Another wreck might lead to more miracles

Dr. Pamela Cobler
Published: June 25, 2008

I was driving home from the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center on March 4. I had already seen the weather forecast and I had heard the weather in Martinsville (where I live) was supposed to get pretty bad around 4 p.m. It was almost 8 p.m. as I was nearing home and the weather was, indeed, bad.

I was traveling south on Route 220 when I noticed some lights on what looked like a couple of cars and a tractor trailer. It was raining very, very hard, so my vision was limited, but I was only driving approximately 20 mph, so I did not think anything dangerous was going to happen.

As I approached the lights, I saw the vehicles in front of me were also going very slow, so I moved from the right lane to the left lane to pass the other vehicles. I was later asked, “Why didn’t you stop?” I did not stop for a number of reasons, but the main reason was that it was raining very hard, I was driving with hand controls very slowly, and there was nowhere for me to stop. I was traveling alone and it was not a good time for me to stop on the road.

As I was passing the other vehicles, I noticed that the tractor-trailer had totally stopped in the road. I saw the vehicles behind the tractor-trailer hit the truck and then hit each other, and before I could get past the wreck, the 18-wheeler turned sideways and landed on my van.

There’s too much to try to explain in terms of details about everything that happened that night with emergency rescue, but maybe you can imagine some of what I experienced. The left side of the truck crashed into the right side of my van and smashed just about everything except the driver’s side.

After my van was hit, I realized I had not been hit and I was emotionally fine until the tractor-trailer started sliding towards an embankment with my van attached to it. At this point, people were yelling to me, “Get out of the van. Get out of the van.” Oh. OK. Right. Not being able to walk, I obviously could not just “get out of the van,” but the people yelling at me did not know that. I did scream and tell the truck and truck driver to stop moving.

After three slides, the truck finally stopped moving. The truck driver got out, ran to my van, asked me if I was OK and then told me that the truck had been off the road, got stuck in mud, and he could not control the truck sliding in the mud. He seemed mortified that this had happened and he offered his apologies. Then I flicked two pieces of glass off my legs and called my sister on her cell phone to tell her what happened and to tell her I needed her to come and get me. This is the same sister that received the telephone call when I was injured in 2001. I assured her that this wreck was different, and that I had not sustained any additional injuries that I knew about at that time.

I was finally taken to the local emergency room for x-rays. The ER doctor looked at my x-rays, brought them to me, and then asked me lots of questions about my extensive injuries from 2001. The miraculous and great news was that my back looked great — bones, titanium rod, and posture were unaffected by the crash. I thought it sort of comical (ironic, not silly) that everyone was asking me if I was in any pain. Pain? Oh yes, constantly, but I had no idea whether this would cause anymore long-term pain for me. Pain? Bruises? Cuts? Who knew? With my condition, I do not feel those things. We would have to wait and see.

I am pleased and excited to report that I have been given a miraculous health report from that incident. I was also told that according to the x-rays, “The wound in your back has healed.” I did not elaborate on questioning this, but I can tell you that I continue to recover every day — feeling continues to develop below my level of injury, I have regained bowel and bladder sensation, and I can still have some toe movement. I know I will walk again on this earth.

Dr. Pamela Cobler, 43, was Ms. Wheelchair Virginia 2004 and is now president of the organization. She currently works for the Piedmont Tech Prep Consortium at Patrick Henery Community College and continues to do print and video modeling.