PHOENIX — It was a cloudy day in August and conditions were perfect on the dirt bike circuit track.
Max Loya and his friends had been riding all day and were getting ready to call it a day.
"I'm like, I'm gonna go through some more of the track," thought Max.
Knowing the track like the back of his hand, Max rode fast and confidently one last time.
Then suddenly, Max found himself over five thousand yards from
his bike.
"I just remember waking up on the ground. No one saw it happen. But the area where my bike was down step jump, where I know what I had been doing with that jump prior," said Max.
Max was flown from the track to the hospital in critical condition.
"Yeah, he was as critical as can be; he was on life support," said Dr. Jordan Jacobs, a trauma surgeon at St. Joe's Hospital in Phoenix.
"Very early on, with the severity of his injuries, he had at least a 50% mortality rate. He had injuries all over, but the worst was his lungs; his lungs received a very devastating crush injury. They were bruised, they were bleeding, they were collapsed," added Jacobs.
The father-of-two, who was on ECMO and was in a medically induced coma for three weeks.
But weeks after his accident, a glimmer of light shined through.
"I woke up literally three weeks later; I couldn't talk. I had a trach on. And I was like, God, this must have been really bad," said Max.
Max suffered through extensive surgeries and months of rehab, finding inspiration from his family.
"My 15-year-old took it the hardest, I believe. I think she understood just how severe things were. My youngest, I think she's she was more optimistic. I think she's always been used to knowing that Dad always comes home. Dad always makes things okay," said Max
Max is now almost fully recovered and has a new outlook on his life.
"It's changed my perspective on how I want to live the rest of my life, and I want more time with my daughters and more time to create those memories with friends and family," Max added.
Max ended his rehab in December.
On Wednesday- National Trauma Survivors Day- Max will reunite with the medical staff at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center to thank them for saving his life.
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