‘Miraculous’ hit-and-run survivor faces long recovery road, steep medical bills

By Jeffrey Lindblom

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    PORTLAND Oregon (KPTV) — A Troutdale man was driving home from work when he was hit by a car that his family believes was travelling more than 100 miles per hour.

Josh Hackney left T.C. O’Leary’s where he works as a bartender, as normal that night.

He was heading north on I-205. That’s when he says he looked in the rearview mirror and saw headlights approaching fast.

“They appeared out of nowhere and just hit me from behind,” he said. “Hit me like a train.”

Doctors said it was miraculous he’s alive.

“The condition of the car and the condition I was found in,” Hackney said. “Most people would be expecting a fatality.”

His car rolled several times. Although he doesn’t remember how, he managed to escape. With his sunroof locked, his friends think adrenaline may have given him the strength to lift the passenger side door and climb out. He didn’t know at the time that he had a broken neck, broken back and four broken ribs.

“And my ear was missing,” he said.

After seeing police lights up on the road, he climbed up the hill and ran to the responding officer, who was surprised to see him and thought he owned the car that had hit him. That car was still up on the highway. But the driver of that car had fled.

“I’m not playing the victim card here, but I want that person to be caught,” he said.

The officer noticed the blood streaming from Hackney’s head and sat him down on the curbside.

“Then, I was just kind of in and out,” he said. “The next thing I know, I’m in an ambulance.”

Two weeks ago, Hackney was in the hospital and covering mirrors because he couldn’t stand what he saw in the reflection. Now released from the hospital, he’s still bed ridden and facing a brain injury his doctors fear could be affecting his short-term memory.

“They gave me five words to remember,” he said. “They asked me a bunch of questions, and I remembered two of the words.”

His friends said that’s unlike him, and that he normally remembers conversations word for word.

“[Even] the faces you made when you said it,” he said. “That’s also part of being a bartender. People barking things at you all the time, and having to remember.”

His ribs are one of his biggest challenges, crackling with the slightest of movements. He said sneezing is even complicated.

“That one back rib knocks the wind out of me.”

Hackney said he wants to be able to go back to work and his life.

“I want to do everything I could do before,” he said. “And cabin fever has really set in.”

But even as he deals with a long, slow recovery, he’s also dreading the cost. Not only does he have crummy medical insurance, he’s facing an ambulance ride, four nights in the trauma ward and continued at home care.

“I have not even received a bill from the hospital yet,” he said.

Being a hit and run, it’s a bill that shouldn’t even be his burden to face in the first place.

“The fact that they ran, that just kind of destroys my faith in humanity,” Hackney said. “I don’t understand how you could do that to someone.”

Hackney was on his way to check in on his adult children at a Halloween party at the time, and said he’s grateful they didn’t need a ride, because that could have meant them being in the car with him. He’s glad for that because he doesn’t know if, “anybody else could have survived that.”

Hackney also said he’s received lots of support from the community. His friends have set up a GoFundMe, anticipating medical bills will be coming his way soon.

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