Life to the Max Podcast
"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.
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.
Hang on, buddy, you stay there. We got medics coming, okay.
Speaker 2:This is the moment Matt Reem was rescued from his wrecked truck. An incredible survival story captured our attention over the holidays.
Speaker 3:He survived for nearly a week in the cold, in part by drinking rainwater.
Speaker 2:The 27 year old trapped in the vehicle for six days over Christmas.
Speaker 3:He was pinned in the vehicle with his phone out of reach Week of being trapped. Reem says rainfall helped to keep him alive.
Speaker 2:Matt Reem trapped in his vehicle for six days before help arrived. I rolled twice, went through a creek and then landed under the bridge. Northwest Indiana man survived for six days in his crashed truck before a dramatic rescue that saved his life.
Speaker 3:I can't ramp to this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can ramp.
Speaker 3:All right, all right, let's do this. All right.
Speaker 2:So this is a jacket that I had in my truck that I used as a pillow. Finally got it back from the dry cleaners. Hold on.
Speaker 3: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 must be mad. You should hit the wall. I'm mad, I'm mad.
Speaker 1:I'm mad we don't give two shit and we don't give a fuck. You're so extreme, I'm so extreme.
Speaker 2:Well, Eric kind of told me a little bit of what happened to you. Holy shit, like I have no words to complain about anything.
Speaker 1:I'm so extreme, I'm so extreme, I'm so extreme, I'm so extreme. You should be a phone number.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I actually ended up really liking that beat, we went on it.
Speaker 2:Vendellas Romasey Gordovic.
Speaker 3:Everybody welcome to another episode of Life. To the Max we got senior LaGordovic Matt Reem. He has something in common with Max and they both share very tragic car accident stories.
Speaker 1:Traumatic, traumatic. Give me a couple more adjectives.
Speaker 2:Trauma inducing.
Speaker 3:Trauma inducing.
Speaker 1:Trauma inducing.
Speaker 3:That's easy. We're going to go right into Matt's story right after the Quad Fathers intro.
Speaker 1:I'm disabled and I'm paralyzed for a neck down, breathing through a machine, but that does stop me from following my dreams and doing what I love to do. I don't got an excuse to, neither should you. Let's get into Matt Reem's episode.
Speaker 3:We really appreciate you traveling a few hours to come see us. How was the drive?
Speaker 2:Besides driving through Chicago, it wasn't bad.
Speaker 3:Where are you from South?
Speaker 2:Bend.
Speaker 1:Indiana, we appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's where Notre Dame is.
Speaker 1:So you're a Fighting Irish fan.
Speaker 2:I am a Fighting Irish fan, jesus Christ.
Speaker 3:Right to the insult Right flag.
Speaker 2:At least I'm not a Michigan fan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3:We got two guests that traveled to be with us on the podcast and the other one was from Michigan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the other one was Frutus Chaurros Capicchione. Who do you all work for out here?
Speaker 3:This podcast is all about stories. Storytelling is no wrong answers. All types of individuals come on sharing all types of stories for Max and anyone listening.
Speaker 1:So you too.
Speaker 3:It's more than entertainment. It's almost like therapy for anyone else that's also been in similar situations. I'm excited to hear your story, matt, yeah.
Speaker 1:So let's just get right into it. So I mean, obviously a lot of people know you are around this area because of the news headlines and all the attention you're getting, so can you explain what happened with basically what happened those? What were the dates?
Speaker 2:again, From December 20th to December 26th.
Speaker 1:December 20th to December 26th okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I had been in Hobart, Indiana, for the day at our hall practicing welding kind of teaching some of the younger apprentices how to weld better for work, and I was got done with that about four o'clock, went out, did a little bit of window shopping for Christmas Week. Before Christmas I always got a shop for myself and went to Hooters later that night after shopping.
Speaker 1:Let's go, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:It's always a good time at Hooters.
Speaker 1:In Southland, in Hobart? Yeah, you're telling me, indiana girls are hot.
Speaker 2:There are a few far and few between. I said there's a few, you gotta take me to the Hooters. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll investigate. You'll investigate it.
Speaker 2:I gotta do a little reconnaissance, do a little story on the Hooters there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you went to Hooters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a couple weeks before that one of my friends had passed away.
Speaker 1:RIP to your frontman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had missed his funeral in Valpo and his family was going to do a viewing and the final burial down in Missouri, which is where his family lives now, and so I was kind of beating myself up over it because I was going to. I wanted to be there for my friend, show my last, show my last, like my gratitude towards him, and you know, so I was because I was planning on staying in Hobart for three days, so Wednesday, Thursday and Friday drive home Christmas weekend and then do something for Christmas.
Speaker 1:So you live in Hobart.
Speaker 2:No, I live in South Bend.
Speaker 1:So how far away is that?
Speaker 2:About an hour drive.
Speaker 1:So like the drive here.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah two and a half hours out here Sounds good. So I started driving from Hobart to South Bend with the intention of Thursday I was going to pack up a couple suits, a couple changes of clothes and drive down to Missouri to be there for my friend's funeral on Friday. So anytime I drive from Gary Hobart area I always take the toll road because there's a lot less traffic, a lot less drama, shit like that. But that night I accidentally took 8094. And Is that a highway? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's just the state highway, state interstate.
Speaker 1:We got something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I start driving on that and I realize, oh shit, you know I'm not on the toll road, I'm going to make a U turn and go on there because the toll road takes me directly to my house. The highway that I was on takes me to like the opposite side of town and then I have to drive all through downtown South Bend at night, which nobody likes to do, just like driving through South Side Chicago.
Speaker 2:Oh it's bad something, Some parts. So I take the first exit and I get on to the overpass, get back on the highway, go in westbound and it was foggy as hell that night. I mean, I could probably only see 10, 15 feet in front of me and, you know, going 70 miles an hour, 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 deer because I wanted to be there for his funeral. Otherwise, if I didn't have to be there for the funeral, I would have hit the thing fucking square on. And so I swerved and I went over the shoulder and then kind of into the grass a little bit and as soon as I started to go back on the highway I hit the guardrail that had just basically popped up.
Speaker 1:Now, are you like up in the air? Are you like on a bridge or something right now?
Speaker 2:It started to go around a corner which had a bridge on it. Okay, so I hit that guardrail and 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:What was the initial feeling when you felt that gravity pull you down, Like as soon as you lost control? What was going through your mind?
Speaker 2:Basically, we're allowed to cuss on here yeah, yeah Of course I'm like what the fuck just happened? And then I start going down the hill and you know, by then I don't have any control of my truck. So I'm just like fuck, you know, and it's just that almost sense of helplessness, knowing that anything could happen in the next couple seconds. And so it starts going down the hill, and it starts going sideways, and I roll twice down the hill, through a creek, to where I landed, underneath the bridge.
Speaker 1:Underneath the bridge.
Speaker 2:Underneath the bridge.
Speaker 1:This is at night.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this was at roughly 10, 30, 11 o'clock at night 11 at night.
Speaker 3:What's the weather like?
Speaker 1:So it's foggy and dark.
Speaker 3:Foggy. What's the temperature? I heard it was like freezing temperatures.
Speaker 2:No, it was like 40s, 50s.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:It was a warm winter this year.
Speaker 1:Well, thank God, it was 40s, 50s.
Speaker 3:So under the bridge you're upside down.
Speaker 2:I'm on my three tires.
Speaker 3:Okay, and are you like in shallow water?
Speaker 2:No, I'm fully up on the bank of the river. But the bank of the river was pitched pretty well. So had I been like sitting upright in my truck, upright in the seat, I would have been leaning just about like that. So during the initial rolling and everything, I ended up losing consciousness. And so when I came to that's when I kind of realized I'm like, oh fuck, you know, I don't have a horn, I don't have lights, I don't have, I can't hit my 911 call button.
Speaker 2:You know, I try calling out for my phone, trying to. I don't want to say it because I know it will go off right now. Or hey, alexa, you know I can't. I try doing that over and over and over and I don't get any response, any answer. So you know, after that I spent, I don't know, maybe 10, 15 minutes just yelling at the top of my lungs trying to get somebody to hear me, and at that point, you know, just from the adrenaline kind of wearing off and everything. So that's also when I realized that my leg was stuck. So when my truck hit the bank of the river, it pushed the engine into my leg, jesus, just completely crushing me. They're crushing the lower part of my left leg, but I had lost all feeling of it in it almost instantly, which I'm kind of thankful for, kind of not.
Speaker 1:But so where did you feel any pain Were at all, or were you just stuck?
Speaker 2:Not, I felt some pain in my right leg just because of the way all the plastic had kind of wrapped around my leg, kind of keeping it stuck. So like every time, like over the next six days, every time I would try pulling my leg out of there. It was scraping or cutting against something and I could feel that and of course my right hand was pretty well shattered and all my metacarpals and you know I I just knew that even though it was that shitty of a situation, I still had to try to keep staying alive, Keep on composing, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So how did like the first psycho going into the morning like, did you? Did you think like someone would find you right away because? Or were you kind of like you know?
Speaker 2:secluded, so I didn't really know what was around me at the mile marker I was at in terms of, you know, properties right on the other side of this row of trees or whatever. So as far as I know, I didn't know what was around me. You know, I had a creek running right on the other side of my truck. That that was just about the only noise I could hear, besides all the cars driving over me.
Speaker 1:That must have been so hard driving, because the cars are so loud.
Speaker 3:And well, what about psychologically? Like you want to be saved and you hear people over you. You know you just hear people that could potentially save you pass on your butt.
Speaker 1:That was driving me nuts. Thousands of people.
Speaker 2:And also I was right down the road from not one but two fire stations, so within I would say probably about five miles of me, there were two firehouses that I could hear like at night whenever somebody called 911 and they called they could call the fire department. I could hear the fire trucks leaving the stations and I could hear that the entire time. Unbelievable, so it's like a tease.
Speaker 3:I was just about to say that it was God teasing you like damn.
Speaker 2:Do what? Yes, yes, I did hear that one.
Speaker 1:Wait, wait, jesus, I'll be in control, I'll be in control One makes mom, your grounded. So let me ask you a question. So the first day goes by the second day, so did it get harder going throughout the days or did it get easier going throughout?
Speaker 2:the days.
Speaker 1: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, did you feel like defeated, or on your last leg, or did you like have, did you keep hope?
Speaker 2:That's a pretty good pun right there.
Speaker 1:My last leg.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So Like did you keep hope? You know, in a situation like that you're going to have your ups and downs, right? So there were days when I had a lot of hope because, you know, I was trying to set like little goals for myself in terms of trying to get myself out of that situation. You know, one of my goals was grabbing my phone charger, grabbing my cord and eventually grabbing my phone so I could call for, you know, rescue. So I think it was the day or two before Christmas and I had gotten my phone charger and I could. You know, my phone charger still had batteries, so if I could get my phone, I had a way to charge it. Shortly after that, you know, I was able to grab my phone cord. So now I got my charger and my phone cord and I think I know where my phone is.
Speaker 3:But let's just recap. Is this like your second day trying to get?
Speaker 2:everything together. Second, third day yeah, while I was down there I did kind of lose sense of time, so I thought I, when I eventually did get rescued, I thought I had been down there nine days instead of the six days that I. You were close, yeah, I was in the ballpark.
Speaker 1:So the so, like, so, like, uh, mentally like, I can't admit so when I paralyzed, like I was, when I was alone and I was terrifying, was fucking terrifying, and I had nurses, but I was paralyzed and I had to trust these people with my life, with the breathing machine, and I don't even know who these people are.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's a completely different situation with you, because you're alone and you have, like you know, like a little function with your other arm and stuff and you're trying to like do all these things, but like I can't, like at night was it hard.
Speaker 2:I think at night. So there were a couple of nights I was down there where I thought I heard road crews working on the road right above me. So a couple of those nights I was just yelling as much and as loud as I could trying to get somebody's if there was even somebody up there just trying to get their attention.
Speaker 3:So we talk a lot about this mentally, but physically, you know, I understand, we could last a while without food, but what did you do for water? What did you do for drinking?
Speaker 2:So so where I landed, every bridge has drainage spouts for all the rainwater and everything like that, so it doesn't just collect on the highway and it doesn't have anywhere to go. So somehow when I landed, I landed directly underneath one. To where? To where when it rained? All the rainwater? Mind you, this is coming off a highway so it tastes like fuel, asphalt gas, diesel, rubber. You know it's probably got animal blood and shit in it and but when it rained all that water would come in to through my sunroof that was shattered out and I had a pair of sweatpants in my truck that I was able to basically collect the rainwater and just suck it out like a sponge. Oh man.
Speaker 1:Dude, improvise, adapt, overcome those those are my words. Like I love that. And what you did is just that's like a hat's off to you, man, Honestly, like that's like that survival instinct to like get the water that you need.
Speaker 3:Perfect time to fill your glass, yeah, with some pure water.
Speaker 1: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 warrior does. That is that is awesome. I like I have mad respect, like, just like, like when you were thirsty, is that what you thought of? I'm just going to wring out my sweatpants.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I did try the water without trying to filter it somehow, and that tasted like absolute shit. So I realized that that was not going to work to. You know, try to stay hydrated, or as rehydrate myself as much as possible before or until the next rain, you know.
Speaker 3:How soon did you come up with that idea? To wring it out with your sweatpants. The day of next day.
Speaker 2:Like after the first sip. After the first day no, after the first sip of water.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:That's when I realized that it tasted like absolute shit.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, sure Did you have any survival skills back then? Or like did this come like purely instinct?
Speaker 2:So I've always loved being outdoors and being in nature, things like that and I think one thing that a lot of people, if they do have any experience outdoors is having some survival skills. You know whether it's making a fire with two sticks and shit like that, or you know making your own charcoal water purifier, you know. There are just some things that you know if you spend enough time outdoors and around people who are like-minded in that you know they're all kind of build ideas off each other and build their skills off each other. Yeah.
Speaker 1: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 out of my sweatpants.
Speaker 3:Sweatpants filter systems. Like come on Out of my great gym sweatpants.
Speaker 1:That is amazing. All right, let's fast forward.
Speaker 3:Hold on, hold on. I got something for you. I'm flabbergasted trying to imagine myself in a situation trapped in your car for six days. So far, you explained to us the second and third day. I kind of want you to walk us through the days as they went on.
Speaker 2: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 of defeated through that situation. You know, kind of you mentioned it earlier just the fact that I could hear all those cars, all the sirens, ambulances, fire trucks and all that, you know it takes a very quick dark toll on somebody. And you know those same sweatpants that were saving my life, I also use those to try to end my life. So you know there's always good and bad to every story and you know that was obviously one of the bad spots. But you know I came to the point where I was seeing stars and you know my vision was starting to black out and the one thing I did here was my friend telling me not to do it. And you know it's.
Speaker 1:You know the auto body experience, spiritual maybe.
Speaker 3:The friend that you were on the way to see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, my best friend, okay.
Speaker 1:Throw our shot of them out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, her name's Kristen Grabeth. She used to live here in Elgin. But Wow yeah, small world, I think we're in Elgin right, we're basically in Elgin, basically in Elgin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, shot of them out there, oh yeah, and you know, it was small little things like that that just kind of kept me going, because, you know, while I was down there I could hope and pray for a miracle, but I've always been 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 day they were about the same Wake up, try to. So I had a socket set in there and I was using that socket set to try to basically unbolt my truck. Enough to where I could get out, would you say. This is the fourth day. This was a combination of like one through six. Okay, just trying to work my way out of that.
Speaker 1:What if you did get out of it, like would you bleed out with your leg?
Speaker 2:I didn't have anymy broken leg. I didn't have any bleeding my right leg. It was cut up but it wasn't anything that I would have bled out from. So you know, I had my steering wheel. When it hit, or when my truck hit, my steering wheel went from where you normally have it if you're driving or if you're in Atlanta you do that but when it hit it pushed my steering wheel into me and then into my leg. So it was basically resting my steering wheel on my center console, kind of pinning my right leg.
Speaker 3:While the engine is pinning your other leg.
Speaker 2:Oh you fuck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's like torture.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that I was trying to do was take apart my steering wheel, and I realized then that if I don't have YouTube, I'm not a mechanic. But most of those days I was grabbing pieces of trim, pieces of my door, center console, my dashboard. If it was broken off, I was getting rid of it, just throwing it outside my truck. I'm glad I didn't get a fine from DOT or whatever trooper ended up why?
Speaker 3:would you get the fine For littering?
Speaker 2:For littering.
Speaker 3:That's crazy. What kept you?
Speaker 1:going man Like every day, like what kept you going Like? Honestly like you didn't give up. I mean, I've had worse 60 plus deep in episodes on this podcast and I've never heard a story like this before and I'm literally shocked, you know, and I'm trying to think of like hardships I went through and I just can't imagine like having the free will to move around but being stuck and also having these sirens above you like and they don't hear you. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's like God is teasing you and then, on top of it, you're still trying to do everything to make ends meet and to get out of the situation. You know, I just like your mental strength is like you don't tap that spring.
Speaker 3:Were you awake most of the time or sleeping most of the time?
Speaker 2:It was kind of a combination of both of them. You know one thing that does happen in survival situations people generally start losing a lot of sleep and then their mind starts going very ragged due to sleep loss, and I even knew that beforehand, and you know. So one thing I did want to keep doing 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 the days between yelling for help and trying to work my way out of my car. It would have been nice if I had a book.
Speaker 1:Did you know the time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had a watch on me.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you didn't know the time. Did you know the days?
Speaker 2:I didn't know the days, it was just off. My best guess of you know it's my watch would say seven o'clock. It's dark out, so I imagine it would be seven o'clock pm.
Speaker 1:Were you cold at all.
Speaker 2:You know, thankfully we did have some warmer weather during that time, but there were days when it was a little brisk and I had my. I had a car heart jacket and a letterman jacket that I would. I'd wear one and then the other one I would use as a pillow or something like that. Try to keep my head warm while I was sleeping.
Speaker 1:Do you fuck your club?
Speaker 3: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 you can yeah and then you're persevering, trying to take apart your steering wheel with the socket Sockets set that you could reach. You know what? What other things did you do in survival mode to try to try to get yourself free, whether they were failed attempts or successful attempts?
Speaker 2:yeah, so I knew I Wouldn't say I'm a mess, but I like disorderly cleanliness, if that makes sense, makes total sense to me.
Speaker 3:If you walk into my room, maybe you'll see piles of bullshit everywhere. Like man, this place is a pigsty, but I know exactly where everything is and every pile makes sense to me.
Speaker 2:So I knew I had a bunch of stuff on the floorboard of my passenger seat that I couldn't get to. So one of the biggest things for me was, you know, trying to figure out what I had, where I had it and things like that. So With having me been at Hooters earlier that night, I knew I had wings down there. They probably wouldn't have been healthy for me to eat but it would have been food better than the diesel water, yeah.
Speaker 1:Were you happy you saw some ass before you got. What's that? What's trying?
Speaker 3:so. Masses before you you know he's eating the way you're thinking about the Hooters like damn, like damn.
Speaker 2:That was a pretty good last to you. No, it wasn't.
Speaker 1:You said, these girls were hot.
Speaker 2:I believed you a few of them, like one or two of them episode is brought to you by Hooters. Thank you, lindsay.
Speaker 3: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 almost indescribable Spiritual moments that you had?
Speaker 2:So me spiritually, god and I have been kind of on a interesting relationship recently. Having had religion used against me in the past, it's hard for me to kind of go back to it right now. On that note, this has definitely been Very eye-opening for me. You know, I think in a situation like that, you know whether a car rack or a plane crash or whatever, you know everybody At their lowest moment does cry for a god. You know, of course, and you know I, I started doing that. You know, third or fourth day, once I started losing a lot of hope, was just crying out. You know, like, why would you do this to me?
Speaker 1:Why have you forsaken me? Yeah?
Speaker 2:And you know it doesn't matter, because in a world where there are what?
Speaker 3:4,000 religions, hmm, that's a fun fact.
Speaker 2:I did not know yeah, there there is a shit ton of religions.
Speaker 3:Are you throwing 4,000 out there, or is that like the average number?
Speaker 2:I think that there's like 4,000 gods out there.
Speaker 1:Which gods? Yeah, it's a good thing, one answers you yeah.
Speaker 3:I was just about to say hopefully one answers us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean, one did answer me yeah let's get to that day.
Speaker 1: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 drinking water through your sweatpants and Leak. So how did that day progress, did you? You woke up in the morning.
Speaker 2:So I woke up that morning and the day before it had rained, so I was starting to get thirsty, knowing that I didn't have any water at the moment, not knowing you know when is the next time I'm gonna have water, you know. So you know I kind of start out the day I had a journal down there that I was trying to write in with a broken hand, which I Do not recommend that it hurts a lot, but you know I'm, I'm writing in it and what are you writing? That's the fun part. So that day I had lost a lot of hope Between not having any water. You know, in my head I'm thinking it's the ninth day lost a lot of Hope on being rescued, things like that. So that day I I was planning on it kind of being my last day, which sucks to say, but you know, in a situation like that, hope is all I really had. You know you're realist.
Speaker 2:So you know that morning I start writing my obituary. I wrote you know what happened, kind of a recount of the last six days. You know I'm writing letters to Kristen, my best friend, dad, mom and an uncle, some of my other friends. I'm writing out basically my last will and testament that morning. And you know so, I, I, I spent I don't know maybe two, three hours yelling that morning trying to get somebody to hear me, like I'd been doing most days, and Somehow I didn't lose my voice by that day. But I decided I Don't know about 130 that I was gonna take a nap. You ever get those feelings where somebody's kind of watching you in your sleep.
Speaker 1:Yes, every night.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's that's valid, yeah all his nurses are laughing hysterically.
Speaker 2:So, you know, I kind of woke up with that feeling in my head and I'm like that's fucking weird because I know nobody's down there. And as soon as I'm kind of thinking that you know I had Most cars nowadays have curtain airbags that go kind of protect your head from banging against the glass and I just see a hand kind of pull back the curtain and I'm like what the fuck? And no way, yeah and yeah. So in my mind I think I'm hallucinating. So he sticks his head kind of in the window. He's like are you okay? You know, do you live here? Yada, yada, yada. And I'm like no, I don't live here. Are you real? And that was like the first fucking questions that you said are you real?
Speaker 1:Yes, I was hallucinating.
Speaker 3:It gets to the point where, as soon as you give up hope, that's when your blessings happen. As soon as someone feels like quitting, that's when their breakthrough happens. And you hear this type of story all the time.
Speaker 2:It just never fails to blow my mind and so you know, he asked me you know, were you in a car wreck? I'm like, I think I mean yes.
Speaker 1:But under a bridge. No, I wasn't a car. Yeah, dude, I was.
Speaker 3:I'm just camping bro. Yeah yeah, never do this, try it out. You want some diesel water.
Speaker 1:Try it dude.
Speaker 2:Cheers. So he yells at his son-in-law to go call the police, and you know he's saying something to me. I don't know what the fuck he's saying, though.
Speaker 3:By chance were they Mexican individuals. Yeah, we had an electrician work on the house and I told him about you coming and he's like no shit. I've seen him on the news.
Speaker 1:Some Mexicans saved him right and I was like I don't know, but maybe so here we are.
Speaker 3:This is why I'm asking this question.
Speaker 2:To the Mexicans. So, so he yells at his son-in-law to go call the police, call the ambulances, fire trucks, whatever. And you know, very shortly I start hearing these sirens and you know from past experience they've just Driven over me, and so that's what I think is gonna happen again.
Speaker 2:And then I start hearing the brakes and I hear the sirens Just stop.
Speaker 2:And I hear people talking and I'm like, okay, you know, maybe this is real. And you know, they start coming down, they start assessing how fucked up of the situation it is and they start, you know, coming up with a game plan on getting me out of there and With the way the rescue had to be done. They were wanting to basically roll my roof off and Charles, the wife, yeah, then try to spread the engine off me. But they realized that they couldn't roll the roof off because of the the angle that I was sitting at probably would have caused the truck to roll over. So then they had to rip off the rear driver side door, then the my driver side door and then there wasn't really anything to push off of because they had just ripped it all out. So they had to make their own places to push off of things like that, just to push the engine off me. And when they Push the engine off me, that was the first time in six days that I could feel from my knee down.
Speaker 1:Felt for you.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then they start pulling me out. Well, they didn't start pulling me out. I tried, you know, kind of crawling out of there by myself, and they're like you don't get to fucking move yet.
Speaker 1:They told you that, paraphrased but, I just shout out to all the first responders out there yeah, I get some.
Speaker 3:This man's been in your front yard for the past six days and you finally get to him.
Speaker 2:I've gone by their firehouses. They're really nice guys and they all had better mustaches to me. That pissed me off.
Speaker 3:What was your mustache like on the sixth day?
Speaker 2:About like what it is right now. Oh Listen, we all can't have nice black hair like you oh hey, thanks, thanks.
Speaker 3:We all can't have nice luxurious hair like. Max, I'm trying to give you your flowers. Man, just accept them. Your jerseys goes hard and that necklace is amazing yeah your teeth?
Speaker 2:is that that wheelchair is pretty fucking sick.
Speaker 3:He's got the.
Speaker 2:He was telling me about how he wants to get chrome spinners on there.
Speaker 3:Oh we could make it happen.
Speaker 1:We can have a Ben's working on this chair. I chose a chair, bro.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank, how much my fucking leg is gonna be.
Speaker 1:We're gonna get. We're gonna get to that.
Speaker 2:So finally, you hear these first spotters, emt's firefighters so they start pulling me out of my truck and that's when I realized that my leg was pretty fucked up and I can't feel my toes or anything like that. But I can feel where my leg was broken at, and I was talking to one of the firefighters last week and he was saying that when they got me on to the stretcher my toes were facing me. Yeah, so it did basically snap my shin halfway and then All that was just folded back.
Speaker 3:Looking at myself, it's a bit of a blessing that the engine crushed your leg and and and did such manipulation to your leg that you Didn't even feel it. Yeah, those days, yeah, you know. Imagine being an agonizing pain while mentally thinking these people right above you are never gonna save you. Yeah that so so lucky you weren't in that agonizing pain.
Speaker 1:I would definitely say it's a blessing to that it rained, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So to bounce off your point real quick, you have to remember my hand was shattered.
Speaker 1:She was in pain. Your hand was hurting and he was right. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:Okay, well lucky your lower body wasn't also an agonizing pain?
Speaker 2:and it is a blessing that I landed where I was at and you know I wasn't upside down and I wasn't. I didn't have any internal injuries at all. My blood pressure was, I think, 121 over 75. Sparely me, you know my my sodium was a little low. You have an 8. I was a little dehydrated for some reason.
Speaker 1:Wow, that Shocks me, that really does. I thought you would be Hydrated, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but no internal bleeding, no, you know. No lacerations, no TBI.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no brain damage.
Speaker 2:Yeah and.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was honestly like I was so when I was younger. My sister and I will always play the game because we always lived in houses with Staircases and we would get in our sleeping bags and ride down the carpets or ride down the the carpeted stairs. And you know, as kids we think that the sleeping bags gonna protect us. But, like in a situation like my wreck was, it was like I was just wrapped in bubble wrap for the entire thing. This besides my leg, and you know it's. It's two months since my wreck and I'm out here, you know, driving around, walking around, well, hopping around. You know I got my cast off last week, told I could Start using that like it's in. It's crazy how fast my bodies healed 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:You were suffering, you were being tortured by freaking sirens that we're coming to you. Then, finally, the one day, you Give up hope and you go to sleep, you get saved, yeah. And what was it like when you finally got out and you got to the hospital, like where you just like, were you just at all?
Speaker 2:so, yeah, I think that's that's the best way to explain kind of what I was feeling at the moment would be all you know, having All that hope just kind of slowly chipped away from me. And then, you know, at seven o'clock at night, I'm laying in a hospital bed having 20 doctors standing over me. You know, it's definitely it was a long four hours, but it was an amazing four hours, you know of course, you were able to drink at the hospital, right. No, no really.
Speaker 1:Drink from your sweatpants, but you can't drink at the hospital.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because the first night I had to be on a no-water diet For surgery the next day.
Speaker 3:Max has been to about this many times.
Speaker 2:Sponge on a stick. Oh, I didn't even get a sponge. No, you were MPO. I had a saline hooked up to me and if my yeah, if my mouth did get dry, they could take a rag and dab my mouth with it. And it wasn't until so, two days after being rescued. So the 28th Was when I could eat ice chips, still not able to eat solid food.
Speaker 1:Cheese right.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's fucking. And and my, my nurse would only give me like three or four at a time.
Speaker 1:I would only get one. You're lucky, your nurse gave you three. I wish I had three damn it when I went in, when I went in. Subject shock For all his good to the use, so they eye.
Speaker 2:So it's funny that once I was in the ICU because I get there they put me in the ER and then they they realized within like the first hour and a half that they had to amputate the bottom half of my leg, so like halfway down my shin. They had to amputate because I had no feeling it was starting to die off. You know, that's just bad.
Speaker 1:How did you feel after the Like like? What was your feeling? That, like, part of your body is gone?
Speaker 2:You know, I think, having lived through that situation for six days, knowing that my leg was probably Going to have to get amputated, but also the fact that I was If I could have reached my paring knife, I would have done it myself. So I think that there was Part of my brain that knew that I was going to lose a leg. Yeah, yeah yeah, so it's funny that while I was in the ER, one of my friends was my nurse, one of my friends that I go drinking with.
Speaker 1:So water or beer. I.
Speaker 3:Think he's talking about alcohol.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:So before the wreck, so alcohol.
Speaker 3:Our minds are focused on the diesel water still.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't normally go out of my way to drink diesel water. I Do think that that would be a pretty good energy drink, though diesel water bring mineral mineral water to a whole mother level.
Speaker 3:Yeah, highway minerals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fuck. So this girl that I go drinking with at the bar. She was my RN and For a couple nights she just had to wipe my ass and. Much respect to her. Like holy fuck, I could never wipe my friends ass.
Speaker 1:I get a finger of my ass every single day.
Speaker 3:See, I tried getting my no. No, no, no. He doesn't understand me. He gets a fist up his ass every.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I take the stool out. Yeah, but I hate it.
Speaker 2:So you're into pegging.
Speaker 1:I can't feel Like Chris goes hard. She, she makes sure she's she'll. She'll go far up in my ass and be like Max. I can feel it. I'm gonna take it down. Eric, push on his stomach.
Speaker 3:Listen, listen, he could fit this much. Okay now look, we brought up the Mexicans earlier. If anyone's looking for a mule, max is your candidate. You could fit two kilos up there, I promise you. And he's not getting searched at the border. Look at him. It's a liability. If you heard them, they don't ever want to go near Max, you will get your product. We're just gonna have a hefty tax on life to the max, brought to you by Matt and cocaine.
Speaker 2:We do not endorse cocaine.
Speaker 1:Did you were able to feel her wife in your ass?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah yeah, it was so weird. So, of course, below the fracture 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 fucking strongest shit for Knowing it's all there but not being able to feel it.
Speaker 1:It feel anything it.
Speaker 2:At least you don't have to buy ad bill or Tylenol.
Speaker 1:It's true, cicota I.
Speaker 3:Wouldn't feel shit with that either. Talking about feeling and as our first amputee being on the show I have, I'm curious about a phantom pains, do you ever?
Speaker 2:experience this? Yes, how would you?
Speaker 3:describe it to people.
Speaker 2:Like my legs still there, but I feel Everything. It'll be like a jolt of electricity running down my leg through my toes and then into my, into, like the bottom of my foot. So whenever, basically, you ever have like the bottom of your foot cramp, mm-hmm, so it's like that feeling, but my entire leg will cramp.
Speaker 1:You're spinning backs because that's how I feel right now, but every day that's how I feel. That's that like prickly feeling.
Speaker 3:I mean, what do you feel the most?
Speaker 1:my hands, my feet, my throat, mostly my heels in my throat, because I told you I have a fiber Malaysia, so I have fiber. Elijah, do you have a question about? How are you in the hospital?
Speaker 2:from December 26 to January 17th, so 20 One days.
Speaker 1:And you were. You said you recover pretty quickly, right, yeah, yeah, did you all? I tell the doctors like what you were drinking and stuff like how are you able to, you know, survive six days?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. But as soon as I got to the hospital, first thing they did was hook me up to a catheter, which is the strangest fucking feeling ever.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't know. I Mean I have a catheter.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I can't feel it. There's perks to this.
Speaker 2:So with the catheter, you just forget your pain. And so, like, I was laying in the hospital bed with, like, my dad and friends in there and they're like, oh, what's that? I'm like, oh, that's my, my piss jug. Hmm, and I got one too. Yeah, your body gets to the point where you're pissing and you don't even know you are Interesting. It's just flowing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was free flowing.
Speaker 1:How many people visit you?
Speaker 2:I had a bunch of people visit me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how did it feel when you got that support?
Speaker 2:yeah, shout out to them you know, it's not just my friends and family who have been supportive. It's been and I say this with All the love in the world like it's everybody. Like I've had people Like a post I made had 265,000 views within a day Wow, my story was Google 339 million times in 48 hours and the amount of, you know, support from people supporting my go fund me to people who have, you know, joined me on this story. I know your mom mentioned that she's been watching my story and so thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Definitely check out your girlfriend me. I didn't even know you had one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's linked in all my bios.
Speaker 1:Link in the description below on this podcast, for sure.
Speaker 2: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 she did. And you know, people saw my story and they just start donating. And you know, had I gotten like 10, 15,000, I would have been More than happy with that, just to kind of help me move forward. But I mean, I like last time I looked at it it was at a hundred and eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: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 have like international vice presidents and shit and you know some of those have donated and I've never even met them.
Speaker 1: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 to that because when I got my car accident, the amount of support I got, like through Facebook and people reaching out people from high school, like I never talked to people like that, I've never even known, just reaching out and like saying like a kind word those comments got me through like oh yeah, you know, I mean like it really did, like it gives you encouragement, like oh yeah so I'm happy it happened.
Speaker 1:This accident happened during, like this era of social media when we were able to connect and stuff. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: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 to the village doctor. Yeah, and that's it get the saw whiskey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the the amount of love and support you know, within the first Week on Facebook I had 1500 messages and it took me for like I was waking up at four o'clock in the hospital because I didn't want the flambodomist to come in there take my blood, because she would always come in every morning at six o'clock. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:I know and I'm like I want.
Speaker 2:I'm in the hospital and I'm on vacation right now. Fucking let me sleep in.
Speaker 1:Love it. This is so biggest thing in the hospital. They say try to get some sleep right. Yeah it's a sleep and I'm like, okay, I'll try to get some sleep in the freaking two hours later I get woken up by someone like that's taking my blood pressure. Oh, just taking your vital sweetheart. Yeah, it's like bitch, I'm trying to fucking sleep.
Speaker 2:So they would give me tracidone, and tracidone knocks my ass to sleep. But then they would come by at 12 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, do blood work, and Then nine o'clock they would come back around with meds. I'm like I slept better in the car.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I got one more question for you. You talked about your perseverance when you were surviving in the truck and you talked about the perseverance recovering in the hospital. I want to talk about the perseverance you're going through recovering back to reality. Yeah, in our minds. Max, great minds think alike.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So Even now, you know I'm Taking to social media a lot more Because there are a lot of people want who want to keep up with my story and things like that. You know the whole social media thing I'm not the greatest at, so I'm still not.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're doing our best.
Speaker 1:Social media.
Speaker 2:I used to like it coming from the guy who has a podcast.
Speaker 1:Eric and post my social media.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, dude, it's a different kind of animal man, but it is the support again, the support is like the biggest oh yeah component in any situation. You know it's more, it's more important than the numbers.
Speaker 1:I'd like 500 people like most of my, like a Facebook. When I first got injured and I read every single one of those posts and I'm just like wow, like this, like this is crazy, yeah, I mean, and I was paralyzed from the neck down and I had a Seek all around that color, you know, I mean.
Speaker 2:I hate that fucking thing.
Speaker 1: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 my family and my friends and all these random people. They're giving me love and support, just like they gave you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know. Yeah, besides the social media, do you feel anxiety when you're driving, Do you?
Speaker 2:so I still haven't been, I haven't stopped at the wreck site yet. I went and seen my truck couple weeks ago and you know that that was the first time I've seen it in person and that was the first time I actually seen how bad it was from the outside. Of course I spent six days on the inside, but I couldn't see how fucked up it was on the outside. So I think, going by there and actually seeing it in person, it wasn't, you know, a really sorrowful experience. It was more of a very. It was kind of a therapeutic, you know, because you know this chapter isn't over. But it was like that paragraph ended, you know, like there's, there's still more in this chapter to go on and so much more. But you know my wreck is over, I'm healing and you know, life to the max, yeah.
Speaker 1:We kind of got off track when you said that you got home. So like when you got home, you know, I was watching YouTube videos and you have an apartment now or something. Yeah, did you have that apartment when you got home?
Speaker 2:So there was a strange set of events around me being discharged and where I was going to be discharged, to the place that I live in, what wasn't going to be the best for me moving forward in terms of healing and accessibility wise. So that is something that I had to Figure out within four days From so. I was supposed to be discharged on a Thursday and I had to end up pushing it back to a Tuesday because I couldn't get into a new apartment quick enough to have it viable.
Speaker 1:When you got to your new apartment, you finally slept for the first time at night. I was. It was good.
Speaker 2: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 we stayed at a there's a hotel on Notre Dame and we stayed there for a week While we got kind of the apartment furnished and everything. So, you know, it was the first night in Almost a month that you know I could wake up and I didn't have to be somewhere and I didn't have to, you know, have my blood taken or have my vitals checked or you know. Hey, you know, wake up at seven o'clock, we're gonna go to Lowe's and grab stuff for your apartment.
Speaker 1:It was the first day I could actually Relax so give me like it's like, a day in life experience. It's all. When I was watching your YouTube channel you said well, I got interview doctor women. Chicago tribute life to the max pot.
Speaker 2:Go see Lindsay at Hooters.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Lindsay. You know, you know who you are. I'll show you her Instagram later. Well, I think it. So what is it like when you wake up in the morning?
Speaker 2:So, wake up in the morning, I got a ninth floor view of the river and overlooking downtown South Bend. So Sun shines right in my eyes right about Seven, eight o'clock in the morning, which kind of pisses me off, but it's a nice way to wake up.
Speaker 1:It's me off to trust me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so most days, depending on what I'm doing, some days I Wake up. For instance, today woke up a Little bit of breakfast, not a whole lot, just I don't like eating before I drive. Was I naked?
Speaker 1:Like do you like put clothes on before you eat breakfast?
Speaker 2:Generally. Sometimes, yeah Sometimes in the morning, I like airing out my stump. Just make sure that smells good for the day spray it with thought.
Speaker 3:That was the only way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, spray it with Febreze a little bit. But you know most mornings are pretty easy going. Wednesdays I have wound care so they check the incisions and all that. You know, if I've got a news interview, I try to schedule all my news interviews in the afternoon, just so I don't have to wake up early, because nobody likes waking up before noon. A Lot of days I have doctor's appointments so that takes up a lot of my time. So I'll just wake up, eat breakfast, go to them Kind of relax the rest of the day, cook some food. Yeah, pretty, I'm trying to take things slow right now, just while I'm healing up once I get my prosthetic, then I'll be running, just gonna get into that.
Speaker 1:So, like you are your prosthetic, are you pretty excited about this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's gonna be nice to be able to. So one thing that kind of hinders me right now getting around on wheelchair Walker Crutches. You know, one thing that I do feel kind of Is true for me personally is a little bit that vulnerability of Knowing all somebody has to do is, you know, take my Walker, my crutches or something like that, and I can't chase after them. So Well, if somebody takes your wheelchair there might be bigger problems, so they could just literally just take the battle off. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's simple, but I definitely know the feeling we're talking about thanks for let me know your weakness, in case you ever piss me off.
Speaker 3:You, mother.
Speaker 2:Please, please, tell me that you use that for your tender pickup line.
Speaker 1:I did. I did it few times.
Speaker 2:You take my breath away.
Speaker 1:I also say like that, I can literally. You can't suffocate me if you want to sit on my face.
Speaker 2:Because I got Freakin.
Speaker 1:Back and I don't need. I don't need my mind.
Speaker 3: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's finishing the job.
Speaker 1:There are perks.
Speaker 2:So if you were to go scuba diving, would they just plug it into your throat, or I?
Speaker 1:Don't think I can go scuba diving can we get a RNs?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you can't swim.
Speaker 1:No, I could float maybe I don't know.
Speaker 3:We read a book where Chris Farrives was was floating in the water for therapy.
Speaker 1:And they would keep but they would keep the vent like he could not like put his neck under the water because obviously you can probably drown himself yeah. Yeah, the vent like definitely stops, like it definitely like Doesn't allow me to do a lot of things. It makes things a hell of a lot harder. I mean, just just getting in this room was like, if it's, it's a mission sometimes, you know, but I mean mission possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, improvise it out to overcome oh yeah that's what it's like to say, and I mean that's what you did, soon and 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 another Humvee that had a skin door. So basically that metal like went straight into his leg and he was bleeding out and someone put a tourniquet on him and he had to go to like a hospital and then they took his leg. They took the same part where you are there. They took it out and he told me it's been like the biggest blessing in his life. And I'm like what? Like you losing your, your leg?
Speaker 2: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 a lot of people always compare things like oh you know, that's got a cost in arm and a leg or something like that. So you know, it's nice having the appreciation, knowing that my life cost me my leg. And you know, I think if it came down to anybody, I think they'd do the same thing. You know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm too young to die. You know there, there are too many hot girls out there for me to die.
Speaker 1:I you should. You should see our podcast. We just posted Some pretty decent checks. Check them out.
Speaker 2:I will, and, and where can I find this out? Like a low grade.
Speaker 1:Podcasts okay, you can find it out, you know what is that stream on?
Speaker 2:is that just Instagram or all platforms, all platforms?
Speaker 1:YouTube, okay. But so my last question to ask you is so when I first got injured, I Do my whole life was upside down. It was insane. Like I. I like they're like saying, okay, well, we're gonna do a ball program and like stool and all this stuff, and I didn't even know what stool was. Dude, like I was, like I was, I was in the military, I was like trying to become a ranger, you know like Doing everything possible to go special forces and like Just being a soldier, you know yeah you wanted to get all the women, didn't you?
Speaker 1:Some what you know, there's a guy 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 I want to be like this guy. Okay, black Hawk down. So I was like I want to be like this guy, I want to do everything this guy did, you know, I mean, yeah, I was working hard, even on the weekends, when I got off work, which is Garrison. So when we're doing like regular work, it's usually like you know, like you wake up at four in the morning and get off at like five pm, I would still go to the gym, work out and try to, like you know, like improve myself 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 taken away from, me that.
Speaker 1:That that sucks. So I gotta ask you. So you were in the car for six days, so you, you, you didn't know if you were gonna be alive or dead, you know. But when you got to the hospital and they took your leg off and then they amputee, you like, and then you finally got home like I was like, but no, it does, does it still like fresh?
Speaker 2:So I don't think it's as much fresh wounds as most people would think. You know, I've been asked by so many people so many times what happened, how'd it happen. You know what were your thoughts through that, and for me, I think that the most therapeutic thing that I've done through this whole ordeal is is tell my story. And you know, telling your story is not only therapeutic but it can also help other people and, and generally when you're helping other people, that in and of itself, seeing that reward, seeing that person have a better life because of something you said or something you did it's that in and of itself is such a great blessing, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3:It is. That's exactly what life to the max is all about, Max it really is.
Speaker 1:So I have a question Do you have any questions for me? Because Eric told me you only told you a little bit about this, right?
Speaker 2:Um so Eric said that uh, you know it's, you were in a construction accident or something like that.
Speaker 1:No, so, uh, so I. So I was in my prime bro in the military. Uh, it was um March 21st was my birthday and my accident was March 24th.
Speaker 1:And uh, I was driving up to see my family right and see my girlfriend at the time, uh, and I remember vividly being outside of the gate of our, our like base, we were filling up on gas and Nicholson, the driver, was like hey, um, do you want to drive first for me? And I was like fuck. Uh, I was like you know what I'll? Uh, you could drive first, you know what I mean. And then I like stopped for a split second. I was like you know what? Actually, I'll drive first because I wanted to wake up to my hometown.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right and uh, drove halfway, got to Tarot, indiana, and uh, I put my seat down and he started driving. I was like, wake me up when we get to Chicago and sell my girl I love here. And woke up in a hospital three days later, paralyzed from a neck down, breathing through a machine, like not being able to 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 tablespoons of water, which is kind of a tease, but whatever, yeah, and a lot of nurses don't want to sit there and I give you tablespoons of water, right.
Speaker 1:I mean, unless they're good people, then usually night nurses like just want to like get their rounds.
Speaker 2:So you know, and uh and go play on their phones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just do what they got to do. You know what I mean, like, but uh, yeah, do my whole life flipped upside down. I uh went through a spout of shots. Spout of shot. Uh, I went through. Um, I like remember vividly like the accident, because I was sleeping and I woke up to the accident and uh, I was in a coma. And then I was in the hospital for a year and uh, I was at rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. I uh was, I was doing therapy and 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 walk again. I just this, this is a lot of temporary, you know the fence, just temporary. Like I'm like they that they're like trying to like explain how serious this is, but my military attitude, I'm like, no, I'm going to walk again. You're crazy, yeah, like you know what?
Speaker 1:I mean, and they're like that's, you know, that's how it works, you know. And then, after um a few months, my girlfriend left me, Unfortunately, that that that was like a dagger in the heart, you know, because she was like my rock and uh. But it also helped me Because I was like you know what? I'm just going to focus on therapy, right. Then I uh, then I uh, I actually uh, started talking to other women. I was surprised that, like other women would like me and I got a I actually started dating a girlfriend.
Speaker 1:She had a boyfriend. I got her and I was dumb enough to to not to like talk to other women when I was dating her. So that was stupid. So yeah, uh. Then I got home, uh, and I was just partying, partying, I was going to the clubs. I was going to the strip clubs. I was freaking out for people over, I was smoking. I didn't, I didn't give a fuck.
Speaker 1:I did not want fuck, like you know. And then, uh, years go by, you know, and uh, a year goes by and I realized all these people are coming over just fucking using me. So I closed safe, right, like everybody leaves. So I'd shoot people. You know that I'm miserable, I'm alone, I'm sad, I'm depressed, you know, I'm overweight. So I'd start, uh, doing therapy, finding a purpose, you know, then that's for, like you know, four years later I meet this guy and we start this podcast and that's uh, that's, that's all.
Speaker 1:The accident happened. I mean that that's like a quick summer, a quick, like summary of what happened. I have an episode coming out called split second, uh, and it's basically the first episode that we have on our podcast, but it's going to be on camera because, like, uh, like everyone wants to listen to my story but they have to listen to it when we had no experience whatsoever with podcasting. It's just, it's like, uh, very raw, you know, it's not, it's 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's going to be released soon, that's going to like show, like what I actually went through because, like I mean, like.
Speaker 1:I took all the nerves I had to blow a straw. You know what I mean. Like. And then, uh, not like. And then like, after eight years now, knowing like, like, uh, I can't move my arms. It's just so weird. And then I feel that nerve pain you'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 to give up on life. This you know. I like. You know you don't hate your situation to everyone out there. If you're in a situation, you not hate your situation you embrace it.
Speaker 1:That's what you do, and that's what you do, man. You know what I mean All you can do sometimes so you can, you know, and we're both ready books, we're both living life to max. You're getting all these interviews. Man, I wish the fucking best for you. I really do Like I'm happy Eric reached out to you.
Speaker 2:Do you want to play yourself in the movie, the movie that they make about me?
Speaker 3:Hell yeah, I'll say hell yeah.
Speaker 1: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:I mean, all you got to do is just sit there, exactly.
Speaker 1:Do you want to Look at this?
Speaker 3:Perfect hey you got it. Do you want to see? Do you want?
Speaker 1:to see.
Speaker 3:No, I'm just messing with you. You're shaking your chain off. Man, Calm down. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:No, but, dude, it's honestly been a pleasure, you know it literally is, and you're welcome anytime. Do you want to shout out to anybody Like? Do you want to play? Shout out to the fire department.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the Portage Fire Department, house two and three. Thank you guys for being the first responders there and for keeping me alive, and then all the staff at Beacon Medical Center. Thank you for keeping me alive. Thank you for helping me get back on my foot and you know I'm a live this life to the max.
Speaker 1:It's good to have the. It's good to inspire people and people, because the whole reason why we started this podcast is to show people the perspective of life. That like it's different. You walked in. The first thing you said to me it was like shit, I got nothing to complain about. You know, what I mean and I'm like oh, I didn't like that. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like you know, we all have our bad days, but like, if I'm able to give you strength or inspiration, then I'm proud to do that and I feel happy that I'm able to do that. And for everybody out there, I'm happy. I mean, we'll do that, but you give me inspiration. I freaking, improvising, adapting and overcoming your situation Six days in a car, six days, and figuring out ways to drink water, figuring out ways to survive, and then, finally, when you give up, someone finds you. That's how it is. That's how it is.
Speaker 3:It's all you had to do. You should have gave up on the first day and they would have found you. All you had to do is give up.
Speaker 1:All right, everybody. This has been Life to the Max. You can follow us on Life to the Max podcast Instagram. Follow us, make sure you like, comment and subscribe on YouTube. We're streaming all past forums Apple and Spotify and please comment because this was a good one, thank you.