Survivor’s tale is uplifting a year after accident

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By Marlene J. Bohr
mbohr@steelcountrybee.com
 
Often when tragedy occurs, a person cries out to God, ‘why me?’ A local man’s attitude is ‘why not me?’
Aug. 21 of last year, three members of the Justiss family, CY, Ronnie and Janet, were in a vehicle stopped to make a left turn when it was rear ended, sending the family to three different hospitals.  CY suffered broken ribs and was taken to Longview Regional Medical Center, Mrs. Justiss suffered a broken arm and was taken to East Texas Medical Center in Pittsburg, while Ronnie, the most seriously injured, was taken to Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview.
The family trip to the peach farm led to months and months of hospitals and rehabilitation for Ronnie Justiss. As soon as Mrs. Justiss was released from the hospital, she went to join her husband who was in intensive care at Good Shepherd.
“The trauma surgeon said based on what the CAT scan showed, there was a hangman’s fracture of the C2 bone of the neck, and he was paralyzed from the neck down,” Mrs. Justiss said. “They told us it would be permanent. The doctor did not want to do an MRI as he said with the amount of displacement of the bone, there was no way the spinal cord could be intact. His blood pressure was initially very low and unstable, so it was not until  three days later that the blood pressure stabilized. They called us and said they were doing the MRI. They discovered the spinal cord was intact; it was stretched and bruised but was not severed.”
Mrs. Justiss said the first miracle was that Ronnie did not die at the scene or on the way to the hospital.
“The second miracle was that rather than losing all function, I have been able to regain a lot of that function,” Mr. Justiss said. “Despite all medical predictions to the contrary, the spinal cord was not severed. If only bruised, the chances of walking again are possible, but the chances are pretty low.”
Mrs. Justiss said the doctor said she had a patient with a C 5 injury but with the C 2 being higher, none of the doctors expected him to have much of a recovery.
 

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