Video Transcript:
D’Arcy’s Injury Story:
I’m originally an American Indian born in Canada in 2010 I moved to the states to chase the American dream and I eventually made my way to Texas and I got a job driving, moving heavy equipment. I just always felt like it was a mental challenge. I was always stimulating myself every day at work. I eventually moved to the oil field. My ex-wife had moved there and I wanted to be closer to my kids so I was working in the oil field, same thing hauling heavy equipment and that’s when the accident happened.
It was my son’s birthday so I actually had my kids over at my house and so I took them home and I didn’t start work till about 9:00 that day and I pulled into the site and they were dismantling it, which is called rigging down and so I pulled into a spot where I could be seen by them and so that they could come over and let me know when we’re ready and one second I heard the backup alarm and I heard my partner who was standing on the other side of my trailer looking at me. I heard him yelling but those two things happened simultaneously and before I could look back the forklift driver backed into me and he pinned me between the forklift and my trailer and I swear to God like he didn’t stop once he pinned me like I literally felt like he was going to tear me in half like chop me in half and then he finally heard all the yelling and screaming and moved forward and then so I felt the moment of relief and I just allowed myself to fall to the ground. I just kept yelling ambulance, ambulance, ambulance, then they finally agreed to run off and call the ambulance and then I called my girlfriend to let her know what happened and that I was alive and let my son know that I was going to be missing his birthday party and the ambulance took like 45 minutes to get there and then they decided they weren’t going to transport me by ambulance they were going to take me by air ambulance and then they decided that they couldn’t take me by air until they called the fire department in and then they watered the whole area down and then it ended up being probably 2 or 3 hours before I was actually taken to the hospital.
They sent me for an X-ray I think first and then they eventually did the ultrasound and they said everything came back negative. I think they gave me a couple of pain pills. I had called my company and asked them to try and find me a set of crutches and I think the hospital ended up giving me a set and then they just basically set me on my way just like that. I had like there was a big huge hematoma but then there was a couple of like scarring tissues where the skin had broke and they was trying to heal but there was some pus so I hired a surgeon and my surgeon recommended to put a drain in it, let a drain for like 4 to 7 days, and then seal it back up but then my company got the air ambulance bill and it was sky high so they’re like oh no let’s start putting this through worker’s compensation and so then I had to start the process over of seeing a worker’s compensation doctor see their their surgeon and their surgeon didn’t want to risk surgery and they just said you know give it 6 months it’ll slowly dissipate on its own. It was about 2 weeks later and I noticed it was discolored again like the scar had previously almost healed but it turned back into a scar and it was really dark so I sent the pictures to my girlfriend who’s a nurse and she said yeah send those pictures to your surgeon’s nurse practitioner so I did that and she said you know, to go to the ER right away. I guess one of the last things I remembered is they said they were going to call in a surgeon to come and clean the wound and the next thing I woke up a week or 10 days later or a week later, I was on a ventilator, I was just confused, I didn’t know what was going on and I just waited for people to explain to me what was going on but I just remember I couldn’t talk and I I don’t think I knew at that point that I had lost my leg and my life would have been a lot easier if I would have been just amputated at the femur but hip disarticulation amputation is like very rare less than 1% of all amputees and it’s just a lot more work. I was in the hospital for a month and then they transferred me to a rehab hospital for another month. It was frustrating as well because when I was in the rehab hospital, my kids weren’t allowed in the room and so like we’re supposed to go down and visit in the cafeteria so it just I don’t know it made the visits kind of just formal and like there’s not really anything to do. It’s just, you get tired of being in there. I just want to spend time with my kids. I spent a couple of days at their house just recuperating. They lived in a two-story house and they were on the second floor of their room so I was basically trapped in their bedroom. I was dependent on my kids to bring me up my meals and, I mean, they have their own lives they got school and stuff like that so it was just a lot of work to depend on them and it was putting too much stress on them so that’s why I decided to fly back to Canada where I had all the tools that I needed to help me succeed and learn to adapt to my new life.
You know the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child”, well, it took a village to help build me back up. Seeing people back home I think it really helped kind of speed up the process and build my strength and give me that support that I needed to keep moving forward. My ex-wife reached out to some of my family and one of my uncles recommended Kherkher Garcia. I understood from the beginning that this isn’t just a small case like that, you know, these are two very large companies that we were going after and with Kherkher Garcia, I felt like I had someone that had my back, like I felt there was someone to advocate for me. I needed a tiger and Kherkher Garcia was that tiger for me. I think one of the best things I like about Kherkher Garcia is that they weren’t afraid to go out and find expert witnesses. They hired expert surgeons to go through like all my medical records and they were the best of the best and they knew what was the best thing for me and they do all those extra little things because it’s what separates you from getting a good settlement to getting an amazing settlement like I may never be able to walk normal again and my life with my kids will always be different and it’ll be harder and I have to adapt to it but I feel like the settlement that I got because of Kherkher Garcia is going to allow me to live the American dream like I’m going to be able to build a future for not just my children, but my grandchildren as well. I feel like Kherkher Garcia, you know, they do all those extra little things to give you the things that you need to build a better case and be more successful. They care about their clients and you know they’re always there for you.
