What is the worst injury you have ever suffered and how would you survive it if you had no help?
On May 26th 2002 my ex wife called me from a payphone in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to tell me that she was running away with our kids and that she was never coming back and that if I even tried to find the kids she would slit their throats.
I called the North Carolina Highway patrol, the South Carolina Highway patrol, the Horry County Sheriff department, and three county sheriff departments in NC (telling the exact counties would give away my location). All refused to help, because even though our kids had lived with me for the past year at the time, and had not even seen their mother prior to that weekend for over 9 months, she still had joint custody.
The next day, May 27th, 2002, she had decided to come back to her house in order to load both her and her then boyfriends cars up with furniture before heading off to Interlachen, Florida where she intended to live under an assumed name.
I found out about it and went down there and confronted her.
I tried to get my children out of the house but she and her boyfriend attacked me and pushed me through a plate glass window.
I suffered an 11 inch gash to my right wrist.
The cut was to the bone.
Eight tendons were severed.
The radial and ulnar veins were completely severed.
The radial artery was sliced in half and although the blood did not squirt out like in the movies, it came out quite forcefully. I remember looking at it and thinking I was going to bleed to death.
I managed to get to my vehicle. I drove about 20 miles towards a hospital but passed out on the side of the road due to loss of blood.
I woke up in the ER.
That afternoon I was charged with 6 counts of attempted murder, 6 counts of assault, felony breaking and entering, 4 counts of assault on a child under 12, 4 counts of assault on a female, 6 counts of assault by pointing a gun, damage to real property, and literally a dozen other charges. I professed my innocence and told the police what she had said but they refused to listen.
Ill never forget how I felt that day, knowing that they just didn't care, and preferred to place my children with a woman who just 12 hours earlier had said she would slit their throats. I know they knew the truth. I have since seen their official police reports, and every detective who interviewed my ex wife that day wrote that they thought she was lying.
The next day I was stripped of my parental rights and my ex wife was given temporary custody of my children.
Four days after that I underwent 6 hours of surgery at Carolina's Medical Center to reattach my right hand. I would spend the next three months taking 6 oxycontin tablets every day, and going to physical therapy once a week to relearn how to use my hand.
Three months later the court reversed itself and awarded sole legal and sole physical custody of both of my children back to me.
I might add, that I was still facing attempted murder charges against my own children when I was awarded custody.
Four days later the charges were dropped except for a misdemeanor.
I might add that I have tried to press charges against my ex wife four times and each time the local district attorney declines to prosecute. He says it is because it is a political matter. Apparently the sheriff of the county that she lived in at the time used my arrest to further himself in a close race for sheriff at the time and to bring this up would highlight how truly dirty he is.
In conclusion, from a purely physical standpoint, I was literally about 20 minutes from bleeding to death when I was found on the side of the road by a pair of Game and Wildlife Officers. Without them, I would surely have died.
With a tourniquet I might have been able to last a little longer, but not enough to have made it to the hospital on my own. If someone with medical training had been there, perhaps I would have lasted long enough to make it to the hospital but only if they really knew what they were doing.
From a psychological standpoint however, I still deal with the events of that day. There is not a day that goes by that I don't look down at the zigzag scar on my arm and relive the events of that day.
That day was the most traumatic day of my life. Everything I have done since that day has been shaped by the events of that day.
Towards law enforcement I feel a simmering hatred. It wasn't that they didn't know who was telling the truth. They knew she was lying and they still saw fit to place my children with a drugged out psycho biatch, and when it was over they had the nerve to tell me not to blame them because they were just doing their jobs.
Towards women I can honestly say I have some issues still. I actively avoid women. I don't allow them inside my house.
Once a year or so, when the urge is too great, I will go to a local bar and find some strange but that's about it. Actually its been almost 5 years now since I did even that.
I could go on and say more, but it might offend some of the women here. In truth, there are a few decent women here whom I respect (as long as they stay on the other side of this computer screen) and I wouldn't want to offend them and sincerely hope they would understand why I feel this way.
The physical scars from that day are huge, but they are nothing compared to the emotional scars I carry. I gave up trying to pick up where I left off a long time ago and now I just try to give my kids the best life I can give them.
