Woman survives pole impalement “against all odds” while driving on 10 Freeway in San Bernardino
By Joy Benedict
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SAN BERNARDINO, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Drivers often face a fear on the freeway that something may fall off a truck, cause an accident, injury, or worse, and for one young Redlands woman, it was her worst nightmare.
Janina Akporavbare recalls the day when she thought she was going to die. It was August 25, when she was driving on the westbound lanes of the 10 Freeway, near the Tippecanoe exit.
“I just remember seeing this huge pole coming at my car and I couldn’t swerve, cause it was during rush hour traffic,” she said.
The pole flew under her car and impaled her in the stomach.
“I woke up and I could feel something dripping on me. It was my blood. I was bleeding through my stomach, the pole was in my stomach,” Akporavbare said.
She had her younger brother in the back seat, so she forced herself off the road with the pole still dragging from her car.
“The pole was really long, so other cars were running over the pole while it was in my stomach.”
She called 911, and according to the Loma Linda Firefighters Association, “against overwhelming odds,” Akporavbare made it from the accident site to the hospital in 10 minutes. Firefighters cut the pole, and with it still inside her, she was transported in an ambulance.
“I asked the paramedic if he could pinky promise if I make it out of this, if I would make it out of this. He pinky promised me if I made it out, he would visit me in the hospital,” Akporavbare said.
Doctors gave her a 1% chance of survival, the association said. Akporavbare did survive, but her recovery hasn’t been easy. She underwent three surgeries and spent almost two months at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
“They took out part of my colon, part of my liver, part of my kidney — they were all injured.”
Thankfully, she has health insurance, but her car is totaled. Studying to be a nurse, she lost a semester of school and work, not to mention her struggle to drive again.
“I feel terrified, I don’t really drive that much, I don’t drive on that freeway,” she said.
Which is why she is hoping someone remembers the crash or the pole on the freeway so she and her attorney can help figure out who left it there.
Akporavbare said she is thankful to be walking and living, and for those who rescued her and helped her heal, as she is studying to someday do the same for others.
“It makes me want to be a nurse even more because I want to help people, like the nurses at Loma Linda helped me.”
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