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Alex Cabrero ReportingExactly nine months ago a teenager smashed head-on into a pick-up in Sandy. Doctors were sure he would not survive.
They didn't think he would come out of a coma, but now there is good news.
We cover stories all the time that have bad endings. Back in January this story looked like another one. What none of us knew, though, was just how much Garrett Ford wanted to live.
You look at the Geo Metro and think, if someone was in it, no way could they get out alive.
Garrett Ford/ Crash Survivor: "I'm very lucky. I was dead."
And dead serious. Last January, Garrett Ford's crash was so bad, doctors say the damage to his brain was about as bad as it gets.
He spent five weeks in a coma.
Garrett Ford: "I don't remember two weeks before the wreck."
"I don't know. It's weird to think that's me, because that was just a few months ago."
Jana Buchi/ Garrett's Mother/Feb. 2006: "You don't really picture, you know, what it is really like to see your little baby there."
That was Garrett's mother right after his crash.
This is her today.
Jana Buchi: "He had to learn how to swallow again, how to talk again, how to eat again."
Jana Buchi has been with her son every step of the way... the rehab, the lessons, the pain; and now she says it's brought the entire family closer and made them safer.
Jana Buchi: "We're safer now because of him, and the way we drive and the things we do."
In fact, safety is what Garrett wants other teens to remember, especially the importance of wearing a seatbelt. He wasn't wearing his.
Garrett Ford: "Probably wouldn't have been in as bad of a coma as I was."
And just as importantly, don't drive stupid just to show off.
Garrett Ford: "I used to drive so crazy. I would speed everywhere. You just think you're invincible and stuff. It's not going to happen to me. But it does."
Garrett still has double vision at times and can't drive again until that goes away. Still, he's set to graduate high school this coming spring.
As for his mom, she still has a ton of medical bills to pay. She quit her job to care for him. She says his outlook on life has changed. He appreciates life and the little things even more now.
