Grow Or Pay: The Complete Story
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The Accident
On March 14th, 2008, Dave "Dazz" Danishefsky went out to catch his former band, Kartune, perform in Wilkes-Barre, PA. While there, he had a few drinks, a few friends bought him some shots, etc.After the show and after saying goodbye to his old bandmates, Dave decided to get in his truck and drive home. He never made it.
As he approached his exit on Interstate 81 near McAdoo, PA, Dave apparently started dozing off. He lost control of his truck which rolled down into the grass valley between the north and southbound lanes, back up the other side, and came to rest facing the wrong way, up against the guardrail on the opposite side of the interstate.When emergency personnel arrived on the scene, they had to cut Dave out of the vehicle. According to some reports, he was originally thought to be dead. But, eventually, a pulse was found. He was immediately sent to Lehigh Valley Hospital, in Allentown, PA, via their MedEvac helicopter. Dave's family were advised to hurry to the hospital as there wasn't muchchance to his survival.
At Lehigh Valley Hospital, Dave was induced into a coma due to the extent of his injurieswhich included: 7 broken ribs, 6 broken vertebrae in the neck, a broken left clavicle, lacerated ear,severe damage to his left eye, a head injury and subsequent brain damage, and other injuries.For approximately a month, Dave remained in the coma. while his body healed. Upon waking from the coma, he was transferred to the Transitional Trauma Unit where his first memory is his girlfriend Tracy by his side. Tracy informed Dave that he had been in an accident, but wisely kept most of the details to herself until he was better equipped to deal with it.
After about a week, Dave was transferred to the Brain Damage Unit of Good Shepherd Rehabilitaional Hospital in Allentown, PA. For the first few days, Dave was literally a mess. He experienced delusions that he was in hell, that the hospital staff were secretly plotting to steal and harm his children, and other things of the sort. The fact that he was restricted in a cervicle collar and had extreme double vision probably didn't help matters any. The hospital staff started to fear for him because he just didn't sleep for about three days straight. But, eventually, the fog started to clear and Dave was able to begin his therapy.
At first, therapy was quite a struggle and quite discouraging for Dave. But after contemplating how much of a toll all the daily travelling back and forth from the Hazleton, PA area to Allentown was taking on his mother and Tracy and also fueled by the desire to get back to his children, something gave inside of him and Dave started progressing very rapidly. In fact, so rapidly that, with a few days, none of his therapists new what to do with him anymore. They all claimed that he was far beyond where he should be, so the remainder of his sessions were quite often spent going for walks around the hospital campus and even getting a tour of some of the other facilities there. Dave was also now aloowed to go visit the rec room by himself where he would play the piano (or at least attempt to), watch old episodes of The Honeymooners on the big screen tv, or try to find people to play air hockey or table tennis with (that never worked). Dave's even felt confident in his improvement to receive a visit from his children Abbey & Aaron. He still looks back and laughs to himself when he thinks of them running into the room to greet him and him reflexively kneeling down to hug them only to realize that he didn't know how to get back up again! In a few more days time, Dave was finally discharged.
Damon
Leighann
The Recovery
Unable to care for himself, Dave moved in with Tracy when he left the hospital. Tracy's children, Casey and Tyler, really pitched in to help out and even dressed up like a little doctor and nurse to take care of Dave. During this time, Dave was presented with many cards, letters, and gifts that different people had sent while he was in the hospital. This touched his heart, but also made Dave feel quite useless since he was helpless to do anything to pay everyone back.
Within a few days, Dave returned to Lehigh Valley for a follow-up appointment with the trauma surgeon who was stunned at how far he had come and even speculated that Dave must be a superhero! He began therapy at John Heinz Rehabilitation in Hazleton and things were really starting to look good. Unfortunately, there were still a few clouds on the horizon.
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