The date was 28th October, Monday. Seemingly quite an ordinary day, except from the fact that my wife wasnt at home. I and the children were expecting her to come back home from a work trip in USA. In the early evening the flight landed on the Airport in Sofia, Bulgaria. Just a few more hours and she is gonna be home again… The kids are waiting with anticipation, just like their father. When everyone from the family is home the happiness is great.
My wife told me that the baggage jas collected and they are departing from the airport. “I am happy that I will hug the kids soon!” she wrote me. I was happy too.
We both use iPhones and we share each others location. Thats quite convenient to theack someone when traveling and be aware of their location. On one of my location checks I saw that her location was staying the same. No gas station or parking around. I started to be a bit concerned.
I started to call her on the phone, but didn’t receive an answer, just the phone ringing endlessly. I wasnt sure what was happening there, so I decided to check the Waze app. It shows road situation in real time, per teports of other people around. And when I found the location where she was stopped I saw the thing that I hoped sincerely not to see. The car crash icon…
My heart stopped… I know that on the highways the car crashes may be severe, because of the fast speeds. I hoped that she was not injured, maybe just scared or maybe trying to help people infolved. I phoned her parents, because the man, whi was traveling with her and driving the car was a friend of her father. A minute later I received a call back.
There was a crash, Eli is still in the car…
The next few hours were just the biggest nightmare for me. The scare that I can loose my soulmate was immerse. I just hoped and prayed for her, to be alive and to be around me and the three kids pretty soon.
Arriving in the hospital, we understood that the doctors are fighting for her life and she had lost a lot of blood. The doctors said that her right foot was severely injured, but this was gonna be a problem to be solved later.
“Parts of her bones are on the highway now!”
But now they were focussing on her life. An hour or so later, they said that they stopped the bleeding and for now the sotuation was under control. This didn’t mean that her life was out of danger…
A week or so later, she was a lot more stable, but the doctors didn’t know what to do with her foot. Being a smaller hospital, they didn’t have the experience to work adequately. The foot had an open fracture with a lot of bone fragments inside and some out of the body. The foot was almost amputated around the knee in the crash. Time to bring here somewhere where the doctors know what to do.
The date is 5th November. We managed to bring Eli in one of the biggest hospitals and fefibitely the one where the heaviest injuries in craches or accidents get treated. The professor told us that this is one of the most severe and unusual leg injuries that he has ever seen. The healing prosess was gonna be long and bumpy… he told us that the full recovery was gonna take about two years.
The infected wound itself would require about a month to be cleaned and healed. A skin transplantation was gonna be needed…
The date is 10th December. The skin transplantation took place. Meanwhile Eli seems do be a lot better after a small hematoma that occured in her head afrer the crash. She was no longer heavily confised in her thoughts. The healing process seemed to be occuring adequately. The fear of losing her was replaced with fears about her leg. Is she gonna be able to walk again on her own, normally? Does she gonna enjoy again her normal life one day?
23th December. A couple days before christmas. The hopes of her being home for Christmas were vanished after the sixth intervention. She received metals (plaques and screws) in her foot at the cost of about $4000. It was gonna be a lonely Christmas in our home, but at least she was one operation closer to potential recovery and coming back home.
With the days counting, whe was looking stronger and ready to walk and soon the first steps out of the bed, after almost two months were made.
Meanwhile the kids were waiting for mommy. I told to myself, that the Christmas should not be our celebration this year. Our biggest celebration would be when mommy comes home.
And on the 30th December the most anticipated moment came. She was back at home after more than two months and a half.
Our house never seemed that full and releived, at least lately since the mid-October. The kids were happy, I was a lot more calm. Yes, it was gonna be so much harder now, but at least we were together again. Sadly, one week later, when we came back to the hospital for a control examination, the professor saw that there was a building infecrion on one of the stitches. And now, she is back in the hospital again, dealing with an infection.
My only thoughts and hopes now are adressed towards a fast recovery from that nasty thing and seeing my soulmate home again, happy with the kids. The overall bill by now surpasses $10 000, and maybe gets close to $15 000, but after all when it is about human helath, money doesn’t matter at all. I would gladly give my last penny in order to see my wife healthy and walking again.
The road is gonna be long and bumpy… 😔
