Steven Ismail shouldn’t be alive, but he believes he’s simply “too stubborn to die.”
It’s been more than nine months since Steven and his wife, Brooke Ismail, left their Glenburn home for a 13-mile bike ride on Sept. 16, 2021, to train for the Dempsey Challenge, an annual charity ride that raises money for the Dempsey Center in Lewiston.
Shortly into their ride, they reached a hill, where a pickup truck hit them both from behind. The driver said he was blinded by the setting sun and never saw the couple. Steven said it’s estimated the truck was traveling about 50 mph.
Steven said he doesn’t remember the event at all, but Brooke does.
“The next thing I knew it was December 2021, and I was in the critical care unit,” Steven said. “Thank God he hit me first because if he had hit Brooke first, she’d be dead. I always rode behind Brooke because she’s a little more nervous on the road, and I wanted to protect her.”
More than nine months later, Steven has been through 29 surgeries to recover. He coded — or went into cardiac arrest — twice during that period, but he was determined to survive, live his life and return to his wife and two daughters. He arrived home from the hospital just last week, on June 22, even managing to walk into the house.
On the day of the crash, Brooke said she remembers being launched into the air and landing on the side of the road. She broke her ankle, leg and two vertebrae. When she opened her eyes, she saw her husband lying face-down in a culvert.
“I didn’t know if he was alive,” Brooke said. “It’s the most horrific thing I’ve ever experienced.”
They were brought to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center where Steven coded almost immediately and was resuscitated. Brooke, meanwhile, needed surgery to repair her injuries.
Steven had multiple life-threatening injuries including a cracked skull and broken bones in his neck, both legs, hip, pelvis and tailbone. He also suffered multiple internal injuries, including damage to his throat that prevented him from eating or drinking for six months.
Brooke called her oldest daughter, Lauren Ismail, 21, from the hospital and told them what happened.
Steven’s left leg also became infected and he became septic. Doctors recommended amputating the leg below the knee, but needed someone to give permission. Since Brooke was incapacitated from her surgery at the time, the responsibility fell on Lauren, who recently graduated from the University of Maine’s nursing program.
Steven said his daughter conferred with her sister, Alexis Ismail, 19, and a few clinicians before giving doctors permission to amputate his leg. While she knew it was the best choice, Steven said his daughters worried he’d be upset about losing a portion of his leg, and worried that he wouldn’t be able to walk them down the aisle one day.
“In hindsight, they did the right thing because I was so septic,” Steven said. “It was the leg or me. With consultation and her sister’s support, she saved my life.”
Lauren, who has worked as a certified nursing assistant at EMMC for three years, will begin her new role as a registered nurse in the hospital’s ICU next month.
“The first few days when they were both in the hospital were really hard because I had to sign all the paperwork and take phone calls from doctors,” she said. “Balancing school and both of their care all while helping Lexi was hard.”
Though Brooke was able to leave the hospital after five or six days, Steven spent about four months in the critical care unit. Steven said he remembers hearing Brooke tell him something around late October and then again in November around Thanksgiving, but he didn’t fully regain consciousness until late December.
Steven underwent 17 surgeries in his first 21 days in the hospital, but ultimately received 29 surgeries in his more than nine-month stay.
He coded a second time on Nov. 26, the day before his wife’s birthday. Clinicians worked for five minutes before he came back.
“I spent that night there, and the doctors came in every hour to pinch him to see if he’d respond, but he wasn’t responding,” Brooke said. “I remember telling him, ‘You’d better not do this, and you’d better not do it on my birthday.’”
Whenever Steven wasn’t doing well and was unconscious, he said the ICU charge nurse discovered yelling at him — reminding him that he couldn’t leave his wife and daughters — would garner a response.
“She would watch my monitor respond so she knew I heard her,” Steven said. “I don’t remember a single thing, but that’s what they did to keep me alive in the ICU.”
Lauren said the biggest milestone for her in her dad’s recovery was the day he moved a single finger.
“When he was in the ICU he wouldn’t respond, and so Alexis and I would stand with him and ask him to move a finger or squeeze our hand, and he couldn’t,” Lauren said. “Then one day, he started barely wiggling a finger, and that was huge.”
After his family was told he may die or have irreparable brain damage and never walk, talk or eat again, Steven’s body began to recover. He slowly regained mobility, learned how to eat and drink after failing the hospital’s “swallow test” four times, and put on weight again after losing 70 pounds.
“I have no idea how I survived,” he said. “I just refused to die, and I had to find a reason to live. I couldn’t leave my three girls, and failure wasn’t an option. Somehow, I survived when I shouldn’t have a million times.”
He moved from the ICU to the hospital’s acute rehab center in early January, where he did three hours of physical therapy every day, determined not only to walk again, but to do everything he did before the crash.
His wife and daughters often spent the night in the hospital. Lauren said she took exams, completed assignments and attended nursing classes online from her father’s hospital room.
Steven finally left the hospital last week. He exited the hospital in a wheelchair per hospital policy, surrounded by hundreds of doctors, nurses and clinicians who cared for him and his family for nearly a year. Once he was out the door, he stood and took about six steps to the car.
“I said from day one, ‘When I go home, I’m walking in the house,’ and I did,” Steven said. “It wasn’t pretty, but I did it. I would’ve crawled in before I rolled into my house.”
Now that he’s home, Steven said he’s continuing to build up his strength, mobility and stamina so he can “hit the play button on my life.”
He said he’s hoping to return to his job in medical sales remotely next month, and resume everything he once did by Sept. 16, the one-year anniversary of the collision.
“I’m not retiring at 54,” Steven said. “Brooke and I are both in our mid-50s, and we have a list of plans a mile long, and none of them involve getting hit by a truck.”
Though the recovery has been a nearly insurmountable mental and physical challenge, Steven said he and his family “have no animosity toward” the truck driver.
“The man did nothing wrong; he wasn’t speeding, texting or drinking,” Steven said. “It was just bad luck.”
Steven said he’s most grateful for the countless friends, family members and strangers who helped his family while he was in the hospital, whether by mowing their lawn, sending cards and gift cards, contributing to the meal train that provided the family with hot, homemade meals three times a week, or donating to the family’s GoFundMe.
“I can never thank people enough not only for what they did for me, but for what they did for my family,” he said. “We have never-ending appreciation for everyone who stepped up to help.”