Gilbert not letting loss of hand deter his dreams

Image
  • Snyder High School senior John Gilbert (right) lost his hand in a March 7 motor vehicle accident. Also shown is his mother, Becky.
    Snyder High School senior John Gilbert (right) lost his hand in a March 7 motor vehicle accident. Also shown is his mother, Becky.
Body

 

 

A motor vehicle accident earlier this year cost John Gilbert a hand, but he is determined not to let that setback keep him from realizing his dreams.

The 18-year-old Snyder High School senior has dreamed nearly all of his life of being an auto mechanic. 

Working on cars, he said, is something that has appealed to him since he was about five years old, and the dream became reality when he began working at s The Auto Clinic.

But Gilbert’s dreams — and his life, for that matter — were put on hold in early March. He was riding with a friend on a two-passenger all-terrain vehicle March 7 when the vehicle tipped, trapping Gilbert’s right hand underneath.

“We were coming around a corner,” Gilbert recalled. “We were kind of in this cloud of dust, and we thought we were closer to a pipe fence than we actually were, so we cut the corner a little too sharp.”

As the vehicle began tipping over, Gilbert reached out with his right hand to brace himself, and it became pinned under the ATV when it overturned.

Gilbert said he knew immediately that he had been seriously injured.

“To me, it looked bad enough. I knew I was going to lose my thumb, regardless,” he said. “I remember being in a lot of pain, but I never passed out.”

As Gilbert lay pinned under the ATV, his friend yelled to a close-by neighbor to call for help. Also at the time, another friend pulled up to the property, as did Gilbert’s mother, Becky, who rushed to her son’s side.

“I just wanted to make sure he was OK,” Becky said. “I knew he had a bad hand injury, but I wanted sure he hadn’t suffered a head injury, also.”

Scurry County EMS technicians arrived at the scene within minutes. After some quick treatment on the scene, John was transported to Cogdell Memorial Hospital’s helipad, where he was flown directly to University Medical Center in Lubbock.

As it turns out, he didn’t stay long at Lubbock, either — just long enough for hospital staffers to take some X-rays and “make sure nothing else was hurt,” John said, before he was put on a plane to Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

After further tests, the doctors at Parkland gave John a choice — they could try to save what they could of his hand, or they could amputate it and later replace it with a prosthetic.

“They said they could do multiple surgeries and maybe save two fingers,” Becky said.

For John, the choice was actually no choice at all.

“I work in the automotive industry, so having a useless hand is a bad thing,” he said. “I thought about it while they were talking to me about my options, and I made the decision (to amputate) right then.”

Doctors amputated John’s hand on March 8, the first of three surgeries the teenager would have to undergo over the course of 10 days. Home for now, he will return to Dallas Tuesday to meet with the staff of Arm Dynamics, who will eventually fit him with a prosthetic hand.

“They’re going to test the muscles and talk us through the option on what kind of hand will best fit his needs,” Becky said. 

The final fitting, she added, will be between four and six months for now.

Adjusting to his new reality, John said the toughest thing is seeing how his injury has affected his family — that, and the “phantom pains” that he has occasionally, in which he is convinced he can feel his fingers hurting.

“You really don’t notice that much when he’s got his arm in a sling,” Becky said. “But when he takes the sling off, that’s when it kind of gets to me.”

The news hasn’t been all dire, however. Becky said friends and other members of the community have rallied behind the family with various events and fundraisers to help them with medical costs.

“The people in this community have been wonderful,” she said.

Between visits to Dallas, John also is getting re-acquainted with school work. Although he has not yet returned to classes, he is receiving home tutoring and still hopes to graduate with his classmates in late May, although August may be a more realistic goal.

As for his career, John said his accident merely put that dream on temporary hold — Robbie Jamison has already told John his job at The Auto Clinic is waiting for him. 

Looking back on the past few weeks, John said he is more determined than ever to realize his dreams.

“I feel like there’s only one way to go, and that’s up,” he said. “I can’t let this drag me down to the point I’m just lying around doing nothing. I couldn’t stand doing that.”