Mildred Rodriguez’s world was turned upside down last Friday night when she received a frantic knock at the door and the news her husband, Juvenal Aguilar, had been in a terrible car crash.
“I broke down, because I didn’t expect this at all. It felt like a nightmare,” said Rodriguez.
At first, she didn’t even know which hospital he had been taken to. She, her four-year-old daughter, Mireya, and another family member finally tracked him down at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
“I didn’t know how everything happened because he had tubes in his mouth and couldn’t talk to me at that time,” said Rodriguez.
Doctors say he fractured several bones in his face and broke his arm. As he’s improved a little day by day, he’s been able to share some of the details from that night. Rodriguez says he told her the van he and two other coworkers were in was hit from behind at the intersection of Garland and Peavy Road. That’s when they lost control, hitting a pole before the van overturned.
Aguilar was underneath screaming for help.
“He told me there were so many people who were trying to pull up the car,” said Rodriguez.
But until she saw the video, she didn’t truly understand what an incredible moment it was as nearly a dozen people ran to the van and managed to pull it back up to free Aguilar.
“I was so shocked and surprised all of these people helped him. I’m very grateful for them because without them he might have died,” said Rodriguez
Rodriguez hopes Aguilar will be released from the hospital within the next couple of days. They’ve been told his arm could take a month to heal while his facial fractures could take up to six weeks.
Aguilar says he hopes he’ll have the chance to thank the men and women who saved him once he’s healed.
There is a gofundme account set up to help the family pay for medical bills.
