Thankful People: Man gets second chance after wreck

It had been a long day, but he was almost home.

Chris Hyche of Patton, Mo., had worked the night shift at Saint Francis Medical Center and then drove his stepson, Nicholas Farrow, to the airport in St. Louis and returned home. Instead of taking a nap, he went to class at Southeast Missouri State University.

It was a little after 4 p.m. Nov. 30, and he was finally on his way home and to bed. He finished a phone conversation with his 11-year-old daughter Khloe as he crossed the county line. He would be home in a few minutes.

And then he fell asleep.

"I don't remember the wreck," Chris said. "But I know how bad it was from seeing pictures of the vehicle. I shouldn't be here, but I am."

His wife, Melinda Hyche, was working at Saint Francis when she received the call that her husband had been in a car accident.

"When he arrived, they wouldn't let me see him," she said. She stayed, waiting to hear any news on her husband's condition.

When the doctor finally called her in, she learned that Chris had suffered serious injuries and probably wouldn't survive. They were trying to stabilize him for air evacuation to St. Louis.

"The doctor told me if I wanted to say anything, I had better say it," she said. "I got down close to his face and all I could say was 'Don't leave me! Fight! I don't want to raise our daughter alone.'"

Chris arrived at St. Louis University Hospital without a pulse. He died several times throughout that first night. They placed him on a ventilator and inserted a tracheal tube. The doctors were not very promising.

"They didn't sugarcoat anything," Melinda said. "But every day he made it through the night, and I'd pray, and he'd make it through another night."

Things were far from easy. Chris was placed in a medicated coma for 15 days. He had broken all of his ribs, some in multiple places. His right femur was shattered. The motor had shredded his right leg around his upper shin, requiring a skin graft. He had suffered damage to his lungs and heart. Fragments had been broken off one of his vertebrae. His pelvis was shattered with breaks at both hips spread over two inches wide. His broken pelvis resulted in severe internal bleeding.

Alone and scared, Melinda sat waiting for news after each surgery.

"Our family was really good," Melinda said. "But people have lives and can't be there all the time."

After spending almost a month and a half in the intensive care unit at St. Louis University Hospital, Chris Hyche was transferred to inpatient rehab at Saint Francis Medical Center for two weeks.

"I am so thankful for all my co-workers at Saint Francis Medical Center," Chris said. "They treated me not like a patient but like family."

During that time, he and Melinda learned to work as a team.

"They taught me how to move him, how to exercise him, how to give him blood thinner shots, and wound care."

But even with all that knowledge, she was terrified to take him home.

"I was scared to death I wouldn't do it right," Melinda said. "I was terrified of him falling and rebreaking something and afraid I would not be able to take care of his wounds right."

But with the gifts and prayers of the community, they went home.

Local businesses and individuals had donated money and equipment to provide a wheelchair, ramps to make their home handicapped-accessible and a hospital bed. Their co-workers at Saint Francis donated enough earned time off to provide Chris with full paychecks for at least seven months after his accident.

"Everyone at Saint Francis Medical Center was awesome," Chris said. "People are still donating their time off to me."

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provided a lot of necessary equipment because Chris is a veteran. Family friends Bobby and Teresa Blessing of Perryville, Mo., stocked the family's freezer with beef and pork. The teachers at Meadow Heights helped Khloe through the difficult times. People they didn't even know sent gifts and many community churches offered their prayers and sent cards.

"The response was overwhelming," Melinda said. "I was never very good at accepting gifts from others; I was always the giver.

"But without the generosity of others, we probably would have lost our house. We can never thank them enough."

Chris is especially thankful for his wife who never left his side, his daughter, his stepson and his father-in-law. He is also grateful to blood donors.

"I believe I was given a second chance at life to better know the Lord and to live out my life with my wife and daughter. I am so thankful to be alive," Chris said. "I wasn't thankful before, but now I am."