Former ESPN sportscaster Cordell Patrick says a higher power helped him to survive a crash that ejected him from an RV onto a busy Southern California freeway earlier this week.
Patrick spoke to FOX11 Los Angeles from a hospital bed while covered in bandages as he recovered from multiple broken bones and road burns over 60% of his body.
"It wasn't my time to go," Patrick said. "My survival is a miracle."
Patrick and his wife were returning from a RV trip to their home in Valencia, just north of Los Angeles, on Monday afternoon when the vehicle swerved into the median on State Route 14. His wife was driving at the time, and Patrick had just unbuckled his seat belt to use the restroom on the recreational vehicle.
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"I had just gotten up to use the restroom and … at that moment my wife fell asleep," Patrick recalled. "So I tried to grab the wheel to get her straight but by that time impact had already happened."
The award-winning sportscaster described how the impact launched him through the driver’s side window and sent him sliding and bouncing 175 feet down the freeway into oncoming traffic.
Dashcam video captured the harrowing moment Patrick was ejected from the RV, showing how one vehicle swerved out of the way to avoid striking him.
"I was partially in one of the lanes, and I was trying to get up but my left ankle was turned backwards," he said. "So I was like, ‘That’s not going to work.’ So I drug myself out of that lane."
Patrick made it to the median, pressed himself against it and waited for help.
A good Samaritan, Alf Smithey, told the station that he stopped along the freeway and rushed to help.
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"The first thing he said was, ‘How’s my wife?'" Smithey recalled.
Patrick’s wife survived the crash while the sportscaster will undergo surgery to help with his recovery.
When asked at the hospital why he had survived, Patrick pointed upwards and replied, "A higher power."
"It’s a mindset," Patrick said. "I wasn’t going to be defeated out there that day. Not at all."
