JAY, Okla. — Colby Amos, “didn’t have time to react,” to a car, while riding his motorcycle around Jay. The wreck changed his life instantly.
“I’ve been a nurse, and I’ve worked in the hospital, and I’ve done clinical rotations in ICU and I’ve seen all of that in other people, but to see it in your own child is completely different. There’s nothing that prepares you for that,” Lisa Harris, Amos’s mom, said.
WATCH: NO TIME TO REACT: Volunteer firefighter severely injured in motorcycle crash:
The crash severely injured Amos, both physically and within his brain. He lives in Jay, and serves as a volunteer firefighter in Maysville, Arkansas.
Fire Chief Derrick Kennedy spoke with 2 News Oklahoma.
“It was really difficult,” to see him in the hospital, Kennedy said, “Whenever it’s someone that you’re very close to, it’s very hard. A lot of people look at this profession and think that we’re thick-skinned .… that’s not the case, we have emotions too.”
Amos was on the way to Pryor for his nighttime EMT and firefighting classes. Harris said Amos was planning to become a professional firefighter. Now, the future is uncertain.
Since the wreck, the family has bounced around hospitals in Oklahoma and Missouri. A trip to Denver’s Craig Hospital is up next. Their stay in Colorado could last months.
“I think we’ll be OK, but at the same time, I don’t know what his future will hold. I don’t know where he’ll end up. We are super hopeful for a full recovery but there’s gonna be some concerns about his memory and I’m not sure he’ll be able to go back to school and complete that program,” Harris said, “So I don’t know what the future holds.”
Those interested in helping Amos and his family are asked to contact Chief Kennedy at (479) 531-4922.
“He’s finally made the right choices and got on the right path, and he’s overcome so much, and here we are just trying to get him over this hurdle, trying to get him back to where he can go, and fulfill what he wanted to do,” Harris said.
An 18-year-old kid, trying to live up to the Oklahoma Standard, is now counting on it.
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