A California nursing student had a “horrific” escape after a pole flew from her car and impaled her in the stomach during a highway crash, according to a report.
Janina Akporavbare was speeding on the 10 Freeway in San Bernardino on August 25 when a metal pole hurtled toward her while her younger brother sat in the back seat, WDBJ7 reported.
“I remember suddenly seeing this huge pole coming towards my car, and I couldn’t swerve… because it was during rush hour,” Akporavbare told the outlet.
The nursing student was able to swerve off the road and call 911 as the pole was dragging from the front of her car.
“The pole was really long, so… some cars [were] running over a pole on my stomach,” he said.
Firefighters and others who first rushed to the scene, cut a part of the pole while leaving a part of it with a hole in the stomach, according to the horrific pictures provided by the place.
“I remember thinking, ‘I’m going to die now. That’s me,'” Akporavbare said.
The nursing student reached the hospital in just 10 minutes, “against the odds,” the Loma Linda Firefighters Association told the outlet.
Doctors gave him only a 1% chance of surviving the horrific accident, the association added.
Akporavbare endured a difficult recovery, undergoing nearly three surgeries and spending nearly two months at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
“They took out part of my colon, my liver, my kidney. They were all injured,” said Akporavbare.
His medical bills reached $1 million after the tragedy. The accident also forced her to miss a semester of nursing school and time to go to work.
“I feel scared. I don’t drive that fast. I don’t drive on that highway,” Akporavbare said of the fear he now has behind the wheel.
Crash investigators don’t know where the pole that changed Akporavbare’s life came from.
Akporavbare and his lawyer are now trying to find out how the pole went airborne on the highway, urging witnesses to the accident to come forward.
“So, I would really like to find the people who did this and find peace about it,” Akporavbare said.
Akporavbare said she is grateful to be alive despite the odds, and thanks the first responders who saved her life while working to become a lifesaving nurse.
“It makes me want to be a nurse even more because I want to help people like the Loma Linda nurses who helped me,” she said.
