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SALT LAKE CITY — Sometimes the difference between life and death is a matter of millimeters.
That was the case for a student at Southern Utah University who survived a horrific car crash in Las Vegas.
Andrew Linn, 28, was impaled by a 2-inch round fence post while he was driving. It went through his windshield, into his mouth and out the back of his neck; and he survived.
"The hardest thing has been opening the mouth. Learning how to eat, swallow and drinking is really difficult," Linn said.
The X-ray taken of Linn's head right after his car crash five months ago is stunning. You can clearly see the pipe piercing his head.
Linn saw that image Tuesday for the first time.
"You can kind of see on my nose here, it came in here and went through it, and it came out the back right here," he said, gesturing to his face.
Linn thinks he fell asleep and crashed at a Las Vegas intersection after getting a late-night snack. A man who lives in that neighborhood says after the pole impaled Linn, the car careened between two utility poles, crossed the street, jumped the curb and hit a trailer.
Linn was reunited with his surgeon at a survivors' lunch at the hospital Tuesday.
"It was amazing to see someone with a pipe through his face like that, who was alive," said Dr. Jay Coates, who performed the surgery.
Linn was even conscious and trying to use his cell phone when he was found. If the pole had speared his carotid artery or jugular vein, his surgeon says, he would have bled to death.
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"He was definitely a miracle," Coates said. "If the pipe had been a few centimeters in either direction, I don't think Andrew would have been here."
Luckily for Linn, Coates said the pole compressed the major vessels and did not puncture them. One doctor told Linn and his wife that they could not have surgically implanted the pole that way without killing him.
"I have a second chance," Linn said. "I spend a lot of time with my kids. I love my wife and my kids."
Linn has scars, lost several teeth and his palate was destroyed. "I try to make the most of everything," he said.
He's also very thankful for the doctors and the miracle that saved him. "It's a real humbling experience to think, 'Man, I lived through this, I should have died.'"
Email: jboal@ksl.com
