Derrick’s Story

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‘One Lucky Man’

Driving to work, Derrick Sellhorst’s friend, Heide Riley, heard a news report about a traffic accident on I-70 at Ohio 49, and there being “pigs all over the interstate.”

She immediately thought of Derrick, a truck driver who transports hogs from Darke and Mercer County farms to Louisville, Kentucky. Derrick recalls “everything was numb and tingling from the neck down” when he woke up at Miami Valley Hospital. “They told me that I’d hit an overpass, the pillars, head-on at about 50 miles per hour.”

He was transported to the hospital’s Level I Trauma Center by the Cities of Clayton, Englewood, and Union Fire and EMS.

There, he arrived breathing on his own, but unable to move his lower extremities, which he said had feeling. His upper extremities were weak, but also had sensation. 

The trauma team, after ruling out life-threatening injuries and a head injury, brought the neurosurgery team on board due to a suspected spinal cord injury. Derrick was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit for close monitoring, while the spinal surgery team awaited results of MRI imaging, which revealed swelling of the spinal cord.

The spinal team decompressed Derrick’s spine and set him on a long, grueling course of recovery from his spinal cord injury. After spending 20 days in the hospital, Derrick began inpatient rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Institute of Ohio, followed by outpatient therapy.

Though, he says, “I about gave up,” Derrick persevered. “I’m way better than I ever thought I would be. Everybody says I’m one lucky man. I should have never made it out of that accident, but I’m here for a reason, and we’ll make the best of it.”

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