From the May 12, 1994 edition of The New Castle Record
“One day I was out walking around and the next day I was in a wheelchair,” said Criag Brickey, who suffered multiple extensive injuries when a tree fell on him back in February.
He also says if it hadn’t been for Tasha, his faithful German Shepherd, he might have died on the spot. The 3-year-old Craig County resident said he had gone to the woods to cut firewood to help some friends out when the tree he was cutting fell the wrong way pinning him under it.
Tasha ran and alerted one of Brickey’s friends who was working close by and returned immediately to the scene where her owner lay injured.
“She stayed right with me so that I was able to prop my head up on her until help arrived.” Other than that he says he only remembers bits and pieces about the accident.
However, he does remember vividly how many people came to this rescue and how many people have stopped by to see him.
“I am so grateful to everyone that helped me and for all the prayers of my family and friends and all of the churches who put me on their prayer lists. It really means a lot,” he said.
“There is just nothing like the friends I have here in Craig County. People over here are really, really good people,” he said, emphatically.
As a result of the accident Brickey suffered multiple and extensive injuries including a cracked pelvis and two femur fractures. He now sports metal plates and eight screws. The moral of the story here, he contends, is to always take somebody to the woods with you when you are going to do something like that. “If I hadn’t had a friend close by, I never would have made it.”
Now instead of cutting firewood and spending time in the woods, Brickey spends most of his time in a wheelchair or on a walker going back and forth to physical therapy and hoping he will someday be able to do all the things he loves to do again. The doctors tell him it may take a year or more to get back to what will then be considered “normal” recovery from such extensive injuries and that he may never be able to return to his former employment.
“Some days I get frustrated with it all and feel like giving up,” he said. “But I know I can’t do that. I have too many good friends pulling for me and even people I don’t know praying for me.”
-Prepared by Shelly Koon