FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida man who lost both of his legs when he was hit by a drunk driver is now helping others who are suffering.
May 15 is Trauma Survivors Day.
7’s Brandon Beyer shows us how one survivor volunteers his time to inspire other patients.
Patrick Alston has no memory of the moment he was hit by a drunk driver and was left in the middle of Broward Boulevard.
“I never felt anything, seen anything or nothing,” Alston said. “All I know is I woke up in the hospital.”
It happened in November of 2019 when Alston was leaving work.
The driver never stopped.
He had devastating injuries to both lower extremities.
Alston was rushed to the Broward Health Medical Center and was placed into surgery, where both of his legs had to be amputated.
“They were not salvageable,” said Ralph Guarneri, a surgeon. “We tried but they were not salvageable.”
Alston remembers waking up in the hospital room.
“Something said, ‘Lift up the sheet and look for your lower extremity now,’ and when I looked up, my right leg was gone,” he said.
He thought it was a dream and went back to sleep only to wake up again.
“So now I go, I lift up the sheet, both my legs are gone,” he said.
A 51-year-old man losing both of his legs in a single day. The kind of trauma that many would struggle to overcome.
“And I’m not a quitter. I love the fight,” he said. “I put it in my son always fight, fight, fight.”
When the accident happened, Alston worked at the hospital as a radiologist. Since then, he is now a volunteer and comes back to the hospital to spend time with people who are going through something similar.
As he recovered, Alston remembered how he used to encourage his own patients.
“I was the one telling them, ‘Listen, keep your head up you, gotta try to fight through this,'” he said.
He began telling himself the same thing and it worked.
“In the medical field, when you’re sad, that does nothing but break your body down, so the happier you are, it keeps your emotions and everything up,” he said.
It’s a message he now shares with other trauma survivors.
“Don’t, never think negative. Just think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
If Alston can see it, maybe anyone can.
The driver who hit Alston was arrested and was sentenced to five years in prison.
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