My mother-in-law

Friday I was at work, excited that my husband and I would be leaving for New Jersey in just a few short hours, when I noticed I had a few missed calls from him. I didn’t think much of it and called him back as soon as I no longer had patients to attend to. In a frantic haste he explained to me that he’d just received a call notifying him that his mother, Mary, and her boyfriend, Kurt, had just been involved in a bad motorcycle accident in Indianapolis, where they live, and they were under the impression that Kurt had not made it.

I called my boss immediately and explained the situation and that I had to leave. Thankfully I had driven into work that day and was able to hop a quick bus from the hospital to my car. I didn’t break down until on the way out one of my coworkers asked me if I was ok and I started thinking of the possibilities, what if my mother-in-law wasn’t ok?

Even though it was a short ride to my car I prayed the whole time on the bus that she would make it through this.

Our car was already packed and ready for Jersey so after stopping to pick up my husband from his job, we hit the road to Indy, without even having to stop at our house for anything.

It was the LONGEST 12 HOUR RIDE EVER!!!!

The whole way we kept making and receiving phone calls to find out exactly was going on. The story kept changing.

First Kurt was dead, then he wasn’t, then he was again. We were so confused.

Finally, word came that both Kurt and Mary were alive but in critical condition and a 3rd motorcyclist had not made it.

The kicker to it all was that it was IMPD COP car who had hit them from behind while responding to a backup call. NOT EMERGENT.

I’ve known Mary for 12 year or so and I know enough about her and her boyfriend to know that they ARE NOT careless motorcyclists. They take riding VERY seriously.

There were 3 motorcycles and 4 people in all, Mary and Kurt were riding together. The others two also worked at Mary’s accounting office and they had all decided to go out for lunch. They were stopped at a red light in the middle of a major intersection when they heard the police siren (This part is all coming from George, the other cyclist that was present but not hit in the accident)

They were in the center lane with a clear turning lane to their left and cars stopped in front of them and to their right. As is Indiana law, they stayed where they were, not able to pull any further to the right or forward due to other stopped cars, and moving into the left turning lane would have only blocked a clear path. They stayed put, assuming he would go around.

I was not there so I have no idea what was going on with the cop right before he hit them. There were reports that he may have been looking down at his computer. Either way he didn’t see the motorcyclists until it was too late and braked at the very last minute. George was quoted in the papers as describing what happened next “was like a tornado picked them up -- bodies and bikes were flying. And then they dropped like they were nothing."

According to George, the cop got out and asked “what, you didn’t hear my sirens?”

George says he went to Eric first because it was obvious he was the one most in need as he was the one hit first and thrown the farthest. When he got to him he felt for a pulse and was able to make out a weak one. Someone from one of the surrounding cars got out and said she was a nurse that would stay with Eric while George checked on the others.

He went to Kurt who had blood coming out every time he breathed. He asked the cop to help him get the motorcycle off Kurt and the cop ignored him so George, full of adrenaline, lifted the bike off himself, with the cop helping only after it had already been lifted off.

George then went to Mary who was lying on her side, awake. She was rocking herself and talking.

We heard most of this after we had arrived in Indy and had spent time with Mary. A few days later we went to the crash site where there was an estimated 66ft of skid marks!! It was unreal to see it in person and listen to a grown man breaking down as he had to retell the story of watching his friends be taken out.

We arrived at the hospital it was 2:30am Saturday morning about 15hours after the accident first occurred. Mary was just coming out of surgery where they put an external fixator in her pelvis. This stabilized the broken bones. Before they were able to take her to surgery to stabilize her pelvis they had to take her to IR, interventional radiology, to give her an embolism because they couldn’t stop the bleeding in her pelvis.

I later leaned that they almost lost her twice when she first came in because of the bleeding in her pelvis.

We stayed all night with Mary and it was SOOO scary to see her with a chest tube and ventilator breathing for her.

We learned that she had two small brain hemorrhages, ribs 1-7 broken on the right side with a collapsed lung, 3 ribs broken on the left side. Both shoulders are broken, her leg and ankle on her right side are broken, her back is broken in the lower region but is not serious. She has a herniated disk at C-4 that they operated on yesterday so that it doesn’t put pressure on her spinal cord and she has possible facial factures and a possible thumb fracture.

Saturday other family started to arrive so Jason was finally able to relax a little. He hardly left his mother’s side all weekend. Mary was able to shake her head yes and no and by Saturday night she would spell things out into our hands to communicate. She would only stay awake for small periods of time and if you asked her what happened she would shake her head that she didn’t remember.

Sunday, I was sitting alone with her while Jason slept and they said they were turning the ventilator off so that she would be breathing on her own and that if she did well they would be able to take it out. She was breathing fine while she was awake but because she was on so many pain killers she would start to doze off every few minutes. Every time she started to fall asleep the monitors would start alarming. She was forgetting to breathe while she was slept. I would have to call out to her every few minutes “Mary, Breath!!” She would take a few deep breaths, enough to shut the monitors up and then fall back asleep and they cycle would repeat.

A few visitors showed up then so I excused myself so I could go grab something to eat and so they could visit with her.

When I came back the curtains were drawn so I stepped around to see a team of doctors and Mary WITH THE VENTILATOR ALREADY OUT!!!! I was so happy I almost cried!!!

Then the real trouble began because THEN she could TALK!! If you know Mary you know why that’s trouble lol!!!

Shortly after that they took out the chest tube and the next day they took her off the critical care unit and gave her a regular bed.

The last day we were there, Tuesday, she was going into surgery for the herniated disk which went well.

Mary Mills

She will still have to be in the hospital for some time and then she’ll have to move to a rehabilitation center so she can learn to walk again and eventually she’ll be able to go home with someone that will be able to constantly help care for her but she will make a full recovery.

Eric Wells

Eric Wells, a former marine, is survived by a beautiful wife. He was 30 yrs old and she is 27. They were about to celebrate their second wedding anniversary and start a family.

Kurt Weekly is still in critical care at Methodist hospital in Indianapolis. He is in a coma but we are all hoping and praying he will wake up soon.

David Bisard

On our way back home yesterday we got word that a blood test was done as protocol on the officer, David Bisard, TWO HOURS AFTER THE ACCIDENT. The results came back that he was OVER TWICE THE LEGAL LIMIT with a BAC of .19!!!! The accident happened at 11:20 on a Friday MORNING and he was already DRUNK AND ON DUTY DOING AROUND 80MPH. Originally they tried to spin it that it was the motorcyclists fault for not getting out of the way and that the officer did everything he could to avoid the accident. But NOT drinking on the job should have been the FIRST thing he did. Even if he hadn’t been drunk he was driving at entirely too high a speed to try to go through a busy intersection.

Obviously the families have lawyers and the Prosecutor’s office is now looking in to pressing charges. David Bisard probably even being placed under arrest as we speak.

Officers sworn to serve and protect are NOT above the law and I ask that everyone pray for ALL involved including HIS wife and children that will now have to suffer from HIS wanton disregard.

UPDATE:
They issued a warrent for the officer yesterday (8/11/2010) and he turned himself in. The set bail at $10k and he was out in 40mins!!!! Now they are testing the blood to "make sure it was his" because the hospital could have made a mistake even though another officer already stated he saw the nurse take the blood from David Bisard and label it and he took it to the evidence locker.
This story just keeps getting crazier and crazier.

Jason flew back to Indy today to be with his mom and to make sure everyone is doing their job on this. They are having a rally at Monument Circle tomorrow (8/13/2010) at 7pm.

P.S
I am one of those lucky people who have an AWESOME relationship with my mother-in-law. I loved her long before I ever married into the family so it was devestating to think she could have been take from our lives. I THANK GOD that he was watching over her that day!!

*Photos from WTHR and Indystar.com