(Trinidad Guardian) An American tourist injured in a vehicular accident in Tobago believes he survived because he had the presence of mind to tell paramedics how to care for him and his family was able to get him off the island quickly. Not long before he went on vacation to Trinidad and Tobago, Justin Lake, of Georgia, finished his EMT training. He is currently undergoing treatment at the Shepherd Center for the devastating injuries he suffered in Tobago after a drunk driver hit him.
The crash compressed his spine and broke five vertebrae. “I can just remember laying in the backseat, being about as helpless as I possibly could be. Couldn’t really yell or talk or anything. Just being paralysed,” said Lake, in an interview with Fox News. In those moments of incredible fear, Justin realised that the first responders caring for him had never seen anything like this, so he directed them on what to do.
“And I was just trying to walk him through it, pretty much just on pure adrenaline, knowing these are my legs, knowing how bad my injuries are going to be is determined in these few minutes of c-spine stabilisation,” said Lake. His parents back home soon got the news. “It was really a life or death situation that they get him back here,” said Larry Lake, Justin’s father.
Justin described conditions in the first hospital he was admitted to in Tobago as horrific. He claimed doctors at the second didn’t discover all his injuries and it wasn’t until he was back in Georgia that he felt like he was in capable hands. “We know that God has him here for a reason, and he knows that, so we’re going to build from that,” said his mother, Linda Lake. Now in physical therapy, Justin says his lowest point is behind him.
“People think that they’re healing me, you know, ‘You’re going to be better when you leave.’ It’s not like that. They’re preparing me, if this is what I’m going to be like for the rest of my life,” said Justin Lake. Justin can control his head, his shoulders and arms. He’s hoping to expand that to his hands. He says he hopes his story inspires anyone traveling to a third-world country to have an emergency plan in place.
