Drunk Driving

“I Can’t Believe I Made it Home” “Should she be driving right now?” I heard come from the back seat of my car, as me and some friends were on our way home from a concert. I only had a few drinks, I was fine, I remember thinking. I didn’t know my life was about to change in a way I never would have expected. When I arrived home and walked into my house that night, I heard my little sister yell from the couch “did you get the call?” She told me that my grandpa was hit by a drunk driver and was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC). Walking in to see my grandpa for the first time after the accident is a sight I’ll never forget. He was in the ICU, a big room with two rows of beds, filled with people fighting for their lives. I couldn’t see my grandpa. He wasn’t there. The nurse stopped at a bed and a body lay there, covered in bandages from head to toe. That wasn’t him. His head was swollen the size of a basketball, and he only had one leg. The parts of his face that showed, were unrecognizable. Where was his nose? Where were his eyes? Were they still on the street where his life was taken? The next few days that followed the accident were full of countless surgeries and meetings with doctors. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and still no life came from the mangled body that once was my grandpa. He was in a hospital bed for a total of two months, completely lifeless. Since he was declared brain dead by the doctors, we were faced with the difficult decision to honor his living will and take him off life support. The worst part of the situation was that the man that hit him was just fine, not a scratch, not a bruise. When it comes to drinking and driving, most people in our society do not think about the true consequence and all risks they are taking when they get behind the wheel while intoxicated. Most people are not thinking about taking someone’s life.