Big Heart leads to Bad Luck for Youth
JUSTIN’S 19th BIRTHDAY IN HOSPITAL
Lessons in Helping a Downed Rider
Written by...Eddieboy
It’s said the road to hell is paved with good intentions. For Justin Johnson, who since last November has been forced to call Harborview Hospital in Seattle home, its not a road to hell but rather a four-lane freeway to his fate. And future.
It was just last fall that Justin was driving his sister Jill and her baby north on Highway 101 out of Olympia, Washington cruising in the fast lane, when with a sudden roar and unexpected spray of gravel , a screaming Harley overtook them to the left on the shoulder of the freeway. The sequence of events unfolded very fast, but before they had fully recovered from the surprise of the motorcycle, the even faster bike rider was down in a tumble before them. Reacting instinctively based on family-reared values, Justin braked onto the fast-lane shoulder and went running to the sprawled motorcyclist.
Determining that the biker
was still whole, that same moment the Harley caught fire, and Justin
went for the fire extinguisher the family kept in their car. With
his sister beside him at the rear trunk of the auto, the good
intentions of a young lifetime were broad-sided on the road to
hell.
would’ve stopped all over again
In a blinding moment almost too terrible to remember, a speeding car slammed directly into Justin’s body, severing his right leg instantly at the knee and hurtling his body into the windshield. The jagged shards of the shattering glass rake him open from buttocks to backside, the impact throwing him finally to the roadbed and crushing his pelvis.
The accident is mercifully over, as the fight for Justin’s life begins. Ironically, the motorcyclist, Steve Bogart, 47, of Shelton is unhurt but immediately arrested on outstanding warrants even as the helicopter airlift closes down the highway. I’m proud of my children - - of Justin a distraught Donna Johnson, Justin’s mother, relates thru hoarse voice. We care about other people; we’ve always helped stranded motorists and the children learned this. Justin would’ve stopped all over again
It doesn’t matter, the circumstances and the individual; we all make mistakes - - ain’t none of us perfect , she continues. There’s Jill, his sister, in this chaos at roadside, trying to pick-up the pieces. In the trunk, she finds Justin’s shoe, only to discover her brothers foot still in it. He wasn’t expected to live I get a call at my work our lives, they haven’t been the same; and Justin, three weeks in a coma, nobody sure he’ll pull through, only to wake up to his 19th birthday, November 13, in the hospital in downtown Seattle...
Why Me ?
The Johnson family’s world goes upside-down. The long commutes between Olympia and Seattle become routine, when overnights at bedside aren’t possible. Justin’s dad, a disabled diabetic, goes into shock himself over the stress. As the bills mount and work is missed, the family car is lost. $25,000 in insurance coverage is blown through in no time, when at $800 per day bed-cost is multiplied against 110 days and counting, and this doesn’t take into account the direct medical costs which are estimated in excess of $2 million My sister, she lent me the money finally to get another car, says Donna. The medical costs, the hospital and doctors she sighs, they saved his life though.
Channel 5, KING-TV, out of Seattle; they happened to be there at the accident scene that day. They came back to do a follow-up about Justin’s survival and 19th birthday at the hospital. Justin, he was real down, saying ‘why me; why me ’about that time the piece aired related Donna.
Watching TV that night was Ray Pitts, a dedicated Harley rider himself, and ABATE of Washington long-time member. Hey!, I remember thinking, this kid didn’t just help as a motorist; he stopped and put it all on the line for a biker. That makes him our brother! To Ray, that means summoning the community of riders, a call to arms of all bikers. Not tomorrow; not next month. Now.
That Ray Pitts, let me tell you, he walks the talk. Others had said they would do this, and others they would do that. He was the first to make it stick. He comes into the hospital room, looks at Justin and says, ‘You didn’t help a biker, you ARE a biker!’ Soon there’s a whole group of them, and they make him a life-member (of North Kitsap Chapter ABATE) , says an audibly shaken Donna Johnson. Ray Pitts makes sure the word goes WAY out, and soon dozens of organizations are mobilized, including HOG chapters, Valkyrie riders, Leather Maids, Southern Cruisers and the City of Renton police motorcycle corps among others.
This all caused a lot -- a really, really lot-- of joy in Justin’s heart! , says Donna. He has a dream now to become a biker. It sustains him, and gives him something. He wants to become a police officer, to help other people. The Renton motorcycle cops; they told him ‘Don’t lose sight of your dream’. The look in his face, Justin, for all these people have given him - - it’s worth a million dollars! quietly sobbed Donna.
‘Jay-Dog’ is Born
He’s Jay-Dog now says Ray Pitts. Lynnwood Cycle Barn, they arranged a real big ride down to the Seattle hospital. The Renton police, they shut down the road going in for over a hundred of us. The Cycle Barn, they presented him with a custom-fitted leather jacket, his name spelled out on the back. He was able to be wheeled outside for a little while to take the whole scene in everybody’s heart soared!
A Brotherhood In-Deed
We’re gonna make sure he gets a motorcycle somehow. The police have promised to teach him to ride it. We’re all gonna pull together on this assures Ray. Justin’s father is disabled. His mom works for the Department of Health. Her insurance doesn’t cover the $21,000 for a prosthetic leg, nor does it cover the cost of a wheelchair or ramps for their home, when he comes home. A lot isn’t covered, to be sure.
As for the hot-dogging that created the mess; who hasn’t stretched themselves sometime on their bike, just a little passed ‘midnight’, and gotten away with it when maybe, just maybe, they shouldn’t have Or passed a fellow motorcyclist on the road, and wondered a mile or two down the road if, just if, that guy was stopped for a smoke, or was it something else ?
Good news! By special dispensation of the church of latter-day-motorcyclists, absolution is available for you of all sin committed or imagined. For a measly $5 or $10 at any branch of Bank of America throughout the nation, under the account name ‘N.K. ABATE Justin Johnson Family Fund’ you can help yourself and a worthy kid to heal-up. Just make sure you don’t keep hot-dogging, and do make sure you stop to help a downed rider; absolution is a tricky matter, you know
Misty Schuchman, his girlfriend of 17 and first love- she’s the one in the photo behind his wheelchair, says Donna, she’s been there every step of the way for Justin. Rolling him over, cleaning him I don’t know what the family would’ve done without her. Don’t tell anybody, but she’s taking the day off of school on February 13th, and be his valentine!
Written by:Eddieboy
