when the noise of the crash finally stopped, there was a new noise in the van. it was a sound i had never heard before. my big brother in agony. michael instantly and correctly self-diagnosed a broken femur. his thigh bone was broken. it s the biggest bone in the body. it takes tremendous force to break it. it s one of the most painful bone fractures you can get. i thought i was okay. i couldn t see my legs below the knee. they were trapped under the driver s seat. michael asked if i could move my toes. i said i could. and then and only then he told me that meant i wasn t paralyzed. when someone leaned into the taxi and asked how many injured, i said just one. i was wrong. luckily both of the drivers were uninjured. the drunk driver who hit us was saved by an air bag. our taxi driver, a wonderful man, had his livelihood ruined that night but his seat belt allowed him to go home to his wife that night and visit us in the hospital the next day. the little island we were on as
lucky to be alive. i felt so lucky to be alive that if you told me then that i just lost a leg, i would have said, that s okay. i m lucky to be alive. when the noise of the crash finally stopped, there was a new noise in the van. it was a sound i had never heard before. my big brother in agony. michael instantly and correctly self-diagnosed a broken femur. his thigh bone was broken. it s the biggest bone in the body. it takes tremendous force to break it. it s one of the most painful bone fractures you can get. i thought i was okay. i couldn t see my legs below the knee. they were trapped under the driver s seat. michael asked if i could move my toes. i said i could. and then and only then he told me that meant i wasn t paralyzed. when someone leaned into the taxi and asked how many injured, i said just one. i was wrong. luckily both of the drivers were uninjured. the drunk driver who hit us was saved by an air bag. our taxi driver, a wonderful man, had his livelihood ruined