Man adjusts to life after accident

Published 1:00 pm Monday, March 19, 2012

On Oct. 28, 2011, Justin Sapp’s life changed forever.

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Before that, he was a normal guy. He was married, had a job and three kids. He still has that today, but he’s also recovering from a traumatic wreck that nearly cost him his life.

He’s dealing with something that a lot of Americans must face now — not having health insurance and being unable to work because of his health.

Before the wreck, Sapp was a healthy 34-year-old, but the wreck changed his life.

While driving his work van in Morven, something broke underneath the vehicle.

“The tire rod on the driver’s side,” he said. “You have a rod that comes from the passenger side and it hooks into a rod on the passenger side and it’s hooked onto the

 main structure of the wheel. When it popped, I hit the ditch and I darted to the right. With the way they cut the ditch bank, it got into the groove and I was running 55, 58 (miles per hour) the last time I saw (the speed) before hitting the curve. It wasn’t a sharp curve … 18, 22 degree turn to the left, right before you get to the Moultrie Highway.”

As soon as he came around the curve, he heard the popping sound.

“There were no other cars involved in this entire scene from what I could see,” he said. “I darted to the right, because I knew I had lost control. It went down into the ditch and the tire got even with the groove and I didn’t hit any breaks or anything like that. I knew something had broke. I turned the steering wheel slightly to the left to come out of the ditch. The steering wheel would turn but the van wouldn’t turn. It went straight.”

Sapp saw a culvert, which the van hit, shooting up at least 95 feet in the air.

“I saw a culvert come up and all I could say was ‘oh my God’ and all I remember after that is hitting the incline there,” he said. “When I saw the culvert come up, something told me to get away from the steering wheel so it wouldn’t hit me in the face or the stomach, cause internal damage or facial damage. So when I done that, I just pushed back, that’s when it took off in the air. All I could remember in the end is feeling weightless. I didn’t feel as heavy as a piece of paper. Some of these rides you go to at the parks, you’ll go up and you’ll go to the top and stay there for a minute and then go back down and that’s how I felt. I had no gravity.”

At one point while the van was spinning, Sapp almost slid out of the driver’s door, but pushed back.

“All of this happened within the blink of an eye,” he said. “When I hit, all the tools in the back (of the van) hit me in the back of the neck. It continued to roll until it ended up on its wheel. As soon as it came to a stop, I continued to pray. My life flashed before my eyes when I felt the gravity go away. I knew it wasn’t going to be good. I was just holding on for dear mercy. The Lord is all I could cry out for.”

Sapp couldn’t move his legs and the only things he could move was his right hand and left arm. After being trapped in the car for a few minutes, a school bus stopped then help arrived.

And the start of his medical problems began and the doctor and hospital bills have added up.

Sapp thought he had insurance, taking out automobile insurance online, making sure that he had all of the coverage. The insurance company gave him money for his van, a 1993 Dodge B250, but said he did not click medical pay, meaning his hospital bills.

“I took the insurance out on June 24,” Sapp said. “I was trying to find out what was full coverage and what wasn’t. I got my quotes with full coverage, full coverage with med pay and then full coverage with everything and then just no-fault completely.”

After the wreck, Sapp learned what kind of coverage he had.

“They said I clicked on no med pay, because they were telling me I said no med pay. But that wasn’t right. I specifically asked the lady if it was full coverage because full coverage meant a lot of things, but I wanted to make sure that it was full coverage that would cover me, the vehicle, from head to toe, an uninsured motorist and if something happened I hit them and it was my fault or vice versa,” he said. “I said I wanted the best full coverage that I could get. I got scammed basically and it’s just been a headache.”

After the wreck, Sapp was laid off from his job because of his health problems.

“For five months, we couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my leg,” he said. “It was just swelling up. My calf muscle was just swollen out and my ankle looked like someone just took a bat and beat it to death. I was still paying insurance, sitting at home, with no car, fighting the pain and agony, I was still paying.”

In order to help with the swelling, Sapp bought decompression socks that cost $95.

They have “helped some to take the swelling down from my leg,” he said. “I can’t wear lace-typed shoes. They have to be slip-ons. The top side of my left foot where the injury is, it still pulls up. It’s swelling on top. Nine disk in my back that are bad.  I have a lot of muscle spasms, a lot of cramps, a lot of lower and higher back pain. The other night I was sitting at the table, where I had the injury at, it was like a lightning bolt that hit my right side of my head.”

For now, Sapp is barely getting by. He’s drawing his unemployment and his wife, Kim, is the only one working.

“She’s having to pull the wagon a little bit harder than she usually does because it used to be the both of us,” he said. “(I’m) just sick and tired of paying $300 a month for medicine and then doctor bills and I may have to have surgery on my left leg. I think there should be a system for insurance whether it’s paid by the government or the individual.”

He filed for his disability on March 6 and is still waiting.

“This wreck was a real eye-opener for me to tell me to slow down a little bit, to live life a little bit,” he said.

He has taken a new approach to life.

“I got baptized for the first time in 34 years,” he said. “The reason why I waited for so long is because I wanted to get baptized for the right reasons. I didn’t want to get baptized and go back to the same old Justin. I wanted to be a new reborn Justin. I read the Bible. Sometimes I read seven or eight chapters a day. I pray morning, noon, night, midday, anytime I have the notion or spirit come over me to pray whether it’s at the doctor’s office or whatever the case might be.

“It’s kind of led me to go into a fellowship or be a part of a church because if I can’t go back to work and do anything, I would like to participate  and do something with a church, nothing too heavy. I try to stay positive about it because if you stay negative, you’ll fall into a deep, deep depression and I don’t want to go there.

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