Let me begin by telling you my story and reason for my campaign. When you are a kid you dont realize your actions have consequences. When I was 17 years old, I was popular, I didnt think anything bad would happen to me. I wasnt a bad kid, just mischievous, I made a very bad decision. I was in Panama City Beach Florida for spring break 1992, just being a normal kid and enjoying a break from school. All of my friends tried to keep me from leaving, it was 4:00 am but I didnt listen. I just wanted to go for a ride.
I fell asleep and crossed the line and hit the other car head on..
I had a Pontiac Fiero, it was the type of car that the engine was in the back and the front was all fiberglass. I had nothing to protect me. My car crunched like a “tin can”. The other car saw me coming and thought I was going to turn. there were no skid marks. It was a 90 mph impact. When the paramedics got to me I had no pulse. They pronounced me dead.
They left me and started working on the other car that had 2 girls and 2 boys, about my age. The driver was a girl and the impact of the crash broke both of her ankles. The 2 guys were in the back seat with minor injuries, they went home the next day. The second girl was in the hatch back and it was open. She was thrown from the back and landed on her face. Every bone in her face was broken. Everyone made a recovery but life as we knew it was never the same.
I couldn’t hear the paramedics anymore so I did my best to make noise. Someone heard me and said, that I was still alive. I could hear the jaws of life cutting metal. At one point I saw a bright white light, I thought I was at the “end”, that I was dead. It turned out the white light was from the nurse checking my pupils. I coded 3 times, I had 4 tears in my heart. My esophagus and throat had holes and tears and all that had to be repaired with surgery. I bit my tongue in half. ( because of that I could not talk and I didn’t have a voice, also I couldn’t move.) I have a TBI. My brain started to swell and they had to put a screw in there to help reduce the swelling. Then my fever spiked to 106 degrees, I had become septic, they put me in a medical induced coma for 5 weeks. The doctor told my parents “that if I ever woke up that I would be a vegetable”.
As the doctors reduced the medicine that kept me in a coma I started to wake up and I began to ask questions about what happened. They couldn’t believe that I woke up and that I was asking questions. Soon I was transported by plane from Florida to Spain Rehab in Birmingham. It was there that I decided I wasn’t going to let this TBI get the best of me. I did physical therapy, I had to learn how to do EVERYTHING again.
Basically I was a new born baby. I was doing great in PT at Spain. I loved the walking part especially. I only get so many physical therapy visits with my insurance per year, I would get to the point of almost walking on my own and my visits would run out. You see with my TBI I am not paralyzed, I can use my legs, but I bruised my cerebellum. The cerebellum controls all my coordination. One day I was in my room and ready to give up. I was crying, I couldn’t move, and thinking to myself what in the world am I suppose to do. My tears were burning my eyes and I couldn’t wipe them away. I decided then my wreck happened and I just needed to do what I needed to do and that was to start moving forward. I made that decision in my mind, and things slowly started to change. As you can see I don’t give up easy. After I was discharged from here I volunteered, I would talk to the patients and their parents that were in my situation because I knew what they were going through.
While doing pool therapy at a different facility, my therapist left me in the pool by myself and I drowned. When they found me I had been face down in the water for 4 minutes. They had to use the paddles to shock me back to life. I thought I was a goner then too. I could hear the doctors saying that my body was “evacuating”, meaning my organs were shutting down. I had too much water in my lungs. I remember being in the water and thinking, “this is how I am going to die”…. Next thing I knew I was in the ambulance coughing up water and just kept coughing. I am not one to be scared but I was afraid I was not going make it through this. After all this was my 2nd near death experience. This also was my 2nd TBI and now I have chronic migraines.
The reason we are fundraising is because I need a new vehicle that is wheelchair accessible. The van that I currently have is wheelchair accessible but the repairs to it will cost more than it is worth.Due to being in a chair I have to have a wheelchair accessible van. A used wheelchair accessible van cost a LOT of money. With the “cost of living”, doctors appointments, medical expenses, with me only being able to work limited hours and being disabled we can’t afford a car payment. We are asking for your help. We are forced to fundraise. Please consider making a donation. Thank you and God bless you.
Family and friends of Noah Williams are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with Catastrophic Injury.
I chose to fundraise for Help Hope Live in part because Help Hope Live assures fiscal accountability of funds raised and tax deductibility to the full extent allowed by law for contributors. Contributors can be sure donations will be used to pay or reimburse medical and related expenses. To make a tax-deductible donation to this fundraising campaign, click on the Give button. And please share this page with others so they can consider a donation as well.
For more information, please contact Help Hope Live at 800.642.8399.
Thank you for your support!
