, Katora was actually getting married five weeks from then. So I was like, oh my gosh, I have to get better. I have to walk in their wedding. I'm the maid of honor. I need to be able to walk down that aisle and not have a walker and not have anything ruin her big day. This was a big motivation to keep pushing my body. I'm so blessed that happened.
After the accident, I had major PTSD when driving at night. I simply could not bring myself to - it was so terrifying.
I was about to quit my job, which required me to commute in the dark evenings.
But Jordan came to rescue, again.
He discovered this story of a man called David, inventing an “LED-repellent” solution, after his mother died in an accident due to headlight glare.
David committed his life to solve this blinding problem. So no-one else has to suffer like he did.
“Studies show fatal car crashes are 4x more likely to occur at night, my mother was part of this statistic. I want to reduce this” David says.
Using his engineering degree, David worked tirelessly creating glasses, to cut headlight glare at night.
Glasses using “GlareCut'' Technology with orange lenses. Adding orange color to bright white lights.
As our eyes (naturally) contrast orange easier than bright white, this cuts blinding headlight glare.
After Jordan told David my story… Daivd gave me a pair to try for myself!
When David gave me a pair of his special “LED-repellent” glasses, I was willing to try them out.
I was comfortable wearing them in my car. But I wouldn’t wear them out to dinner!
I can wear them comfortably over prescription glasses, if I decide to wear them. Also, they have lenses on the side for peripheral vision protection.
When I tried them out, I couldn’t believe it. The orange lenses completely cut the glare! Without making everything darker!
Oncoming headlights no longer blinded me. They are now soft orange (like old cars).
After wearing Headlight Glasses, I felt confident driving at night again, reclaiming my independence & freedom!
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