Positivity: The long way home
The key paragraph:
But, “Am I going to walk? Oh yeah, for sure,” said Tim, who is 50. “I mean, I’m only one guy. Everyone did all this for one guy. I want to walk again to show everyone.”
From Arlington Heights, Illinois:
Posted Sunday, July 15, 2007
Officer who was hit by drunken driver begins to healTim Sheehan awoke from a nine-week coma a White Sox fan.
He didn’t know his wife or three children. He didn’t know why he was in the hospital or why he was in so much pain.
His family wrote, “A big White Sox fan” on the patient form next to his bed.
Nurses, trying to help him connect with his life before the coma, chatted about the 2005 World championship.
Still hooked up to monitors and tubes and unable to speak, Tim shook his head. “No way,” he thought. “I love the Sox, but my team hasn’t won a championship for 80 years.”
It was April 2006.
On Feb. 15, 2006, Sheehan, an Arlington Heights police officer, was starting his 10:30 p.m. shift at Northwest Highway and Euclid Avenue, when a drunken driver hit Sheehan’s squad car dead on.
The impact crushed the right side of Sheehan’s body, breaking most of his bones from his pelvis down. It damaged his brain, affecting his speech, memory and vision.
Sheehan’s had 10 surgeries, with more coming. Fifty-three pieces of metal have been put in his body to repair the broken bones.
Gone is any memory of the accident and the weeks before it. He has no memory of being extracted from the crushed metal and rushed away.
A few blocks away, the phone rang at the quiet Sheehan home.
Tim’s wife, Maryann, answered.
Maryann remembers everything.
Around 10:15 p.m. Tim left for his shift. A few minutes later, he flew in the back door and grabbed his flashlight off the kitchen counter.
Their daughter, Katie, 17, slept upstairs. Sons Mark and Mike were at college.
Tim smiled at his wife, busy at their computer, and ran back out.
Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. Maryann saw “Village of Arlington Heights” on the caller ID and thought, “What did Tim forget now?” Outside, sirens wailed.
Maryann picked up the phone, still sporting a tan from their Bahamas vacation - their first trip without the kids. Red and white tulips Tim gave her for Valentine’s Day sat on the kitchen table.
“Maryann, Tim’s been in an accident,” an officer said.
Go here for the rest of the story.
