Breaking News! Massachusetts Man’s Miraculous Recovery After Being Crushed by 10,000-Pound Granite
DEBARYLIFE – Following a strange event that shocked emergency personnel, appalled bystanders, and gave physicians only a 2% chance of survival, a Massachusetts man is lucky to be alive after his face was crushed by a 10,000-pound chunk of granite.
Originally, Mike Wolo declined his friend’s request to help unload bundles of granite used for kitchen countertops because his friend owned a granite import company. While Mike had previously assisted, he was very hesitant to handle the roughly 10,000-pound bundles once more.
“I found it unpleasant to assist him on several occasions over the last few years,” Mike says to Inside Edition Digital. “That seemed risky to me.”
However, Mike eventually gave in to his friend’s persistent pleas, and after being asked multiple times. Mike sensed something was wrong as he got to the location.
The crane operator was not the same as the one we had previously hired. Instead of setting up where we usually would, he did so elsewhere,” he claims. It appeared as though the shipping container had recently been removed from the ocean. To our astonishment, it was completely rusted and dented.
He started working, though, having kept his word. Mike turned back to unload more packages, observing that the floor of the container was beginning to buckle. According to Mike, the subsequent moments were indistinct.
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“I hear David yelling at the top of his lungs, and I don’t know why,” the man asserts. It just caught me off guard. I then look up as I start to flee and witness a wall of stone falling on me.
A granite slab weighing ten thousand pounds suddenly fell.
“My face and head were crushed against the other bundle of stone on the opposite side of the container when it fell and struck my left temple,” the man complains. The entire tractor trailer reportedly went up on its side before flipping back down due to the tremendous impact.
Mike looked surprised to see the men who had been working to release him. According to Mike, “They claimed they could see inside my skull.” “Everyone thinks I’m dead and is just screaming and crying.”
David, Mike’s buddy, took command and tried to pull him from behind the shattered stone.
Upon realizing that they couldn’t give me mouth-to-mouth, they came to an understanding. Mike says, “I can’t speak.” To clear my airways of all the blood obstructing them, they all decide to sort of grip my body and turn me upside down.”My head is all over the place and they’re all taking turns keeping it back. According to them, blood is gushing out.
Emergency personnel were also taken aback upon their arrival.
“They kind of just looked at me like, ‘OK, this guy’s done.’ I mean, there’s nothing to his head,” Mike says.
After being airlifted to the hospital, Mike woke and felt the magnitude of his injuries, which included a broken neck, broken shoulders, a fractured C1 and C2, a ripped jaw broken into three parts, broken cheekbones, and swollen, misplaced eyes.
“You could read people’s faces coming to visit you and see the horror on their faces,” he says.
Because of the severity of his injuries, doctors gave Mike a 2% chance of living and advised his loved ones to say their goodbyes. While his two brothers spoke with him, Mike says he squeezed one of their arms to alert them that he was awake. The surprising gesture let them know Mike was fighting to stay alive.
The Uphill Road to Recovery Begins
Some of the swelling in his body went down in a few days. Even so, Mike had yet to see what his face looked like. His family also insisted that no one let him near mirrors. He soon found out why, one morning after a nurse came in to shave his face.
“At the end of him giving me a shave, he’s like, ‘Well, look, you look great again.’ And he grabbed a mirror and faced towards me,” Mike says. “And I’m looking going, ‘I don’t know who am I looking at?’”
This prompted Mike to go into the bathroom mirror, for what he calls the worst moment of his life.
“I looked like Sloth from the movie ‘Goonies,'” Mike says.
“All I just remember is the horror of like, ‘well, life’s over. What woman would want to be near me? What children would ever want to go near me?’ I guess, the thoughts of, ‘OK, someday I’ll get married and have a family of my own,’ we’re out the door,” he says.
The moment brought tears to his eyes not only because of the realization of just how bad his accident was but also because of how his mother, also in the room, reacted.“I broke her,” Mike says. “I had her crying, and I felt terrible and guilty.”
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It was at that moment that Mike decided to work to get out of the hospital. He began walking every day, getting stronger and hitting milestones. He also set out to prove doctors wrong, who said that returning to his active life of outdoor activities and sports would probably not happen.
But three months after the accident, Mike was snowboarding again.
“Talk about an unbelievable feeling of being free again, feeling you just belong,” he says. “Sightseeing and being out in nature and just enjoying the outdoors and breathing some fresh air. So just unbelievable.”
His full recovery took almost a year. In addition to having 110 screws and 20 titanium plates holding his face together, swelling remained for months, and he battled pain, agoraphobia, anxiety and depression.
A Fresh Start at Life
Mike marked the end of his recovery by training and competing with a semi-professional football team in his city. And despite having thoughts in his hospital room that he wouldn’t find love, he did with Rebecca, a childhood friend.
“About a year and a half later, we were married,” he says. “Now we have two little boys, Michael and Evan, and life is really good. Never would’ve imagined being married to a beautiful, smart, sweet woman and having two incredibly sweet boys. I guess good things do come to those who wait.”
Mike still has long-term symptoms that include pain, sinus issues, and occasional ear infections. But he said that’s the price he pays to survive such an accident.
Overall, Mike is grateful for his life and wants to continue to motivate others who are dealing with trauma.
“People want to hear a nice story once in a while,” he says. “Whether somebody was in a car accident, a workplace accident, or a motorcycle accident, you got to find happiness somehow. And my story, I think, gives a lot of people hope. There is life after a trauma.”