Horrific crash has a silver lining

MURRAY — His friends call him "The Machine."

It's a nickname 19-year-old Christopher Bullock picked up after getting into a rash of bad luck with car accidents, including one in which he totaled his vehicle. But each time, he was able to walk away.

On Wednesday, The Machine was up and walking again — albeit very gingerly — after his most recent, and most horrific, crash.

On Monday, Bullock was, ironically, en route to the hospital for an appointment when he entered the intersection of 1300 East and Zenith Avenue and was T-boned by a vehicle that ran a stop sign. The impact tipped Bullock's vehicle onto its side and into a nearby chain-link fence.

Part of the metal bar that stretches horizontally across the fence-line tore through the roof of the vehicle and impaled Bullock, entering his right thigh near his groin and exiting out the back of his leg.

"I immediately went into shock when the pole went in my leg," he said Wednesday from his hospital bed at Intermountain Medical Center.

But at the time, Bullock didn't know what had happened or the extent of his injuries. He was bent over the steering wheel of his crushed car, stuck to something that had penetrated his leg and unable to move.

"As I started to feel my legs, I felt a large amount of hot, sticky substance going down my leg," Bullock said. "As I reached around, I felt the pole. I'm almost resting on it."

But for all of Bullock's bad luck, he also had quite a bit of good fortune with him that day. A nearby tree prevented his vehicle from tipping completely on its side, which could have pushed the pole into his body even further and possibly killed him. Even more fortunate, the pole completely missed his femur and the majority of tendons and ligaments. The only area heavily damaged was the femoral artery.

"I thought (to myself in the car), 'I'm probably going to bleed to death,' " Bullock said. "It was impossible for me to really come to terms with the situation, I was in such shock."

For the next two hours and 20 minutes, according to Bullock, all he could do was wait for rescuers to cut him out. But again, good fortune was on his side.

"All of the right people responded," he said.

Bullock had high praise for the police, firefighters and paramedics who helped him. After a lengthy procedure, firefighters were able to use the Jaws of Life to cut through the car and cut the pole that was pinning Bullock. But there was a still a 3-foot section of the metal pipe stuck in his leg, which paramedics didn't want to remove until he got to the hospital.