Former area coach Heeb injured but thankful after car accident

David Heeb has never been a great sleeper.

It's normal for the former Missouri high school basketball coach and administrator to be at the gym as early as 4 a.m., some mornings simply because his bed can't hold him.

So after wrestling with sleep in the early morning hours of Aug. 1, the 37-year old Scott County Central graduate who now lives in Tamarac, Florida, was on the road and stopped to fill his Jeep with gas near Commercial Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

That would be the last thing Heeb would remember.

"I pulled off to get gas and the last thing I remember was getting gas. I remember pulling out on the road and that's it. Nothing after that," he said.

Heeb's Jeep was hit squarely in the driver's side door by 23-year old Regis Dorcilus, who was darting away from a Broward's County Sheriff's deputy in the eastbound lane following a traffic stop around 4:30 a.m. Dorcilus' black Infiniti ramped the median, flew between two palm trees and hit Heeb's vehicle at an excessive speed in the westbound lanes, according to reports.

"The roads are so wide here, like four or five lanes on each side. It's a big wide road," Heeb said. "He's going one way and I'm going the other with a median of palm trees in the middle. This guy was going really fast and over-corrected and he hit the curb on the median, jumps completely across the median and hit me. He split the palm trees like a field goal is what the cop said. If he would have went left or right any more, he would have hit a tree. He just hit me right in the driver's side door."

Heeb, who said he was wearing his seat belt, woke up to find himself in the passenger's side floorboard. The force of Dorcilus' car was enough to break Heeb's driver's seat out of place.

"I religiously have my seat belt on since myself, Travis Glueck and Chad Griffin were in a car wreck when we were 16 and didn't get hurt at all," Heeb said. "I just know how fast a wreck can happen. I couldn't figure out how I got over in the passenger's seat floorboard. I know I had my seat belt on, but it threw me in the passenger floor."

Heeb suffered a shattered left humerus, a dislocated ankle, a cracked hip, nerve damage in his left arm and had some bleeding on his brain. The blood stayed within the membrane between his brain and skull so there were no serious effects. Surprisingly, Heeb suffered no neck or back damage.

Heeb was airlifted to Broward Health Medical Center and spent six days in the trauma unit in critical condition. Nineteen-year old Tia Johnson, who was riding in the car with Dorcilus, was taken to BHMC with severe burns. Dorcilus died in the crash while Johnson passed later.

Heeb went through four surgeries in a span of 36 hours. The operations began with his left arm, then his hip and ankle and then back to his arm. Heeb's left arm is the worst of all of his injuries with his hip being the least of his big three ailments.

"I can't tell you a lot of what went on for about a week of my life," Heeb said about his surgeries and countless pain medications. "There was about a week where I was in and out of it. The pain was just so, especially on my left arm, just excruciating. You can't roll, can't bend or do anything. It's definitely something you wouldn't wish for anybody to have to go through. My whole left arm just looks like its on steroids. It's just so swelled up. It's going to take several months before I have my left arm back."

Heeb was transferred to a rehab facility Aug. 10 where he's had to be taught safe ways to get in an out of his wheel chair, a bed, a car, how to go to the bathroom and how to put on clothes. He's having to learn how to do things a new way because he can't use all but one leg and re-injuring his arm, ankle or hip is still a high possibility.

"Everything you learn how to do is one at a time, step by step," Heeb said. "You have to learn it and discipline yourself, because if you don't, you'll hurt yourself even more. One thing I'm trying to avoid is a big setback and hurt myself again. It's bad enough to have to go through this once."

After experiencing a traumatic event it's natural to think back and play over actions that might have prevented such a thing from happening. Heeb did. He thought about his stop at the gas station, Dorcilus' vehicle splitting two trees like it did and how his whole accident took place.

After a very short time of reflection, Heeb's outlook was immediately changed when he was brought pictures of the crash and was briefed about how the fatal accident happened.

"There was just a very brief time, maybe like 10 minutes, where I felt like a victim," said Heeb. "I'm sitting there going, 'Why me?' We are talking about two vehicles moving away from each other and what were the chances of his vehicle and my vehicle meeting? At the same time, him splitting palm trees like he did. What if I would have put $15 worth of gas instead of $12? You just ask yourself questions like that, you know? Why me? I did that for about 10 minutes and it just so happened that was right when they brought me pictures of the wreck, and I got to see it, and it just changed the way I looked at the whole thing. Now you're like, 'Why did I walk away?' There were three people in this wreck, and obviously I wasn't at fault, but you don't wish somebody else to die, and they did. Why am I the one who got to walk away? It will make you think a different way, that's for sure."

Heeb will not be able to bear any weight on his ankle or arm for at least another three weeks. He's able to lay on his back to help with his hip, but that's about all he's been cleared to do for now. Simply waiting for his body to heal is an area Heeb has the most trouble with.

"This is not something you can out-work," Heeb said. "That's the hard part. I just have to wait. I'm the type that wants to out-work things, do whatever I can, and that's the really, really hard thing about it for me.

"I've got a little road ahead of me here to get through," Heeb added, "but at least I've got a road ahead of me."

Heeb, who's spent the last 15 years in public education, is mostly known in Southeast Missouri for coaching high school basketball. He began his coaching career at Bell City where he won Class 1 state titles in 2002 and 2004. He also coached at Scott County Central, Caruthersville, Senath-Hornersville and Clarkton. He also spent two seasons as the women's head basketball coach at Robert Morris University in Springfield, Illinois.

He accepted a principal's position at Pivot Charter Schools, a state-funded public school with locations in the Ft. Myers, Tampa, and Ft. Lauderdale areas and has the flexibility to focus on different areas of study, in early June. Liz Bretz, one of Heeb's previous principals while he taught at an alternative school in Illinois, contacted the former coach about the opening in Florida.

"As the world turns, Liz and I stayed friends throughout the years, and we just happened to talk to each other one day and they had a job opening the next day," Heeb said. "With these charter schools down here, you just have a lot of leeway that you don't have in a regular public school. But with that leeway, comes incredible scrutiny and accountability. It's definitely the hardest job I've ever had. It's a lot of hard work. They're really hard to run."

It was tough for Heeb to leave Missouri ,and especially Clarkton, where he coached the basketball team and took over as principal in 2013. But the financial benefits and the opportunities that could one day present itself by working at a place like Pivot Charter was hard to pass up.

"It's a major payday," Heeb said. "I told somebody one time that once in your life you need to bet on yourself, and that's kind of what this is for me. It was hard for me to leave Clarkton because I loved my job there. They were so good to me, the kids, teachers, that was a terrific job. It's hard to leave something you knew was good. Financially, I can tell you it was a big raise for me to come down here. But more than the raise is the opportunity or what it could lead to down the road."

Thursday marks 20 days that Heeb has spent inside a hospital or rehab facility. On Wednesday, Heeb took to Facebook to tell friends and family that he's starting to feel his left arm "JUST A LITTLE BIT," while also updating his rehab activities and goals he's reached. He's connected with his former players, old friends and shared countless stories about his coaching philosophy and kept an upbeat personality throughout most of his time.

The former basketball player himself even made sure to remind a former manager that his basketball skills won't be diminished at all once he's back on his feet.

"One of my former managers at Bell City sent me a message and he told me once I get home we'll see if that jumper is still good," Heeb said. "I told him 'the right arm wasn't hurt at all. The jumper is intact. Trust me.'"

Heeb said the numerous phone calls, texts and messages on social media have meant the world to him. The operator at the hospital even had to stop phone calls coming to and from his room because of the multitude of people trying to reach him.

"I really want to say thank you to everyone that reached out. It was amazing the outpouring of people that called," Heeb said. "It's just because that many people cared its been amazing. Thank you everybody."