Wounded warrior speaks out on life changing car accident

There are not many who may remember the morning of September 17th as vividly as Emmanuel Rosario.

Rosario, 27, is a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy and has been for 9 years.

Two months later, he carries the memories of an accident that changed his life.

At about 7 A.M., Rosario had just hung up the phone with his wife with plans to meet for lunch.

He was driving to the base when a truck driver began to turn into the intersection of 12th Street at Avenue 5-1/2E towards Rosario.

“He started cutting in front of me and at that moment it was either I crash into him directly or do I try to swerve and try to avoid him,” Rosario said.

Rosario said it all happened quickly.

A four-inch steel pipe pierced his vehicle and stuck out both sides, impaling and pinning Rosario.

He said the first five seconds were painful, but then the intuition of his medical experience kicked in.

“I started screaming for help, luckily construction workers came by, and I asked them to open the doors,” he said.

One of the construction workers offered up his phone to Rosario so he could make a call no husband ever wants to have to make.

“I got to speak to her, that moment I wasn’t sure if I was going to live or not, I just wanted to say my final few words,” Rosario said.

Rosario remained conscious throughout the entire accident.

“I wasn’t scared, just more uncomfortable sitting on a pipe, I can vividly see everything the way it was that day ,” he said.

Rosario remembers the accident down to the even the firefighters breaking the windshield and cutting the roof off the car.

Two months later, Rosario says he is grateful for his life.

He is still in recovery from where the pipe entered his left thigh, but he says luckily the impact caused his body to lift, avoiding the other leg.

He also suffered a minute fracture to his hip which doctors tell him will heal well.

Rosario will be able to return to work December 8.

He said it was good to be back after a visit to his medic clinic at Marine Corps Air Station.

“It was nice to see people smiling and coming up with hugs, but the whole process with the healing, I’d say I’m thankful to the nurses that I’ve encountered, and to my family and cousins,” he said.

Rosario was thankful for the constant encouraging reminders from family and friends.

“If I was feeling depressed, here and there it comes and kicks in but overall I’d say I had more feeling of support than depression,” he said.

Rosario says his tendency to be calm and collected helped him get over the hardest times.

“My thing for people would be you go through things but you have two choices, you either quit or you keep moving,” he said.

Though Rosario works as a medic to save other’s lives, he is thankful for his knowledge of how to keep himself alive.

“At that point, it was in the hands of the EMT’s and firefighters,” he said.

The Navy Wounded Warriors is a program that aids service men and women and their families like Rosario.

“In my case , they came to make sure I had the resources I needed,” Rosario said.

Whether dealing with paperwork or talking to personnel, Rosario felt taken care of.

The Navy Wounded Warriors allowed Rosario’s mother to fly out to Yuma and compensate him for her stay.

Rosario urges people in his situation to seek resources available to them.

“The moment sucks but if your mindset is open to healing then you will overcome it and it will just be a chapter in your life,” he said.

Rosario attributes a large portion of his healing to his wife.

“Every time she got away from the baby, she would just stand by my side and so I definitely had the support there and a lot of it was to my wife and she just wouldn’t leave my side so I’ll forever be grateful for that,” he said.

For more information on the Navy Wounded Warriors, visit their website at https://www.navywoundedwarrior.com/