"Crashed and Stuck in my Truck for Six Days" Ft Matt Reum

Stranded under a bridge for six days during the holidays, Matt Reum's extraordinary survival experience tested the limits of human endurance and ingenuity. Imagine being crushed and trapped in your vehicle: under a bridge, out of sight, in the cold, and with no food for six days. Matt has a remarkable narrative of survival, adaptation, and resilience. In this episode, Matt walks us through the emotional and spiritual turmoil that raged within him. His unique coping mechanisms illustrate some of the most unexpected sources of strength that surfaced even in the most dire of circumstances.

Recovery is often spoken about in terms of physical healing, but the mental scars can penetrate much deeper. Matt provides extensive details of the extreme mental toll  being trapped in his vehicle took on him. He explains how he persevered through dehydration, starvation, and nearly giving up. Matt provides brutal, yet honest thoughts while tackling psychological hurdles that proved to be larger than the physical ones. Transitioning to a new reality after getting his leg amputated, Matt's experience is a powerful reminder to cherish the littlest things in life!

In a compelling close to our conversation, this survivor reflects on how he was able to transfigure his outcome by rebirthing positivity from the darkness. Whether it's recording a podcast, writing books, or simply sharing his story, Matt demonstrates that purpose can emerge from the ashes of tragedy. His path is punctuated with personal battles and a significant shift in lifestyle. His positive spirit helps others serve as a beacon of hope. 

Join us for a thrilling episode that not only celebrates the resilience demanded out of life or death scenarios, but in turn, reveals how sharing our most profound struggles can inspire and uplift the world around us.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hang on, buddy, you stay there.
We got medics coming, okay.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
This is the moment Matt Reem was rescued from his
wrecked truck.
An incredible survival storycaptured our attention over the
holidays.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
He survived for nearly a week in the cold, in
part by drinking rainwater.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
The 27 year old trapped in the vehicle for six
days over Christmas.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
He was pinned in the vehicle with his phone out of
reach Week of being trapped.
Reem says rainfall helped tokeep him alive.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Matt Reem trapped in his vehicle for six days before
help arrived.
I rolled twice, went through acreek and then landed under the
bridge.
Northwest Indiana man survivedfor six days in his crashed
truck before a dramatic rescuethat saved his life.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
I can't ramp to this.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, you can ramp.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
All right, all right, let's do this.
All right.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
So this is a jacket that I had in my truck that I
used as a pillow.
Finally got it back from thedry cleaners.
Hold on.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
What is this kind of heart?
Hey, hey, let him hate.
That's what we do.
So it's fucked you.
If you're in a truth, you mustbe mad.
You should hit the wall.
I'm mad, I'm mad.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
I'm mad we don't give two shit and we don't give a
fuck.
You're so extreme, I'm soextreme.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well, Eric kind of told me a little bit of what
happened to you.
Holy shit, like I have no wordsto complain about anything.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
I'm so extreme, I'm so extreme, I'm so extreme, I'm
so extreme.
You should be a phone number.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Oh yeah, I actually ended up really liking that beat
, we went on it.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Vendellas Romasey Gordovic.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Everybody welcome to another episode of Life.
To the Max we got seniorLaGordovic Matt Reem.
He has something in common withMax and they both share very
tragic car accident stories.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Traumatic, traumatic.
Give me a couple moreadjectives.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Trauma inducing.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Trauma inducing.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Trauma inducing.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
That's easy.
We're going to go right intoMatt's story right after the
Quad Fathers intro.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
I'm disabled and I'm paralyzed for a neck down,
breathing through a machine, butthat does stop me from
following my dreams and doingwhat I love to do.
I don't got an excuse to,neither should you.
Let's get into Matt Reem'sepisode.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
We really appreciate you traveling a few hours to
come see us.
How was the drive?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Besides driving through Chicago, it wasn't bad.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Where are you from South?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Bend.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Indiana, we appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, that's where Notre Dame is.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
So you're a Fighting Irish fan.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I am a Fighting Irish fan, jesus Christ.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Right to the insult Right flag.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
At least I'm not a Michigan fan.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
We got two guests that traveled to be with us on
the podcast and the other onewas from Michigan.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, the other one was Frutus Chaurros Capicchione.
Who do you all work for outhere?

Speaker 3 (03:34):
This podcast is all about stories.
Storytelling is no wronganswers.
All types of individuals comeon sharing all types of stories
for Max and anyone listening.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
So you too.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
It's more than entertainment.
It's almost like therapy foranyone else that's also been in
similar situations.
I'm excited to hear your story,matt, yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
So let's just get right into it.
So I mean, obviously a lot ofpeople know you are around this
area because of the newsheadlines and all the attention
you're getting, so can youexplain what happened with
basically what happened those?

(04:16):
What were the dates?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
again, From December 20th to December 26th.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
December 20th to December 26th okay.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yeah, so I had been in Hobart, Indiana, for the day
at our hall practicing weldingkind of teaching some of the
younger apprentices how to weldbetter for work, and I was got
done with that about fouro'clock, went out, did a little
bit of window shopping forChristmas Week.

(04:48):
Before Christmas I always got ashop for myself and went to
Hooters later that night aftershopping.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Let's go, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's always a good time at Hooters.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
In Southland, in Hobart?
Yeah, you're telling me,indiana girls are hot.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
There are a few far and few between.
I said there's a few, you gottatake me to the Hooters.
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
I'll investigate.
You'll investigate it.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
I gotta do a little reconnaissance, do a little
story on the Hooters there.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, so you went to Hooters.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, and a couple weeks before that one of my
friends had passed away.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
RIP to your frontman.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, I had missed his funeral in Valpo and his
family was going to do a viewingand the final burial down in
Missouri, which is where hisfamily lives now, and so I was
kind of beating myself up overit because I was going to.
I wanted to be there for myfriend, show my last, show my

(06:02):
last, like my gratitude towardshim, and you know, so I was
because I was planning onstaying in Hobart for three days
, so Wednesday, Thursday andFriday drive home Christmas
weekend and then do somethingfor Christmas.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
So you live in Hobart .

Speaker 2 (06:25):
No, I live in South Bend.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
So how far away is that?

Speaker 2 (06:30):
About an hour drive.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
So like the drive here.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah two and a half hours out here
Sounds good.
So I started driving fromHobart to South Bend with the
intention of Thursday I wasgoing to pack up a couple suits,
a couple changes of clothes anddrive down to Missouri to be

(06:55):
there for my friend's funeral onFriday.
So anytime I drive from GaryHobart area I always take the
toll road because there's a lotless traffic, a lot less drama,
shit like that.
But that night I accidentallytook 8094.
And Is that a highway?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's justthe state highway, state

(07:19):
interstate.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
We got something.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, I start driving on that and I realize, oh shit,
you know I'm not on the tollroad, I'm going to make a U turn
and go on there because thetoll road takes me directly to
my house.
The highway that I was on takesme to like the opposite side of
town and then I have to driveall through downtown South Bend

(07:43):
at night, which nobody likes todo, just like driving through
South Side Chicago.
Oh it's bad something, Someparts.
So I take the first exit and Iget on to the overpass, get back
on the highway, go in westboundand it was foggy as hell that
night.
I mean, I could probably onlysee 10, 15 feet in front of me

(08:08):
and, you know, going 70 miles anhour, your reactions have to be
pretty focused.
I saw what I thought was a deer, or at least deer eyes, on the
highway.
So I swerved to miss the deerbecause I wanted to be there for
his funeral.
Otherwise, if I didn't have tobe there for the funeral, I

(08:29):
would have hit the thing fuckingsquare on.
And so I swerved and I wentover the shoulder and then kind
of into the grass a little bitand as soon as I started to go
back on the highway I hit theguardrail that had just
basically popped up.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Now, are you like up in the air?
Are you like on a bridge orsomething right now?

Speaker 2 (08:56):
It started to go around a corner which had a
bridge on it.
Okay, so I hit that guardrailand it tore off the tire, the
rotor wheel bearing assembly,all that on my driver's side,
and sent me down this hill.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
What was the initial feeling when you felt that
gravity pull you down, Like assoon as you lost control?
What was going through yourmind?

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Basically, we're allowed to cuss on here yeah,
yeah Of course I'm like what thefuck just happened?
And then I start going down thehill and you know, by then I
don't have any control of mytruck.
So I'm just like fuck, you know, and it's just that almost

(09:50):
sense of helplessness, knowingthat anything could happen in
the next couple seconds.
And so it starts going down thehill, and it starts going
sideways, and I roll twice downthe hill, through a creek, to
where I landed, underneath thebridge.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
Underneath the bridge .

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Underneath the bridge .

Speaker 1 (10:14):
This is at night.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, so this was at roughly 10, 30, 11 o'clock at
night 11 at night.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
What's the weather like?

Speaker 1 (10:23):
So it's foggy and dark.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
Foggy.
What's the temperature?
I heard it was like freezingtemperatures.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
No, it was like 40s, 50s.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
It was a warm winter this year.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well, thank God, it was 40s, 50s.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
So under the bridge you're upside down.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
I'm on my three tires .

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Okay, and are you like in shallow water?

Speaker 2 (10:45):
No, I'm fully up on the bank of the river.
But the bank of the river waspitched pretty well.
So had I been like sittingupright in my truck, upright in
the seat, I would have beenleaning just about like that.

(11:07):
So during the initial rollingand everything, I ended up
losing consciousness.
And so when I came to that'swhen I kind of realized I'm like
, oh fuck, you know, I don'thave a horn, I don't have lights

(11:29):
, I don't have, I can't hit my911 call button.
You know, I try calling out formy phone, trying to.
I don't want to say it becauseI know it will go off right now.
Or hey, alexa, you know I can't.
I try doing that over and overand over and I don't get any

(11:50):
response, any answer.
So you know, after that I spent, I don't know, maybe 10, 15
minutes just yelling at the topof my lungs trying to get
somebody to hear me, and at thatpoint, you know, just from the
adrenaline kind of wearing offand everything.
So that's also when I realizedthat my leg was stuck.

(12:14):
So when my truck hit the bankof the river, it pushed the
engine into my leg, jesus, justcompletely crushing me.
They're crushing the lower partof my left leg, but I had lost

(12:37):
all feeling of it in it almostinstantly, which I'm kind of
thankful for, kind of not.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
But so where did you feel any pain Were at all, or
were you just stuck?

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Not, I felt some pain in my right leg just because of
the way all the plastic hadkind of wrapped around my leg,
kind of keeping it stuck.
So like every time, like overthe next six days, every time I
would try pulling my leg out ofthere.
It was scraping or cuttingagainst something and I could

(13:11):
feel that and of course my righthand was pretty well shattered
and all my metacarpals and youknow I I just knew that even
though it was that shitty of asituation, I still had to try to
keep staying alive, Keep oncomposing, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
So how did like the first psycho going into the
morning like, did you?
Did you think like someonewould find you right away
because?
Or were you kind of like youknow?

Speaker 2 (13:51):
secluded, so I didn't really know what was around me
at the mile marker I was at interms of, you know, properties
right on the other side of thisrow of trees or whatever.
So as far as I know, I didn'tknow what was around me.

(14:14):
You know, I had a creek runningright on the other side of my
truck.
That that was just about theonly noise I could hear, besides
all the cars driving over me.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
That must have been so hard driving, because the
cars are so loud.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
And well, what about psychologically?
Like you want to be saved andyou hear people over you.
You know you just hear peoplethat could potentially save you
pass on your butt.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
That was driving me nuts.
Thousands of people.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
And also I was right down the road from not one but
two fire stations, so within Iwould say probably about five
miles of me, there were twofirehouses that I could hear
like at night whenever somebodycalled 911 and they called they

(15:09):
could call the fire department.
I could hear the fire trucksleaving the stations and I could
hear that the entire time.
Unbelievable, so it's like atease.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
I was just about to say that it was God teasing you
like damn.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Do what?
Yes, yes, I did hear that one.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Wait, wait, jesus, I'll be in control, I'll be in
control One makes mom, yourgrounded.
So let me ask you a question.
So the first day goes by thesecond day, so did it get harder
going throughout the days ordid it get easier going

(15:53):
throughout?

Speaker 2 (15:53):
the days.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Like, because usually like the first or second or
third day, or like the toughest,and then you start getting used
to it or you like feel defeated.
So like when you were like, didyou feel like defeated, or on
your last leg, or did you likehave, did you keep hope?

Speaker 2 (16:15):
That's a pretty good pun right there.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
My last leg.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah.
So Like did you keep hope?
You know, in a situation likethat you're going to have your
ups and downs, right?
So there were days when I had alot of hope because, you know,
I was trying to set like littlegoals for myself in terms of

(16:42):
trying to get myself out of thatsituation.
You know, one of my goals wasgrabbing my phone charger,
grabbing my cord and eventuallygrabbing my phone so I could
call for, you know, rescue.
So I think it was the day ortwo before Christmas and I had

(17:04):
gotten my phone charger and Icould.
You know, my phone chargerstill had batteries, so if I
could get my phone, I had a wayto charge it.
Shortly after that, you know, Iwas able to grab my phone cord.
So now I got my charger and myphone cord and I think I know
where my phone is.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
But let's just recap.
Is this like your second daytrying to get?

Speaker 2 (17:31):
everything together.
Second, third day yeah, while Iwas down there I did kind of
lose sense of time, so I thoughtI, when I eventually did get
rescued, I thought I had beendown there nine days instead of
the six days that I.
You were close, yeah, I was inthe ballpark.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
So the so, like, so, like, uh, mentally like, I can't
admit so when I paralyzed, likeI was, when I was alone and I
was terrifying, was fuckingterrifying, and I had nurses,

(18:15):
but I was paralyzed and I had totrust these people with my life
, with the breathing machine,and I don't even know who these
people are.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
So that's a completely different situation
with you, because you're aloneand you have, like you know,
like a little function with yourother arm and stuff and you're
trying to like do all thesethings, but like I can't, like
at night was it hard.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
I think at night.
So there were a couple ofnights I was down there where I
thought I heard road crewsworking on the road right above
me.
So a couple of those nights Iwas just yelling as much and as
loud as I could trying to getsomebody's if there was even

(19:05):
somebody up there just trying toget their attention.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
So we talk a lot about this mentally, but
physically, you know, Iunderstand, we could last a
while without food, but what didyou do for water?
What did you do for drinking?

Speaker 2 (19:19):
So so where I landed, every bridge has drainage
spouts for all the rainwater andeverything like that, so it
doesn't just collect on thehighway and it doesn't have
anywhere to go.
So somehow when I landed, Ilanded directly underneath one.
To where?

(19:41):
To where when it rained?
All the rainwater?
Mind you, this is coming off ahighway so it tastes like fuel,
asphalt gas, diesel, rubber.
You know it's probably gotanimal blood and shit in it and

(20:02):
but when it rained all thatwater would come in to through
my sunroof that was shatteredout and I had a pair of
sweatpants in my truck that Iwas able to basically collect
the rainwater and just suck itout like a sponge.
Oh man.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Dude, improvise, adapt, overcome those those are
my words.
Like I love that.
And what you did is just that'slike a hat's off to you, man,
Honestly, like that's like thatsurvival instinct to like get
the water that you need.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
Perfect time to fill your glass, yeah, with some pure
water.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, you know, matt, improvise, adapt, overcome.
That's what you fucking did,and that is that's what a
soldier does, man.
That's what a fucking warriordoes.
That is that is awesome.
I like I have mad respect, like, just like, like when you were
thirsty, is that what youthought of?
I'm just going to wring out mysweatpants.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, so I did try the water without trying to
filter it somehow, and thattasted like absolute shit.
So I realized that that was notgoing to work to.
You know, try to stay hydrated,or as rehydrate myself as much
as possible before or until thenext rain, you know.

Speaker 3 (21:29):
How soon did you come up with that idea?
To wring it out with yoursweatpants.
The day of next day.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Like after the first sip.
After the first day no, afterthe first sip of water.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
That's when I realized that it tasted like
absolute shit.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Oh yeah, sure Did you have any survival skills back
then?
Or like did this come likepurely instinct?

Speaker 2 (21:51):
So I've always loved being outdoors and being in
nature, things like that and Ithink one thing that a lot of
people, if they do have anyexperience outdoors is having
some survival skills.
You know whether it's making afire with two sticks and shit
like that, or you know makingyour own charcoal water purifier

(22:14):
, you know.
There are just some things thatyou know if you spend enough
time outdoors and around peoplewho are like-minded in that you
know they're all kind of buildideas off each other and build
their skills off each other.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
So you had some knowledge, right.
That's awesome.
That's-well thank God you did.
You know what I mean Because,like, some people would have
just gave up and you're like no.
I'm gonna drink the water outof my sweatpants.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Sweatpants filter systems.
Like come on Out of my greatgym sweatpants.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
That is amazing.
All right, let's fast forward.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Hold on, hold on.
I got something for you.
I'm flabbergasted trying toimagine myself in a situation
trapped in your car for six days.
So far, you explained to us thesecond and third day.
I kind of want you to walk usthrough the days as they went on
.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah.
So the third day, the third and, I think, fifth day were two of
the darkest days for me,Between kind of losing a lot of
hope and feeling kind ofdefeated through that situation.
You know, kind of you mentionedit earlier just the fact that I

(23:33):
could hear all those cars, allthe sirens, ambulances, fire
trucks and all that, you know ittakes a very quick dark toll on
somebody.
And you know those samesweatpants that were saving my
life, I also use those to try toend my life.
So you know there's always goodand bad to every story and you

(23:58):
know that was obviously one ofthe bad spots.
But you know I came to thepoint where I was seeing stars
and you know my vision wasstarting to black out and the
one thing I did here was myfriend telling me not to do it.
And you know it's.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
You know the auto body experience, spiritual maybe
.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
The friend that you were on the way to see.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah, no, no, my best friend, okay.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Throw our shot of them out.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, her name's Kristen Grabeth.
She used to live here in Elgin.
But Wow yeah, small world, Ithink we're in Elgin right,
we're basically in Elgin,basically in Elgin.
Yeah, shot of them out there, ohyeah, and you know, it was
small little things like thatthat just kind of kept me going,
because, you know, while I wasdown there I could hope and pray

(24:54):
for a miracle, but I've alwaysbeen a realist, so it's hard for
me to accept.
Oh, you know, help is coming.
Until help has came, you know.
So you know, third, fourth daythey were about the same Wake up

(25:16):
, try to.
So I had a socket set in thereand I was using that socket set
to try to basically unbolt mytruck.
Enough to where I could get out, would you say.
This is the fourth day.
This was a combination of likeone through six.
Okay, just trying to work myway out of that.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
What if you did get out of it, like would you bleed
out with your leg?

Speaker 2 (25:41):
I didn't have anymy broken leg.
I didn't have any bleeding myright leg.
It was cut up but it wasn'tanything that I would have bled
out from.
So you know, I had my steeringwheel.

(26:03):
When it hit, or when my truckhit, my steering wheel went from
where you normally have it ifyou're driving or if you're in
Atlanta you do that but when ithit it pushed my steering wheel
into me and then into my leg.
So it was basically resting mysteering wheel on my center

(26:25):
console, kind of pinning myright leg.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
While the engine is pinning your other leg.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Oh you fuck.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, that's like torture.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
So one of the things that I was trying to do was take
apart my steering wheel, and Irealized then that if I don't
have YouTube, I'm not a mechanic.
But most of those days I wasgrabbing pieces of trim, pieces
of my door, center console, mydashboard.

(27:02):
If it was broken off, I wasgetting rid of it, just throwing
it outside my truck.
I'm glad I didn't get a finefrom DOT or whatever trooper
ended up why?

Speaker 3 (27:14):
would you get the fine For littering?

Speaker 2 (27:15):
For littering.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
That's crazy.
What kept you?

Speaker 1 (27:18):
going man Like every day, like what kept you going
Like?
Honestly like you didn't giveup.
I mean, I've had worse 60 plusdeep in episodes on this podcast
and I've never heard a storylike this before and I'm

(27:41):
literally shocked, you know, andI'm trying to think of like
hardships I went through and Ijust can't imagine like having
the free will to move around butbeing stuck and also having

(28:01):
these sirens above you like andthey don't hear you.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
It's like God is teasing you and then, on top of
it, you're still trying to doeverything to make ends meet and
to get out of the situation.
You know, I just like yourmental strength is like you
don't tap that spring.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Were you awake most of the time or sleeping most of
the time?

Speaker 2 (28:31):
It was kind of a combination of both of them.
You know one thing that doeshappen in survival situations
people generally start losing alot of sleep and then their mind
starts going very ragged due tosleep loss, and I even knew

(28:51):
that beforehand, and you know.
So one thing I did want to keepdoing is make sure that I did
get my sleep.
I wasn't sleeping, you know, 15, 16 hours a day, but you know I
would take naps throughout thedays between yelling for help
and trying to work my way out ofmy car.

(29:12):
It would have been nice if Ihad a book.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Did you know the time ?

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, I had a watch on me.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Okay, so you didn't know the time.
Did you know the days?

Speaker 2 (29:27):
I didn't know the days, it was just off.
My best guess of you know it'smy watch would say seven o'clock
.
It's dark out, so I imagine itwould be seven o'clock pm.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Were you cold at all.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
You know, thankfully we did have some warmer weather
during that time, but there weredays when it was a little brisk
and I had my.
I had a car heart jacket and aletterman jacket that I would.
I'd wear one and then the otherone I would use as a pillow or
something like that.
Try to keep my head warm whileI was sleeping.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Do you fuck your club ?

Speaker 3 (30:08):
Make me proud Stories his story is not finished yet.
So I want to, I want to recap,so, so, while you're persevering
, you come up with an idea for,like, a little Irrigation system
to get water right as best youcan yeah and then you're
persevering, trying to takeapart your steering wheel with
the socket Sockets set that youcould reach.

(30:28):
You know what?
What other things did you do insurvival mode to try to try to
get yourself free, whether theywere failed attempts or
successful attempts?

Speaker 2 (30:40):
yeah, so I knew I Wouldn't say I'm a mess, but I
like disorderly cleanliness, ifthat makes sense, makes total
sense to me.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
If you walk into my room, maybe you'll see piles of
bullshit everywhere.
Like man, this place is apigsty, but I know exactly where
everything is and every pilemakes sense to me.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
So I knew I had a bunch of stuff on the floorboard
of my passenger seat that Icouldn't get to.
So one of the biggest thingsfor me was, you know, trying to
figure out what I had, where Ihad it and things like that.
So With having me been atHooters earlier that night, I

(31:32):
knew I had wings down there.
They probably wouldn't havebeen healthy for me to eat but
it would have been food betterthan the diesel water, yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
Were you happy you saw some ass before you got.
What's that?
What's trying?

Speaker 3 (31:48):
so.
Masses before you you know he'seating the way you're thinking
about the Hooters like damn,like damn.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
That was a pretty good last to you.
No, it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
You said, these girls were hot.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
I believed you a few of them, like one or two of them
episode is brought to you byHooters.
Thank you, lindsay.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Lindsay was your son had a follow-up question besides
you trying to, you know,persevere more, besides like
physically trying to persevere,was there any like spiritual
moments, that just some almostindescribable Spiritual moments
that you had?

Speaker 2 (32:40):
So me spiritually, god and I have been kind of on a
interesting relationshiprecently.
Having had religion usedagainst me in the past, it's
hard for me to kind of go backto it right now.
On that note, this hasdefinitely been Very eye-opening

(33:05):
for me.
You know, I think in asituation like that, you know
whether a car rack or a planecrash or whatever, you know
everybody At their lowest momentdoes cry for a god.
You know, of course, and youknow I, I started doing that.
You know, third or fourth day,once I started losing a lot of

(33:28):
hope, was just crying out.
You know, like, why would youdo this to me?

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Why have you forsaken me?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (33:37):
And you know it doesn't matter, because in a
world where there are what?

Speaker 3 (33:42):
4,000 religions, hmm, that's a fun fact.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
I did not know yeah, there there is a shit ton of
religions.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Are you throwing 4,000 out there, or is that like
the average number?

Speaker 2 (33:52):
I think that there's like 4,000 gods out there.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Which gods?
Yeah, it's a good thing, oneanswers you yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
I was just about to say hopefully one answers us.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, well, I mean, one did answer me yeah let's get
to that day.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
So you fire, well, we , we finally get to six day.
That's almost a week, right,and you're under this, this
bridge, and you're drinkingwater through your sweatpants
and Leak.
So how did that day progress,did you?
You woke up in the morning.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
So I woke up that morning and the day before it
had rained, so I was starting toget thirsty, knowing that I
didn't have any water at themoment, not knowing you know
when is the next time I'm gonnahave water, you know.
So you know I kind of start outthe day I had a journal down

(34:47):
there that I was trying to writein with a broken hand, which I
Do not recommend that it hurts alot, but you know I'm, I'm
writing in it and what are youwriting?
That's the fun part.
So that day I had lost a lot ofhope Between not having any

(35:13):
water.
You know, in my head I'mthinking it's the ninth day lost
a lot of Hope on being rescued,things like that.
So that day I I was planning onit kind of being my last day,

(35:33):
which sucks to say, but you know, in a situation like that, hope
is all I really had.
You know you're realist.
So you know that morning I startwriting my obituary.
I wrote you know what happened,kind of a recount of the last

(35:54):
six days.
You know I'm writing letters toKristen, my best friend, dad,
mom and an uncle, some of myother friends.
I'm writing out basically mylast will and testament that
morning.

(36:15):
And you know so, I, I, I spentI don't know maybe two, three
hours yelling that morningtrying to get somebody to hear
me, like I'd been doing mostdays, and Somehow I didn't lose
my voice by that day.

(36:35):
But I decided I Don't knowabout 130 that I was gonna take
a nap.
You ever get those feelingswhere somebody's kind of
watching you in your sleep.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yes, every night.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Okay, that's that's valid, yeah all his nurses are
laughing hysterically.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
So, you know, I kind of woke up with that feeling in
my head and I'm like that'sfucking weird because I know
nobody's down there.
And as soon as I'm kind ofthinking that you know I had
Most cars nowadays have curtainairbags that go kind of protect
your head from banging againstthe glass and I just see a hand

(37:27):
kind of pull back the curtainand I'm like what the fuck?
And no way, yeah and yeah.
So in my mind I think I'mhallucinating.
So he sticks his head kind ofin the window.
He's like are you okay?
You know, do you live here?

(37:48):
Yada, yada, yada.
And I'm like no, I don't livehere.
Are you real?
And that was like the firstfucking questions that you said
are you real?

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yes, I was hallucinating.

Speaker 3 (38:03):
It gets to the point where, as soon as you give up
hope, that's when your blessingshappen.
As soon as someone feels likequitting, that's when their
breakthrough happens.
And you hear this type of storyall the time.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
It just never fails to blow my mind and so you know,
he asked me you know, were youin a car wreck?
I'm like, I think I mean yes.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
But under a bridge.
No, I wasn't a car.
Yeah, dude, I was.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
I'm just camping bro.
Yeah yeah, never do this, tryit out.
You want some diesel water.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Try it dude.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
Cheers.
So he yells at his son-in-lawto go call the police, and you
know he's saying something to me.
I don't know what the fuck he'ssaying, though.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
By chance were they Mexican individuals.
Yeah, we had an electricianwork on the house and I told him
about you coming and he's likeno shit.
I've seen him on the news.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
Some Mexicans saved him right and I was like I don't
know, but maybe so here we are.

Speaker 3 (39:11):
This is why I'm asking this question.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
To the Mexicans.
So, so he yells at hisson-in-law to go call the police
, call the ambulances, firetrucks, whatever.
And you know, very shortly Istart hearing these sirens and

(39:38):
you know from past experiencethey've just Driven over me, and
so that's what I think is gonnahappen again.
And then I start hearing thebrakes and I hear the sirens
Just stop.
And I hear people talking andI'm like, okay, you know, maybe
this is real.
And you know, they start comingdown, they start assessing how

(40:02):
fucked up of the situation it isand they start, you know,
coming up with a game plan ongetting me out of there and With
the way the rescue had to bedone.
They were wanting to basicallyroll my roof off and Charles,
the wife, yeah, then try tospread the engine off me.

(40:25):
But they realized that theycouldn't roll the roof off
because of the the angle that Iwas sitting at probably would
have caused the truck to rollover.
So then they had to rip off therear driver side door, then the
my driver side door and thenthere wasn't really anything to

(40:48):
push off of because they hadjust ripped it all out.
So they had to make their ownplaces to push off of things
like that, just to push theengine off me.
And when they Push the engineoff me, that was the first time
in six days that I could feelfrom my knee down.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Felt for you.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Yes, and then they start pulling me out.
Well, they didn't start pullingme out.
I tried, you know, kind ofcrawling out of there by myself,
and they're like you don't getto fucking move yet.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
They told you that, paraphrased but, I just shout
out to all the first respondersout there yeah, I get some.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
This man's been in your front yard for the past six
days and you finally get to him.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
I've gone by their firehouses.
They're really nice guys andthey all had better mustaches to
me.
That pissed me off.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
What was your mustache like on the sixth day?

Speaker 2 (41:53):
About like what it is right now.
Oh Listen, we all can't havenice black hair like you oh hey,
thanks, thanks.

Speaker 3 (42:07):
We all can't have nice luxurious hair like.
Max, I'm trying to give youyour flowers.
Man, just accept them.
Your jerseys goes hard and thatnecklace is amazing yeah your
teeth?

Speaker 2 (42:19):
is that that wheelchair is pretty fucking
sick.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
He's got the.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
He was telling me about how he wants to get chrome
spinners on there.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
Oh we could make it happen.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
We can have a Ben's working on this chair.
I chose a chair, bro.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Oh, thank, how much my fucking leg is gonna be.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
We're gonna get.
We're gonna get to that.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
So finally, you hear these first spotters, emt's
firefighters so they startpulling me out of my truck and
that's when I realized that myleg was pretty fucked up and I
can't feel my toes or anythinglike that.
But I can feel where my leg wasbroken at, and I was talking to

(43:04):
one of the firefighters lastweek and he was saying that when
they got me on to the stretchermy toes were facing me.
Yeah, so it did basically snapmy shin halfway and then All

(43:24):
that was just folded back.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
Looking at myself, it's a bit of a blessing that
the engine crushed your leg andand and did such manipulation to
your leg that you Didn't evenfeel it.
Yeah, those days, yeah, youknow.
Imagine being an agonizing painwhile mentally thinking these
people right above you are nevergonna save you.
Yeah that so so lucky youweren't in that agonizing pain.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
I would definitely say it's a blessing to that it
rained, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
So to bounce off your point real quick, you have to
remember my hand was shattered.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
She was in pain.
Your hand was hurting and hewas right.
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
Okay, well lucky your lower body wasn't also an
agonizing pain?

Speaker 2 (44:09):
and it is a blessing that I landed where I was at and
you know I wasn't upside downand I wasn't.
I didn't have any internalinjuries at all.
My blood pressure was, I think,121 over 75.
Sparely me, you know my mysodium was a little low.

(44:31):
You have an 8.
I was a little dehydrated forsome reason.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Wow, that Shocks me, that really does.
I thought you would be Hydrated, for sure.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Yeah, but no internal bleeding, no, you know.
No lacerations, no TBI.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
Yeah, no brain damage .

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Yeah and.
Yeah, so it was honestly like Iwas so when I was younger.
My sister and I will alwaysplay the game because we always
lived in houses with Staircasesand we would get in our sleeping
bags and ride down the carpetsor ride down the the carpeted

(45:16):
stairs.
And you know, as kids we thinkthat the sleeping bags gonna
protect us.
But, like in a situation likemy wreck was, it was like I was
just wrapped in bubble wrap forthe entire thing.
This besides my leg, and youknow it's.

(45:37):
It's two months since my wreckand I'm out here, you know,
driving around, walking around,well, hopping around.
You know I got my cast off lastweek, told I could Start using
that like it's in.

(45:58):
It's crazy how fast my bodieshealed through all this on the
physical aspect.
You know, on the mental aspect,it's going to take some time to
heal through all this.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
You were suffering, you were being tortured by
freaking sirens that we'recoming to you.
Then, finally, the one day, youGive up hope and you go to
sleep, you get saved, yeah.
And what was it like when youfinally got out and you got to
the hospital, like where youjust like, were you just at all?

Speaker 2 (46:37):
so, yeah, I think that's that's the best way to
explain kind of what I wasfeeling at the moment would be
all you know, having All thathope just kind of slowly chipped
away from me.
And then, you know, at seveno'clock at night, I'm laying in
a hospital bed having 20 doctorsstanding over me.

(47:00):
You know, it's definitely itwas a long four hours, but it
was an amazing four hours, youknow of course, you were able to
drink at the hospital, right.
No, no really.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Drink from your sweatpants, but you can't drink
at the hospital.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yeah, because the first night I had to be on a
no-water diet For surgery thenext day.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
Max has been to about this many times.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Sponge on a stick.
Oh, I didn't even get a sponge.
No, you were MPO.
I had a saline hooked up to meand if my yeah, if my mouth did
get dry, they could take a ragand dab my mouth with it.
And it wasn't until so, twodays after being rescued.

(48:00):
So the 28th Was when I couldeat ice chips, still not able to
eat solid food.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
Cheese right.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
Oh, it's fucking.
And and my, my nurse would onlygive me like three or four at a
time.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
I would only get one.
You're lucky, your nurse gaveyou three.
I wish I had three damn it whenI went in, when I went in.
Subject shock For all his goodto the use, so they eye.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
So it's funny that once I was in the ICU because I
get there they put me in the ERand then they they realized
within like the first hour and ahalf that they had to amputate
the bottom half of my leg, solike halfway down my shin.
They had to amputate because Ihad no feeling it was starting

(48:58):
to die off.
You know, that's just bad.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
How did you feel after the Like like?
What was your feeling?
That, like, part of your bodyis gone?

Speaker 2 (49:12):
You know, I think, having lived through that
situation for six days, knowingthat my leg was probably Going
to have to get amputated, butalso the fact that I was If I
could have reached my paringknife, I would have done it
myself.
So I think that there was Partof my brain that knew that I was

(49:37):
going to lose a leg.
Yeah, yeah yeah, so it's funnythat while I was in the ER, one
of my friends was my nurse, oneof my friends that I go drinking
with.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
So water or beer.
I.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Think he's talking about alcohol.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Really.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
So before the wreck, so alcohol.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
Our minds are focused on the diesel water still.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Yeah, I don't normally go out of my way to
drink diesel water.
I Do think that that would be apretty good energy drink,
though diesel water bringmineral mineral water to a whole
mother level.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
Yeah, highway minerals.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Yeah, fuck.
So this girl that I go drinkingwith at the bar.
She was my RN and For a couplenights she just had to wipe my
ass and.
Much respect to her.
Like holy fuck, I could neverwipe my friends ass.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
I get a finger of my ass every single day.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
See, I tried getting my no.
No, no, no.
He doesn't understand me.
He gets a fist up his ass every.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
Yeah, I take the stool out.
Yeah, but I hate it.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
So you're into pegging.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
I can't feel Like Chris goes hard.
She, she makes sure she'sshe'll.
She'll go far up in my ass andbe like Max.
I can feel it.
I'm gonna take it down.
Eric, push on his stomach.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
Listen, listen, he could fit this much.
Okay now look, we brought upthe Mexicans earlier.
If anyone's looking for a mule,max is your candidate.
You could fit two kilos upthere, I promise you.
And he's not getting searchedat the border.
Look at him.
It's a liability.
If you heard them, they don'tever want to go near Max, you

(51:52):
will get your product.
We're just gonna have a heftytax on life to the max, brought
to you by Matt and cocaine.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
We do not endorse cocaine.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
Did you were able to feel her wife in your ass?

Speaker 2 (52:09):
Oh yeah yeah, it was so weird.
So, of course, below thefracture side, I couldn't feel
my toes or anything like that,which, I have to say, is the
weirdest fucking feeling ever.
So I don't your fuckingstrongest shit for Knowing it's
all there but not being able tofeel it.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
It feel anything it.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
At least you don't have to buy ad bill or Tylenol.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
It's true, cicota I.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
Wouldn't feel shit with that either.
Talking about feeling and asour first amputee being on the
show I have, I'm curious about aphantom pains, do you ever?

Speaker 2 (52:46):
experience this?
Yes, how would you?

Speaker 3 (52:48):
describe it to people .

Speaker 2 (52:50):
Like my legs still there, but I feel Everything.
It'll be like a jolt ofelectricity running down my leg
through my toes and then into my, into, like the bottom of my
foot.
So whenever, basically, youever have like the bottom of

(53:16):
your foot cramp, mm-hmm, so it'slike that feeling, but my
entire leg will cramp.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
You're spinning backs because that's how I feel right
now, but every day that's how Ifeel.
That's that like pricklyfeeling.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
I mean, what do you feel the most?

Speaker 1 (53:34):
my hands, my feet, my throat, mostly my heels in my
throat, because I told you Ihave a fiber Malaysia, so I have
fiber.
Elijah, do you have a questionabout?
How are you in the hospital?

Speaker 2 (53:49):
from December 26 to January 17th, so 20 One days.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
And you were.
You said you recover prettyquickly, right, yeah, yeah, did
you all?
I tell the doctors like whatyou were drinking and stuff like
how are you able to, you know,survive six days?

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Yeah, yeah.
But as soon as I got to thehospital, first thing they did
was hook me up to a catheter,which is the strangest fucking
feeling ever.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
I wouldn't know.
I Mean I have a catheter.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
I can't feel it.
There's perks to this.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
So with the catheter, you just forget your pain.
And so, like, I was laying inthe hospital bed with, like, my
dad and friends in there andthey're like, oh, what's that?
I'm like, oh, that's my, mypiss jug.
Hmm, and I got one too.
Yeah, your body gets to thepoint where you're pissing and
you don't even know you areInteresting.

(54:54):
It's just flowing.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
Yeah, I was free flowing.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
How many people visit you?

Speaker 2 (55:00):
I had a bunch of people visit me.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
Yeah, how did it feel when you got that support?

Speaker 2 (55:08):
yeah, shout out to them you know, it's not just my
friends and family who have beensupportive.
It's been and I say this withAll the love in the world like
it's everybody.
Like I've had people Like apost I made had 265,000 views

(55:35):
within a day Wow, my story wasGoogle 339 million times in 48
hours and the amount of, youknow, support from people
supporting my go fund me topeople who have, you know,
joined me on this story.

(55:55):
I know your mom mentioned thatshe's been watching my story and
so thank you for that.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
Definitely check out your girlfriend me.
I didn't even know you had one.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
Yeah, it's linked in all my bios.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Link in the description below on this
podcast, for sure.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
You know, I I didn't ask my best or I didn't ask my
friend to set up the go fund me.
It was just something that shedid.
And you know, people saw mystory and they just start
donating.
And you know, had I gotten like10, 15,000, I would have been
More than happy with that, justto kind of help me move forward.

(56:38):
But I mean, I like last time Ilooked at it it was at a hundred
and eight thousand dollars.
And I'm like holy shit, like I,I have people donating that I've
heard about.
You know some of like our.
So I'm in a union, so we havelike international vice
presidents and shit and you knowsome of those have donated and

(57:03):
I've never even met them.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
But you know, and Our union it's a lot of solidarity
and it's a lot of brotherhood,kind of like you being in the
military, just about to get tothat because when I got my car
accident, the amount of supportI got, like through Facebook and
people reaching out people fromhigh school, like I never
talked to people like that, I'venever even known, just reaching

(57:29):
out and like saying like a kindword those comments got me
through like oh yeah, you know,I mean like it really did, like
it gives you encouragement, likeoh yeah so I'm happy it
happened.
This accident happened during,like this era of social media
when we were able to connect andstuff.

(57:50):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
Just like you imagine if this happened back in, like
the early 1900s, you know like,oh, you know, he was run over by
a horse and buggy.
Both both his legs are broke.
He's got to get a manputated.
Okay, well, send him down tothe village doctor.
Yeah, and that's it get the sawwhiskey.
Yeah, so the the amount of loveand support you know, within the

(58:15):
first Week on Facebook I had1500 messages and it took me for
like I was waking up at fouro'clock in the hospital because
I didn't want the flambodomistto come in there take my blood,

(58:37):
because she would always come inevery morning at six o'clock.
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
I know and I'm like I want.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
I'm in the hospital and I'm on vacation right now.
Fucking let me sleep in.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Love it.
This is so biggest thing in thehospital.
They say try to get some sleepright.
Yeah it's a sleep and I'm like,okay, I'll try to get some
sleep in the freaking two hourslater I get woken up by someone
like that's taking my bloodpressure.
Oh, just taking your vitalsweetheart.
Yeah, it's like bitch, I'mtrying to fucking sleep.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
So they would give me tracidone, and tracidone knocks
my ass to sleep.
But then they would come by at12 o'clock, wake me up to give
me meds.
Wake me up at three o'clock,give me meds, wake me up at six
o'clock to take my vitals, doblood work, and Then nine

(59:32):
o'clock they would come backaround with meds.
I'm like I slept better in thecar.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
Yeah, yeah, I got one more question for you.
You talked about yourperseverance when you were
surviving in the truck and youtalked about the perseverance
recovering in the hospital.

(59:58):
I want to talk about theperseverance you're going
through recovering back toreality.
Yeah, in our minds.
Max, great minds think alike.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Yeah.
So Even now, you know I'mTaking to social media a lot
more Because there are a lot ofpeople want who want to keep up
with my story and things likethat.
You know the whole social mediathing I'm not the greatest at,
so I'm still not.

Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
Yeah, we're doing our best.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Social media.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
I used to like it coming from the guy who has a
podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Eric and post my social media.

Speaker 3 (01:00:38):
Oh yeah, dude, it's a different kind of animal man,
but it is the support again, thesupport is like the biggest oh
yeah component in any situation.
You know it's more, it's moreimportant than the numbers.

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
I'd like 500 people like most of my, like a Facebook
.
When I first got injured and Iread every single one of those
posts and I'm just like wow,like this, like this is crazy,
yeah, I mean, and I wasparalyzed from the neck down and
I had a Seek all around thatcolor, you know, I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
I hate that fucking thing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
And I had a ventilator and I couldn't feel
anything, you know.
So the only thing is like in me, through, or the people that
are supporting me, like myfamily and my friends and all
these random people.
They're giving me love andsupport, just like they gave you
.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
Yeah, you know.
Yeah, besides the social media,do you feel anxiety when you're
driving, Do you?

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
so I still haven't been, I haven't stopped at the
wreck site yet.
I went and seen my truck coupleweeks ago and you know that
that was the first time I'veseen it in person and that was
the first time I actually seenhow bad it was from the outside.
Of course I spent six days onthe inside, but I couldn't see

(01:02:01):
how fucked up it was on theoutside.
So I think, going by there andactually seeing it in person, it
wasn't, you know, a reallysorrowful experience.
It was more of a very.
It was kind of a therapeutic,you know, because you know this

(01:02:25):
chapter isn't over.
But it was like that paragraphended, you know, like there's,
there's still more in thischapter to go on and so much
more.
But you know my wreck is over,I'm healing and you know, life

(01:02:49):
to the max, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
We kind of got off track when you said that you got
home.
So like when you got home, youknow, I was watching YouTube
videos and you have an apartmentnow or something.
Yeah, did you have thatapartment when you got home?

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
So there was a strange set of events around me
being discharged and where I wasgoing to be discharged, to the
place that I live in, whatwasn't going to be the best for
me moving forward in terms ofhealing and accessibility wise.
So that is something that I hadto Figure out within four days

(01:03:41):
From so.
I was supposed to be dischargedon a Thursday and I had to end
up pushing it back to a Tuesdaybecause I couldn't get into a
new apartment quick enough tohave it viable.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
When you got to your new apartment, you finally slept
for the first time at night.
I was.
It was good.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
Now from the hospital to the apartment we stayed at,
because my family had flown up,my dad and grandma had flown up
from Atlanta, georgia, and so westayed at a there's a hotel on
Notre Dame and we stayed therefor a week While we got kind of

(01:04:26):
the apartment furnished andeverything.
So, you know, it was the firstnight in Almost a month that you
know I could wake up and Ididn't have to be somewhere and
I didn't have to, you know, havemy blood taken or have my

(01:04:49):
vitals checked or you know.
Hey, you know, wake up at seveno'clock, we're gonna go to
Lowe's and grab stuff for yourapartment.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
It was the first day I could actually Relax so give
me like it's like, a day in lifeexperience.
It's all.
When I was watching yourYouTube channel you said well, I
got interview doctor women.
Chicago tribute life to the maxpot.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
Go see Lindsay at Hooters.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Shout out to Lindsay.
You know, you know who you are.
I'll show you her Instagramlater.
Well, I think it.
So what is it like when youwake up in the morning?

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
So, wake up in the morning, I got a ninth floor
view of the river andoverlooking downtown South Bend.
So Sun shines right in my eyesright about Seven, eight o'clock
in the morning, which kind ofpisses me off, but it's a nice
way to wake up.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
It's me off to trust me.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
Yeah, so most days, depending on what I'm doing,
some days I Wake up.
For instance, today woke up aLittle bit of breakfast, not a
whole lot, just I don't likeeating before I drive.
Was I naked?

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
Like do you like put clothes on before you eat
breakfast?

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
Generally.
Sometimes, yeah Sometimes inthe morning, I like airing out
my stump.
Just make sure that smells goodfor the day spray it with
thought.

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
That was the only way .

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
Yeah, spray it with Febreze a little bit.
But you know most mornings arepretty easy going.
Wednesdays I have wound care sothey check the incisions and
all that.
You know, if I've got a newsinterview, I try to schedule all
my news interviews in theafternoon, just so I don't have

(01:06:55):
to wake up early, because nobodylikes waking up before noon.
A Lot of days I have doctor'sappointments so that takes up a
lot of my time.
So I'll just wake up, eatbreakfast, go to them Kind of
relax the rest of the day, cooksome food.

(01:07:19):
Yeah, pretty, I'm trying totake things slow right now, just
while I'm healing up once I getmy prosthetic, then I'll be
running, just gonna get intothat.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
So, like you are your prosthetic, are you pretty
excited about this.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Yeah, you know it's gonna be nice to be able to.
So one thing that kind ofhinders me right now getting
around on wheelchair WalkerCrutches.
You know, one thing that I dofeel kind of Is true for me

(01:07:56):
personally is a little bit thatvulnerability of Knowing all
somebody has to do is, you know,take my Walker, my crutches or
something like that, and I can'tchase after them.
So Well, if somebody takes yourwheelchair there might be
bigger problems, so they couldjust literally just take the

(01:08:17):
battle off.
Yeah.
That's simple, but I definitelyknow the feeling we're talking
about thanks for let me knowyour weakness, in case you ever
piss me off.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
You, mother.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
Please, please, tell me that you use that for your
tender pickup line.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
I did.
I did it few times.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
You take my breath away.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
I also say like that, I can literally.
You can't suffocate me if youwant to sit on my face.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
Because I got Freakin .

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
Back and I don't need .
I don't need my mind.

Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
You could just keep going.
He's got his own Snorkel yeah,he doesn't have to come up for
air there are freaking he'sfinishing the job.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
There are perks.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
So if you were to go scuba diving, would they just
plug it into your throat, or I?

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
Don't think I can go scuba diving can we get a RNs?

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
Oh yeah, you can't swim.

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
No, I could float maybe I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
We read a book where Chris Farrives was was floating
in the water for therapy.

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
And they would keep but they would keep the vent
like he could not like put hisneck under the water because
obviously you can probably drownhimself yeah.
Yeah, the vent like definitelystops, like it definitely like
Doesn't allow me to do a lot ofthings.

(01:10:04):
It makes things a hell of a lotharder.
I mean, just just getting inthis room was like, if it's,
it's a mission sometimes, youknow, but I mean mission
possible.
Yeah, you know, improvise it outto overcome oh yeah that's what
it's like to say, and I meanthat's what you did, soon and

(01:10:26):
when you get your prosthetic leg.
I mean, like I was gonna say,in the army I had a Sergeant
lost his leg a car accident,humvee accident and Another
Humvee crashed into anotherHumvee that had a skin door.
So basically that metal likewent straight into his leg and

(01:10:51):
he was bleeding out and someoneput a tourniquet on him and he
had to go to like a hospital andthen they took his leg.
They took the same part whereyou are there.
They took it out and he told meit's been like the biggest
blessing in his life.
And I'm like what?

(01:11:12):
Like you losing your, your leg?

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
and he was like, yeah , it's giving me more
appreciation to life you know,and so one of the jokes I always
make now is that you know how alot of people always compare
things like oh you know, that'sgot a cost in arm and a leg or
something like that.
So you know, it's nice havingthe appreciation, knowing that

(01:11:41):
my life cost me my leg.
And you know, I think if itcame down to anybody, I think
they'd do the same thing.
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:54):
I mean, I'm too young to die.
You know there, there are toomany hot girls out there for me
to die.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
I you should.
You should see our podcast.
We just posted Some prettydecent checks.
Check them out.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
I will, and, and where can I find this out?
Like a low grade.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
Podcasts okay, you can find it out, you know what
is that stream on?

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
is that just Instagram or all platforms, all
platforms?

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
YouTube, okay.
But so my last question to askyou is so when I first got
injured, I Do my whole life wasupside down.
It was insane.
Like I.

(01:12:48):
I like they're like saying,okay, well, we're gonna do a
ball program and like stool andall this stuff, and I didn't
even know what stool was.
Dude, like I was, like I was, Iwas in the military, I was like
trying to become a ranger, youknow like Doing everything
possible to go special forcesand like Just being a soldier,

(01:13:12):
you know yeah you wanted to getall the women, didn't you?
Some what you know, there's aguy in the military might be
telling a commander at the time,colonel Smith.
He inspired the hell out of me.
When I saw him I was like Iwant to be like this guy.
Okay, black Hawk down.
So I was like I want to be likethis guy, I want to do

(01:13:34):
everything this guy did, youknow, I mean, yeah, I was
working hard, even on theweekends, when I got off work,
which is Garrison.
So when we're doing likeregular work, it's usually like
you know, like you wake up atfour in the morning and get off
at like five pm, I would stillgo to the gym, work out and try

(01:13:54):
to, like you know, like improvemyself to be the best and I, I
was the best.
Like people will vouch for me,including Colonel Smith, yeah, I
mean like so.
And when that was all takenaway from, me that.

(01:14:15):
That that sucks.
So I gotta ask you.
So you were in the car for sixdays, so you, you, you didn't
know if you were gonna be aliveor dead, you know.
But when you got to thehospital and they took your leg
off and then they amputee, youlike, and then you finally got

(01:14:37):
home like I was like, but no, itdoes, does it still like fresh?

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
So I don't think it's as much fresh wounds as most
people would think.
You know, I've been asked by somany people so many times what
happened, how'd it happen.
You know what were yourthoughts through that, and for
me, I think that the mosttherapeutic thing that I've done

(01:15:09):
through this whole ordeal is istell my story.
And you know, telling yourstory is not only therapeutic
but it can also help otherpeople and, and generally when
you're helping other people,that in and of itself, seeing
that reward, seeing that personhave a better life because of

(01:15:33):
something you said or somethingyou did it's that in and of
itself is such a great blessing,it's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (01:15:41):
It is.
That's exactly what life to themax is all about, Max it really
is.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
So I have a question Do you have any questions for me
?
Because Eric told me you onlytold you a little bit about this
, right?

Speaker 2 (01:15:56):
Um so Eric said that uh, you know it's, you were in a
construction accident orsomething like that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:05):
No, so, uh, so I.
So I was in my prime bro in themilitary.
Uh, it was um March 21st was mybirthday and my accident was
March 24th.
And uh, I was driving up to seemy family right and see my
girlfriend at the time, uh, andI remember vividly being outside

(01:16:30):
of the gate of our, our likebase, we were filling up on gas
and Nicholson, the driver, waslike hey, um, do you want to
drive first for me?
And I was like fuck.
Uh, I was like you know whatI'll?
Uh, you could drive first, youknow what I mean.
And then I like stopped for asplit second.

(01:16:52):
I was like you know what?
Actually, I'll drive firstbecause I wanted to wake up to
my hometown.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:58):
Right and uh, drove halfway, got to Tarot, indiana,
and uh, I put my seat down andhe started driving.
I was like, wake me up when weget to Chicago and sell my girl
I love here.
And woke up in a hospital threedays later, paralyzed from a
neck down, breathing through amachine, like not being able to

(01:17:20):
talk.
I couldn't talk for 15 days.
That was an ICU.
I couldn't eat for four months.
I couldn't drink for a month,but after the month I was only
allowed to have two tablespoonsof water, which is kind of a
tease, but whatever, yeah, and alot of nurses don't want to sit

(01:17:40):
there and I give youtablespoons of water, right.
I mean, unless they're goodpeople, then usually night
nurses like just want to likeget their rounds.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
So you know, and uh and go play on their phones.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
Yeah, just do what they got to do.
You know what I mean, like, butuh, yeah, do my whole life
flipped upside down.
I uh went through a spout ofshots.
Spout of shot.
Uh, I went through.
Um, I like remember vividlylike the accident, because I was
sleeping and I woke up to theaccident and uh, I was in a coma

(01:18:17):
.
And then I was in the hospitalfor a year and uh, I was at
rehabilitation Institute ofChicago.
I uh was, I was doing therapyand stuff and I was just like
trying my best to like think,like, okay, I just have to like
think like I'm going to walkagain.

(01:18:38):
I just this, this is a lot oftemporary, you know the fence,
just temporary.
Like I'm like they that they'relike trying to like explain how
serious this is, but mymilitary attitude, I'm like, no,
I'm going to walk again.
You're crazy, yeah, like youknow what?
I mean, and they're like that's,you know, that's how it works,

(01:18:58):
you know.
And then, after um a few months, my girlfriend left me,
Unfortunately, that that thatwas like a dagger in the heart,
you know, because she was likemy rock and uh.
But it also helped me Because Iwas like you know what?
I'm just going to focus ontherapy, right.
Then I uh, then I uh, Iactually uh, started talking to

(01:19:24):
other women.
I was surprised that, likeother women would like me and I
got a I actually started datinga girlfriend.
She had a boyfriend.
I got her and I was dumb enoughto to not to like talk to other
women when I was dating her.
So that was stupid.
So yeah, uh.

(01:19:44):
Then I got home, uh, and I wasjust partying, partying, I was
going to the clubs.
I was going to the strip clubs.
I was freaking out for peopleover, I was smoking.
I didn't, I didn't give a fuck.
I did not want fuck, like youknow.
And then, uh, years go by, youknow, and uh, a year goes by and

(01:20:06):
I realized all these people arecoming over just fucking using
me.
So I closed safe, right, likeeverybody leaves.
So I'd shoot people.
You know that I'm miserable,I'm alone, I'm sad, I'm
depressed, you know, I'moverweight.
So I'd start, uh, doing therapy, finding a purpose, you know,

(01:20:27):
then that's for, like you know,four years later I meet this guy
and we start this podcast andthat's uh, that's, that's all.
The accident happened.
I mean that that's like a quicksummer, a quick, like summary
of what happened.
I have an episode coming outcalled split second, uh, and

(01:20:47):
it's basically the first episodethat we have on our podcast,
but it's going to be on camerabecause, like, uh, like everyone
wants to listen to my story butthey have to listen to it when
we had no experience whatsoeverwith podcasting.
It's just, it's like, uh, veryraw, you know, it's not, it's

(01:21:09):
not, it's not like uh, it's,it's a good podcast, but it's
long, you know.
And the one I did, um, that'sgoing to be released soon,
that's going to like show, likewhat I actually went through
because, like I mean, like.
I took all the nerves I had toblow a straw.
You know what I mean.

(01:21:33):
Like.
And then, uh, not like.
And then like, after eightyears now, knowing like, like,
uh, I can't move my arms.
It's just so weird.
And then I feel that nerve painyou're talking about all the
time.
It's the weirdest feeling.
I like don't, I don't like.
You know.
Like, sit down and be like,okay, I got it, like I'm going

(01:21:54):
to give up on life.
This you know.
I like.
You know you don't hate yoursituation to everyone out there.
If you're in a situation, younot hate your situation you
embrace it.
That's what you do, and that'swhat you do, man.
You know what I mean All youcan do sometimes so you can, you
know, and we're both readybooks, we're both living life to

(01:22:16):
max.
You're getting all theseinterviews.
Man, I wish the fucking bestfor you.
I really do Like I'm happy Ericreached out to you.

Speaker 2 (01:22:27):
Do you want to play yourself in the movie, the movie
that they make about me?

Speaker 3 (01:22:33):
Hell yeah, I'll say hell yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:22:36):
Form X I mean last time someone offered me acting
that, uh, that didn't work.
Like he screwed me over.
He knows who he is, but uh yeah, I would love to, if you want
to.

Speaker 2 (01:22:53):
I mean, all you got to do is just sit there, exactly
.

Speaker 1 (01:22:57):
Do you want to Look at this?

Speaker 3 (01:23:00):
Perfect hey you got it.
Do you want to see?
Do you want?

Speaker 1 (01:23:05):
to see.

Speaker 3 (01:23:05):
No, I'm just messing with you.
You're shaking your chain off.
Man, Calm down.
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
No, but, dude, it's honestly been a pleasure, you
know it literally is, and you'rewelcome anytime.
Do you want to shout out toanybody Like?
Do you want to play?
Shout out to the firedepartment.

Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
Yeah, so the Portage Fire Department, house two and
three.
Thank you guys for being thefirst responders there and for
keeping me alive, and then allthe staff at Beacon Medical
Center.
Thank you for keeping me alive.
Thank you for helping me getback on my foot and you know I'm
a live this life to the max.

Speaker 1 (01:23:49):
It's good to have the .
It's good to inspire people andpeople, because the whole
reason why we started thispodcast is to show people the
perspective of life.
That like it's different.
You walked in.
The first thing you said to meit was like shit, I got nothing
to complain about.
You know, what I mean and I'mlike oh, I didn't like that.

(01:24:09):
You know what I mean.
Like you know, we all have ourbad days, but like, if I'm able
to give you strength orinspiration, then I'm proud to
do that and I feel happy thatI'm able to do that.
And for everybody out there,I'm happy.
I mean, we'll do that, but yougive me inspiration.
I freaking, improvising,adapting and overcoming your

(01:24:32):
situation Six days in a car, sixdays, and figuring out ways to
drink water, figuring out waysto survive, and then, finally,
when you give up, someone findsyou.
That's how it is.
That's how it is.

Speaker 3 (01:24:48):
It's all you had to do.
You should have gave up on thefirst day and they would have
found you.
All you had to do is give up.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
All right, everybody.
This has been Life to the Max.
You can follow us on Life tothe Max podcast Instagram.
Follow us, make sure you like,comment and subscribe on YouTube
.
We're streaming all past forumsApple and Spotify and please
comment because this was a goodone, thank you.