My name is Jennie and I am a victim of a drunk driver. The crash happened on April 23rd of 2000. My boyfriend and I had been out of town at a friends house. Before we could leave a very large storm moved through the area, so we decided to wait till the storm was over to leave. It was around 1:30 in the morning before it was over. I don't like being on the road that late, but that morning was Easter Sunday.

We needed to get home to the kids, so we went. We were driving on the highway, and the drunk driver and his sober passenger were on a local side street, that came to a dead-end onto the service road of the highway. The drunk and the passenger were fighting. The passenger wanted the drunk to pull over and let him drive, but he would not. He said he had told his Mother that he would never let anyone else ever drive her new car. So instead he drove and was supposed to yield at a yield sign, but instead he came to a complete stop and then floored it. He jumped the little concrete curb that the sign was on and ran over the sign. He then jumped the curb of the service road and flew in the air off of the service road and the embankment and onto the highway and into us. He hit us head on and my side(the passenger side).

Mac was pinned in the truck but thank God he was not hurt seriously. He had three broken ribs, a cut on his chin and a large puncture wound to his leg and a broken finger. I was ejected onto the highway, I landed right in the middle of the two vehicles. I suffered many injuries. I had two breaks to my sternum, nine breaks to my pelvis, and broke both femurs. I was taken to the nearest trauma center in Dallas, called Baylor University Medical Center of Dallas. I then went into emergency surgery to repair my legs. The surgeon put a steel rod in my right leg and a plate and screws in my left leg just above the knee.

I spent the next three and a half weeks in ICU on a respirator and in a coma. A few days after the crash the doctors realized that the tissue and skin in my legs was dying. This shirring was caused when the flesh was torn loose from the muscle and its blood supply at the impact. I had four operations cutting this dead flesh out. Then another operation later to do skin graphs to close up the holes in both legs. Due to all these surgeries and the crash I was given fifteen pints of blood during these weeks. During all this time I was listed as critical and my family was being told that the doctors did not know if they could save either one of my legs or my life. I did not have to have surgery on my pelvis because I was in the coma and immobile. The doctor said it would heal fine that way. Late in the fourth week, I woke up and was weaned off of the respirator. I was moved to a room on the orthopedic floor and was there for another five weeks. After the skin graphs I was moved to a rehab hopital. I spent another four weeks living there learning to situp, stand, and walk again. When I was released I still had to go to out patient rehab three days a week for four to five hours per day. I did this for six months, then had to go twice a week for two to three hours per day and did this for another two months.

I went from a bed, to a wheelchair, to a walker and now must walk with a cane. I had six surgeries total and need two or three more. I have permanent nerve damage in my left foot, along with a dropped foot. My right leg is over an inch shorter, that causes a severe limp and back problems. I still have a lot of pain, and a lot of trouble walking. I have severe swelling problems and have developed Heterotopic bone buildup. It is a calcium formation that formed at all break sights. It has caused my right knee not to bend and is a knot the size of a large grapefruit. Also, I have arthritis now, at the age of twenty-nine.

As for the drunk driver. His name is Charlie Kyle K. and he was seventeen at the time. He was driving his mothers new Mustang GT. He got a total of six stitches. His passenger received a broken collarbone. The drunk who tried to get his passenger to say he was driving was tested at the hospital and his BAC was .195 almost three times the legal limit. He was charged intoxication assault. He plead guilty and received ten years of probation, one hundred and eighty days in jail. He had to do community service with the local MADD chapter. He also had to attend several classes and programs. He must pay restitution, and has a breath tester on his car. He had no insurance at all.

This has changed my life forever. I will never be the same again. I am no longer able to work. I cannot go to my eleven year old daughter's girlscout trips and school activities. My three and a half year old son had to be put into a daycare. He was eighteen months old at the time and had never stayed with anyone outside of the family. I cannot pick him up and carry him around like I should be able to. This has also changed my family and friends lives. My daughter calls me from anywhere she goes, just to see if I am still there and ok. Even if she is just at a friends house a few houses down the street. We had to have a child advocate from MADD come to talk to her several times, because she would not talk about the crash at all. She would only get very upset and mad if anyone tried to talk to her about it or if anyone mentioned Charlie's name. My son has grown up to know that if something is wrong he has to run to me, because he knows I can't run to him. My Mother gets nervous if I am ten minutes late from anywhere. She also is stressed and tired all the time because she has to help me with my kids and everything else. Mac and I both have very awful nightmares and I have flashbacks a lot. I just thank GOD everyday that I have the family and bestfriend that I have. If not for them I could not have come through this at all.