Jacob Smith is alive today thanks largely to 26 people he never met.
“I was brought back to life,” the 24-year-old recalls.
It was March 30, 2021. One second, Jacob was in the car with his mom, sister and eight-month-old nephew. The next, he saw a bumper.
“I remember looking over at my mom and telling her, ‘Brace for impact,’” he said.
A Cadillac Escalade was speeding the wrong way down SW Polk at 5th St. It slammed into Jacob’s family’s vehicle at upward of 80 miles per hour, crumpling it and pushing it onto its side.
“I was folded like a pancake up underneath the airbag,” Jacob said.
Jacob’s mom and sister were hurt, and his nephew, sadly, did not survive. At Stormont Vail’s ER, Jacob at first thought he was okay.
“I told them I was fine, I was going home and they were like, ‘Well we can’t do nothing (to stop you). Go ahead, stand up, and walk out,’ so I stood and everything popped,” he said.
Jacob collapsed, and his heart stopped.
“The bones that makes your pelvis, it was all fractured. It was like a puzzle piece that wasn’t put together,” he said.
The trauma team jumped into action to get his heart beating and put him back together.
“Jacob ended up needing blood from 26 different donors to save his life,” said Teresa Taylor, RN, Stormont Vail’s Trauma Services Program Manager.
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