Nursing student impaled by pole while driving survives ‘against overwhelming odds’
A California nursing student is recovering after surviving a horrific freeway crash in which a metal pole pierced through her car and impaled her in the abdomen during rush-hour traffic.
Janina Akporavbare was driving on the 10 Freeway in San Bernardino on Aug. 25 with her younger brother in the back seat when she suddenly saw a large metal pole flying toward her vehicle.
“I remember all of a sudden just seeing this huge pole coming at my car, and I couldn’t swerve because it was during rush hour traffic,” Akporavbare said.
Despite her injuries, she managed to steer her car off the road and call 911 while the pole remained lodged through the front of her vehicle.
“The pole was really long, so other cars were running over the part of it that was still outside while it was in my stomach,” she said.
Firefighters and first responders arrived quickly and carefully cut the pole, leaving a section in place to avoid causing further injury. She was transported to Loma Linda University Medical Center within 10 minutes. The Loma Linda Firefighters Association later described her survival as happening “against overwhelming odds.”
“I remember thinking, ‘I’m going to die right now. That’s it for me,’” Akporavbare recalled.
Doctors reportedly gave her only a 1% chance of survival. She underwent multiple surgeries during a nearly two-month stay in the hospital, with injuries to her colon, liver, and kidney.
“They took out part of my colon, my liver, my kidney. They were all injured,” she said.
The medical costs from the ordeal reached about $1 million. She also missed a semester of nursing school and time from work during her recovery.
Now back home, Akporavbare says she struggles with fear when driving and avoids that stretch of freeway.
“I feel terrified. I don’t really drive that much. I don’t drive on that freeway,” she said.
Investigators have not yet determined where the pole came from. Akporavbare and her attorney are asking any witnesses to come forward to help determine how it ended up airborne on the freeway.
“So, I would really like to find the people who did this and get some peace about it,” she said.
Despite the trauma, Akporavbare says the experience has strengthened her desire to become a nurse and help others, just as the medical team at Loma Linda helped save her life.
“It makes me want to be a nurse even more because I want to help people like the nurses at Loma Linda helped me,” she said.
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