{"id":92327,"date":"2026-08-07T08:07:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=92327"},"modified":"2026-08-07T08:07:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:07:29","slug":"whole-blood-treatment-saves-motorcycle-crash-patient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/whole-blood-treatment-saves-motorcycle-crash-patient\/","title":{"rendered":"When severe blood loss threatened his life, whole blood treatment helped turn the tide for this father"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"John
John Mazanec, left, received a life-saving treatment after a motorcycle accident. Paramedics gave John whole blood in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. He and his wife and three sons returned to fishing together this summer, one of their favorite pastimes. Photo by Mark Reis, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alicia Raebel was grocery shopping in Pueblo West with her three sons when her phone rang with a San Francisco number that she didn\u2019t recognize. She let the call go to voicemail and finished her shopping. Then, as she and her kids walked out of the store, her phone rang a second time with the same number. This time, she answered.<\/p>\n

The caller told Alicia that he was a representative from the accident alert app that her husband, John Mazanec, had installed on his phone. They had detected a motorcycle crash involving John, and he wasn\u2019t answering his phone. First responders were on their way to the scene.<\/p>\n

Alicia hung up and called John\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to get here,\u201d a voice said.<\/p>\n

A bystander at the accident scene had picked up John\u2019s phone and answered her call.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re putting him on an ambulance. It doesn\u2019t look good.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t good at all. John had suffered catastrophic injuries in the accident west of downtown Pueblo. He was bleeding heavily with too many injuries to assess immediately by the time paramedics arrived on the scene.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, amid the devastation of that afternoon, one saving grace emerged.<\/p>\n

The paramedics who responded to John\u2019s accident were carrying a new life-saving treatment called pre-hospital whole blood.<\/p>\n

While John lay unconscious and near death on a gurney as the ambulance sped to UCHealth Parkview Medical Center<\/a>, with a tourniquet on his leg and his helmet still on his head, paramedics began transfusing whole blood into his body. Within seconds, John\u2019s vital signs began to improve. He awoke and told paramedics that his arm hurt.<\/p>\n

The whole blood was doing its job, delivering oxygen and nutrients to his battered body. It likely saved his life and changed the trajectory of his recovery.<\/p>\n

John was just the second patient in Pueblo to receive whole blood. The program is a partnership between Parkview, the UCHealth Parkview Foundation<\/a>, the ambulance company\u00a0American Medical Rescue (AMR Pueblo) <\/a><\/span>and Vitalant<\/a>, the nonprofit blood supply organization. Leaders launched the program in Pueblo just eight days before John\u2019s accident.<\/p>\n

\"John
John Mazanec’s was in a terrible motorcycle accident nearly a year ago, and the family has made adjustments big and small while John has had numerous surgeries and physical therapy sessions. From left, James Raebel, Alicia Raebel, William Mazanec, Oliver Mazanec and John Mazanec. Photo by Mark Reis, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since then, paramedics have administered whole blood to dozens of patients, changing the course of their lives, too.<\/p>\n

John has made remarkable progress since that September evening, overcoming one hurdle after another to heal from numerous injuries and rebounding from the weeks and months he lost after the accident. With each step forward, he and Alicia have marveled that a life-saving treatment arrived in their community at the very moment when he desperately needed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad they not started me on the blood, I don\u2019t think I would be here,\u201d John said.<\/p>\n

A motorcycle crash changed everything just minutes into his drive home<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Around 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 4, John finished work at Rampart Supply, a building supply company in downtown Pueblo. He pulled on his helmet and decided to ride home to Pueblo West through town. He figured I-25 would be busy at that time of day, and he preferred the city streets to the interstate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go home that way because it\u2019s slower and mostly residential,\u201d he said. \u201cI was a very conscientious rider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just a few minutes into his ride home, John approached the busy four-lane intersection of Lincoln Street and West Orman Avenue in the heart of Pueblo. He was driving westbound on Lincoln when an 18-year-old woman driving a Silverado 3500 truck turned left in front of John\u2019s new KTM 1290 motorcycle. Unable to protect himself, he smashed into the rear passenger side of the truck, which then passed over him and the motorcycle. He lay trapped under his motorcycle.<\/p>\n

After Alicia got off the phone with the crash alert representative, she and her sons got in her car, and she called her father. She asked him to meet her at their home to be with their boys. Next, she called John\u2019s brother, Joseph Mazanec, told him about the accident and asked him to go to Parkview Medical Center. She told her sons that their father had been in a wreck and then dropped them at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave them hugs and told them I loved them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She knew where the accident was thanks to the app and drove straight there. She parked her car and ran toward the first responders, who had closed the intersection to traffic. She could see John\u2019s motorcycle standing upright. First responders had lifted the 500-pound vehicle off of her husband.<\/p>\n

She noticed John\u2019s shoes and one sock lying on the street. Alicia would later remember also having seen a young woman sitting on the curb with her head in her hands. She now believes she was the driver of the truck.<\/p>\n

The ambulance already had left.<\/p>\n

Alicia had no idea how extensive her husband\u2019s injuries were. Once she arrived at a hospital ER in Colorado Springs later that night, she learned that John was barely clinging to life.<\/p>\n

Family of five builds a life in Pueblo<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Both John, 40, and Alicia, 44, have deep roots in Pueblo.<\/p>\n

Her grandparents moved to Pueblo when her father was in elementary school. Though she was born in Golden, where her father was attending Colorado School of Mines, Alicia and her family moved back to Pueblo when she was three.<\/p>\n

John\u2019s family arrived in Pueblo in the late 1990s, and his mother worked as a nurse for 46 years, while his father helped open the city\u2019s first Home Depot store.<\/p>\n

Alicia was working at Best Buy nearly 20 years ago when she hired John to open the store\u2019s Geek Squad department. They married 13 years ago, creating a blended family with Alicia\u2019s son, James, and their sons William, 13, and Oliver, 11.<\/p>\n

\"John
John Mazanec learned to fish in Florida, where he grew up. He and his family have lots of favorite fishing spots in southern Colorado, including Lake Pueblo State Park. He and his family have returned to fishing and more since his accident nearly a year ago. Photo courtesy of Alicia Raebel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Mazanecs were a busy family of five last summer. Their sons had just started another school year, and in their free time, they loved to hike or head out to local ponds to fish.<\/p>\n

Two weeks before the accident, John and his brother took a motorcycle trip through Colorado. Before he left, Alicia asked him to download an app to his phone that would alert her to any accidents or crashes.<\/p>\n

It was that app that triggered the phone call to Alicia in the grocery store.<\/p>\n

At the crash scene, paramedics fight blood loss with battlefield-tested whole blood transfusions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Audrey Nolen, a paramedic with AMR in Pueblo, and her crew were near the end of their shift on Sept. 4 when the call came in: vehicle versus motorcycle. Unknown injuries.<\/p>\n

They rushed to the scene. John was on the ground, his leg contorted underneath him. A pool of blood was spreading quickly. John was not fully conscious.<\/p>\n

She called over the radio to see if anyone could respond with one of the two units of whole blood that AMR had just started stocking for trauma cases.<\/p>\n

The use of whole blood dates back to World War I, when soldiers received life-saving transfusions on the battlefield. Despite its benefits, only about 2% of paramedics in the United States carry whole blood. Insurance company leaders don\u2019t reimburse ambulance companies for it, and using whole blood requires extensive training, equipment and protocols to properly store, transport, warm and transfuse the blood.<\/p>\n

Paramedics routinely use saline, or saltwater on a bleeding patient. Saline increases the volume of remaining blood in a patient\u2019s blood vessels, but it doesn\u2019t provide nutrients such as red blood cells that carry oxygen to key body parts, including the brain.<\/p>\n

\"John
John Mazanec and his family reunited with the AMR Pueblo paramedics who helped save his life with whole-blood treatment, Audrey Nolen, left, and John Trevino, right. He credits dozens of medical providers in Pueblo and Colorado Springs who saved his life. Photo by Todd Seip, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Audrey assessed John at the accident scene, she knew immediately that he met the criteria for using whole blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was in bad shape,\u201d Audrey said. \u201cI thought he was going to lose that leg. He had a significant amount of bleeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audrey applied a tourniquet to John\u2019s leg. She tried unsuccessfully to start an IV in one of John\u2019s blood vessels, so she started another method, called intraosseous access, or IO. This involved inserting a hollow needle that looks like a large thumbtack in one of John\u2019s lower leg bones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis man needs blood, and he needs a trauma doctor,\u201d she remembers thinking. \u201cHe needs more hands and help and more treatment than I can provide. We need to get him to Parkview now.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Audrey didn\u2019t have the whole blood on the ambulance with her. On this particular afternoon, the blood sat at the main AMR base facility, where John Trevino, a paramedic field-training officer, was working. He, too, knew how to administer whole blood.<\/p>\n

Audrey called over the ambulance radio system for the whole blood, all the while calculating when to leave for the hospital.<\/p>\n

Trevino and his supervisor ran to their AMR SUV and sped toward the scene. They were just minutes away from the accident. On board, they carried two things: a small cooler with the unit of blood inside, and a large hard-sided plastic container, which they call \u201cthe suitcase,\u201d with IV tubing and a heating element used to warm the blood during the transfusion.<\/p>\n

Audrey and the other first responders loaded John into the ambulance. She called again over the radio, asking how far away the blood was. \u201cOn the way,\u201d the dispatcher responded. With that, Audrey told the ambulance driver to leave for Parkview, and they headed eastbound on Lincoln Street.<\/p>\n

Just then, John Trevino and his supervisor pulled up, heading in the opposite direction on Lincoln Street. Audrey flung open the doors of the ambulance. She saw him running toward them, with the cooler on his shoulder and the large \u201csuitcase\u201d in his other hand. He jumped on board, and they sped off to Parkview, sirens wailing and lights flashing.<\/p>\n

‘You could see his vital signs shifting in a better direction’ after a whole-blood transfusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The tally of John\u2019s injuries was long.<\/p>\n

His right wrist was broken, and he had a severe injury to his left bicep and chest, likely where the motorcycle handlebar tunneled into his arm upon impact. Road rash covered his chest.<\/p>\n

All of his ribs but the top two on each side were broken.<\/p>\n

His nose was broken.<\/p>\n

He had two brain bleeds.<\/p>\n

Small cuts covered his face, all bleeding.<\/p>\n

John\u2019s left femur, or thigh bone, was broken. His right femur was crushed, his right knee was shattered, and he had a gaping wound on the front of his leg where tissue and muscle were scraped away. Both legs were badly bleeding.<\/p>\n

\"Paramedics
Paramedics store pre-hospital whole blood equipment in a large hard-side cooler in their ambulances. Photo courtesy of AMR Pueblo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After John Trevino jumped into the ambulance, he took stock of the situation quickly. He saw the tourniquet Audrey had placed on John\u2019s leg. He looked at the monitors to determine John\u2019s vital signs. He tried to take John\u2019s temperature on his forehead \u2014 a first step before starting the blood transfusion \u2014 but John was still wearing his helmet.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I saw those vitals, and I saw how much blood was still on the cot and how severe his injuries were, it was pretty nerve-wracking,\u201d John Trevino said. \u201cHe was pretty beat up.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Trevino knew that whole blood would give John the best chance of surviving. He opened the suitcase, then the cooler inside of it, and lifted out the plastic bag of blood. This was the first time he had administered whole blood.<\/p>\n

He started the transfusion. The heating element warmed the blood as it flowed through the IV tubing directly into John\u2019s bone.<\/p>\n

In their training, the paramedics learned that the mental state of patients who receive whole blood can quickly improve. In the ambulance, John had been moaning, unable to communicate with the paramedics. Shortly after the blood transfusion began, he looked at the paramedics directly and told them that his arm hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see his vital signs shifting in a better direction,\u201d John Trevino said. \u201cHe went from not really responding to us to realizing he was hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audrey described the transformation as \u201ctruly awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen firsthand how rapidly people can deteriorate, how quickly they lose blood and how detrimental that can be,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was very important that he got that whole blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paramedics felt certain that the whole-blood transfusion in the ambulance saved John\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Still, John faced a long road ahead.<\/p>\n

Changing trauma care before patients reach the hospital<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Parkview hospital leaders began talking about launching a whole blood program about three years ago, said Dr. Mike Mandrell, medical director for the whole blood program and an emergency medicine doctor at Parkview.<\/p>\n

Funding is typically the biggest hurdle. Mandrell and others looked to the whole blood program in Colorado Springs, launched in 2024, as a model. UCHealth leaders also launched a whole blood program in Teller County, west of Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter seeing the successes in Colorado Springs, momentum built to add it in Pueblo,\u201d Mandrell said.<\/p>\n

\"Paramedics
Paramedics store whole blood is coolers until they need it. Photo courtesy of AMR Pueblo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Pueblo, the whole blood program is a partnership with the hospital, its foundation, AMR and Vitalant. UCHealth Parkview Foundation leaders raised money for equipment and the blood, which costs about $750 per unit. In Colorado Springs, UCHealth partners with the Colorado Springs Fire Department.<\/p>\n

Next, Mandrell and other leaders spent six months creating a framework for the program. They determined how many units of blood paramedics would carry, and on which ambulances. They evaluated which patients would benefit most from whole blood and decided to start with trauma and later add medical cases like gastrointestinal hemorrhage. They devised a system so that any unused blood on an ambulance would go back to the blood bank at Parkview after 10 days, before its 20-day expiration date so no blood would go to waste. Paramedics would need to bring empty blood bags to the hospital blood bank for logging and tracking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like a medication where you can buy it and put it on an ambulance until it expires,\u201d he said. \u201cIt takes very tight coordination between Parkview and AMR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parkview and AMR leaders launched the program on Aug. 27 and during their first 11 months, paramedics administered nearly 50 units of whole blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are using more blood than we planned for, which is good and bad,\u201d he said. \u201cThis program is not sitting idly on the shelf.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn (Mazanec) is a great example of how it\u2019s making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program is great because it\u2019s saving lives. The high demand for whole blood means it\u2019s also expensive.<\/p>\n

Audrey said the whole blood program has changed the way paramedics can help people after a traumatic injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we can provide life-altering medication and give patients the ability to move oxygen and carbon dioxide and keep those tissues healthy and alive, so they have a chance to make it all the way to surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in just a few minutes, tissues and cells die quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Trevino\u2019s ambulance is now designated as the blood unit in Pueblo. He has administered whole blood at least seven times since the program launched.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call it life water,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re losing this much blood, then most of the time you\u2019re not going to make it to the hospital. I\u2019ve been on trauma events or medical events when you could only give saline and hope the patient didn\u2019t deteriorate. Now, with this medication, the second the blood starts, they start doing better.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a long night in the ICU waiting room, John\u2019s wife and brother learn his fate<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After realizing that her husband was no longer at the accident scene, Alicia headed to Parkview, but her brother-in-law Joseph soon called and told her not to go there. Doctors were working to stabilize John and get images of his injuries. They gave him three more units of blood and put him on a UCHealth LifeLine<\/a> helicopter ambulance to UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central in Colorado Springs, the only Level I trauma center in southern Colorado<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alicia began driving to Colorado Springs, dialing friends and family on her phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to call people just so I could have someone to talk to and not be alone in the car,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Joseph drove to Memorial, too. As they walked into the ER together around 7:30 p.m. and stood near a nurse\u2019s station, they heard the notification that the helicopter was arriving.<\/p>\n

Then, a hospital chaplain approached them and guided them to a quiet room.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart fell into the pit of my soul,\u201d Alicia said.<\/p>\n

The chaplain said that John was alive, but he had serious injuries. He was intubated and sedated.<\/p>\n

Alicia could see John for 15 minutes before he went into surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to be strong,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was awful. I still wasn\u2019t sure if we were going to make it out of there alive. His face was so bloodied, and there were so many wires and tubes and machines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Kathryn Helmig is an orthopedic trauma surgeon and performed the first of many surgeries to help John.<\/p>\n

Broken bones \u2013 especially large bones \u2013 bleed a lot, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of blood loss from one femur fracture, and the loss from two is significant,\u201d she said. \u201cCertainly, the whole blood made a difference for him with the blood loss from those two fractures alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she took John into surgery at around 1 a.m., she had two goals: to stem the bleeding by stabilizing his femurs and to clean the wound areas to help prevent infection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people first come in with those types of injuries, we call it damage control orthopedics,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are not going to do a long, extensive surgery. Instead, we are stabilizing the patient as much as possible, as quickly as possible, without causing a bigger hit to their system from a long surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helmig removed dirt, gravel, other debris and dead skin and muscle tissue from his wounds. Then, she attached a medical device called a fixator, with pins and rods, to both of his legs to hold the fractured femur bones in place.<\/p>\n

The surgery lasted less than three hours. Next, Dr. Daniel Valentino, a trauma and acute care surgeon, performed a second surgery to check John\u2019s internal organs for damage.<\/p>\n

Getting care at a Level I trauma center made a difference for John and illustrates the importance of having access to this type of care, and follow-up care, in southern Colorado, Helmig said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a lot of severe injuries, and any delay with his care could have resulted in very different results for him, in terms of survival, infection risk, survival of his leg,\u201d she said. \u201cWe provide really good high-acuity care at UCHealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alicia and Joseph sat in the ICU waiting room for hours. She remembers a certified nursing assistant who brought them pillows and blankets.<\/p>\n

It had been just 12 hours since the accident. Alicia knew that everything about their lives had changed.<\/p>\n

During weeks in the ICU, John\u2019s caregivers became like family<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After those initial surgeries, Alicia and Joseph stood in the hall outside of John\u2019s room in the intensive care unit. More than a dozen nurses and other healthcare providers wheeled John into his room and began to connect him to various machines and monitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of things were going on all at once,\u201d Alicia said. \u201cWe stayed in the hall and just watched.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two days after the accident, Alicia went home for the first time to shower and sleep.<\/p>\n

She gave this sober update to their sons: \u201cHe has a lot of injuries, and we have a long road ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past, doctors might have amputated John\u2019s right leg because of his extensive injuries, Helmig said. But since then, they have developed new methods to repair bone, skin and other tissue, with the help of a plastic surgeon, Helmig said.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 14, Helmig performed surgery on John again, this time to fix his legs with hardware, including a rod, a small plate and screws. The next day, a plastic surgeon made skin and muscle repairs to John\u2019s leg using tissue from his back.<\/p>\n

John has only a few memories of the two weeks he spent in the ICU. He remembers crying for help when he dropped the nurse\u2019s call button. He recalls the cheesecake Alicia fed him from the hospital cafeteria. And he remembers when his boss brought him a Mountain Dew, his favorite soft drink.<\/p>\n

After his time in the ICU, John went to the progressive unit and then the orthopedic trauma floor. In all, he had to spend four weeks at Memorial Central.<\/p>\n

Despite the excruciating recovery, Alicia and John praised the doctors, nurses and others who cared for them both.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe laughed, we cried, and they became my family,\u201d Alicia said.<\/p>\n

\"William
William gets a hug from his dad John Mazanec, who survived a terrible motorcycle thanks to a new program that helps paramedics provide whole blood to patients who need immediate help. Photo by Mark Reis, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alicia knew she would need to figure out how to balance time with her husband in Colorado Springs while caring for her sons and returning to her job as a school registrar in Pueblo. James was in his senior year at South High School, while William and Oliver were busy at their schools.<\/p>\n

John then moved to a skilled nursing center. His recovery seemed interminably long. John spent most of the day in bed and could bear weight on only his left arm. His traumatic brain injury made communicating frustrating. John compared it to having five TV screens in his brain, but only two in working order. It was tough to find the right words to use in a conversation as his brain healed. His sons still tease him about saying \u201cum\u201d a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to relearn how to have a conversation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alicia wondered at every point: \u201cIs this our new normal?\u201d<\/p>\n

By November, John\u2019s short-term memory and speech were improving. He occasionally struggled to think of words, but Alicia and the boys could figure out what he was trying to say.<\/p>\n

The injury on his left bicep was healing well. But his legs weren\u2019t healing as quickly as he had hoped. He could bend his left leg only slightly, and his right knee was particularly troublesome; John couldn\u2019t bend it at all.<\/p>\n

A glimmer of normalcy when dinnertime arrives<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On the day after Thanksgiving, John went home. It had been nearly three months since the accident.<\/p>\n

Joseph installed a wheelchair ramp at the front entrance. But their tri-level home was far from ideal for John.<\/p>\n

The main-level living room became John\u2019s room, with a hospital bed and portable toilet. John\u2019s brother was able to work remotely, so he moved into their house to help care for John during the day while Alicia was at work. He stayed for more than four months.<\/p>\n

John\u2019s boss and coworkers from Rampart Supply renovated the bathroom in the lower level of their house, but John wouldn\u2019t be able to use it for several more weeks.<\/p>\n

Home cooking helped accelerate John\u2019s recovery. In early December, John had follow-up appointments with his doctors and learned that his femurs were starting to heal.<\/p>\n

Then, finally, the smallest bit of normalcy returned in the Mazanec household.<\/p>\n

Before the accident, dinner was always a time when John, Alicia and the three boys would sit at the table, phone-free and eat together. They talked about their days and enjoyed each other\u2019s company.<\/p>\n

When John came home, he spent most of the time in bed. Family meals became something they all missed. In late February, John was able to spend more time in his wheelchair. One evening, he wheeled up to the dinner table, and the family once again was able to eat together.<\/p>\n

\u201cEating dinner was one of the things we all took for granted,\u201d Alicia said. \u201cThen it was the biggest thing we were finally able to do, to sit together again.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, John and Alicia marked the six-month anniversary of John\u2019s accident. With twice-weekly physical therapy sessions, John now could bend his left leg to 90 degrees. His right leg was stubbornly stuck at 60 degrees. He could transfer himself from his wheelchair to a chair. On March 6, he stood up for the first time since the accident. He started walking on March 20, using crutches, then a cane. He helped cook dinner and wash the dishes.<\/p>\n

\"Family
The Mazanec family celebrated James’ high school graduation this spring. He plans to attend Pueblo Community College this fall to become a paramedic. Photo courtesy of Alicia Raebel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the school year ended, John marked another milestone when he attended his sons\u2019 year-end school rituals: academic excellence ceremonies, final concerts and James\u2019 graduation. Despite the incredible challenges of the school year, the three boys excelled. James graduated summa cum laude with distinction, William got his first 4.0 GPA for the year, and Oliver made the honor roll.<\/p>\n

James will start at Pueblo Community College this fall and plans to become a paramedic. It was a goal before John\u2019s accident; now he\u2019s even more driven to become a first responder.<\/p>\n

Getting back to normal after the accident<\/strong><\/h2>\n

John will endure his eighth major surgery on Aug. 7. Doctors will remove scar tissue and an overgrown bone on his right knee to enable it to bend more freely.<\/p>\n

He can\u2019t wait to drive again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going stir crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting cleared to once again drive will enable John to return to work. As he eagerly awaits that day, John holds two realities simultaneously: the knowledge of what he\u2019s lost in the past year and the immense gratitude for his healing.<\/p>\n

\"John
By the spring after his accident, John Manzaec was using crutches to walk, then a cane. The family cherishes time together, including phone-free dinners together and fishing at their favorite spots in southern Colorado. Photo by Mark Reis for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYou have money,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have clothes. You have all kinds of things. But you don\u2019t have time. That\u2019s what I lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to get back to what normal was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alicia and John talk a lot about the serendipity and grace of the past year. Alicia marvels that John started using a crash alert system on his phone just a few weeks before the accident, and the whole blood program was just days old when John desperately needed a whole-blood transfusion.<\/p>\n

Support from family members and her coworkers has been crucial, she said. The owners of Rampart Supply, along with John\u2019s boss and coworkers, helped at every turn, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all played an integral role in helping us get through this tragedy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

John and Alicia said they pay more attention now to the little things in life and take nothing for granted. Crushed beneath his motorcycle in a busy intersection during rush hour traffic in Pueblo, he wasn\u2019t sure he\u2019d live.<\/p>\n

Alicia uses the word \u201cincredible\u201d to describe the more than three dozen medical providers who had a part in John\u2019s care, from the ambulance staff who gave him a whole-blood transfusion to the Parkview ER team to the Memorial Hospital Central doctors, nurses and other staff members who cared for him for weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHands down, they are amazing doctors and staff,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Helmig said it\u2019s been gratifying to get to know John in the months since the accident. She has enjoyed seeing his true personality reemerge and admired his positivity and strength. Whenever he faced challenges, John repeated his go-to mantra: \u201cWe\u2019ll make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe really has made a lot of progress in the last few months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A return to a favorite family pastime <\/strong><\/h2>\n

On a recent summer morning, John, Alicia and their sons walked toward a fishing spot at Cattail Crossing in Pueblo West. The park features a smooth, flat sidewalk loop around a pond, plentiful benches and picnic tables and places to fish, including concrete slabs for those with disabilities.<\/p>\n

\"John
John Manzanec and his family have returned to many of their favorite rituals and pastimes since his accident last fall, including fishing together. Photo by Mark Reis, for UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

James, who recently turned 18 and was too old to fish here, helped carry a chair for John. Oliver and William threw out their lines until William\u2019s hook snagged on the bottom of the pond. He handed the rod to John, who gave it an expert tug, and then flicked it up and down to free the hook.<\/p>\n

Everyone in the family agrees that James is the best angler. He pulled a bobber from his tackle box and attached it to Oliver\u2019s line. The younger boys threw out their lines again, one with a rubber cricket and the other a rubber worm.<\/p>\n

John learned to fish on a Florida canal when he was growing up. He started fishing with James when he was just three years old, then taught William and Oliver how to fish. Their favorite spots are the Arkansas River and the ponds below the spillway of the Pueblo Reservoir.<\/p>\n

Slowly, the family is regaining the parts of life that have been on hold for the past year.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is so incredibly precious,\u201d Alicia said. \u201cWe don\u2019t wish that this had happened, but all of the timing lined up to give us more time together. All of the planets and stars aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alicia Raebel was grocery shopping in Pueblo West with her three sons when her phone rang with a San Francisco number that she didn\u2019t recognize. She let the call go to voicemail and finished her shopping. Then, as she and her kids walked out of the store, her phone rang a second time with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2418,"featured_media":92330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[146,3305,235,61,565,2786,9256],"class_list":["post-92327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-blood-donation","tag-donating-blood","tag-emergency-care","tag-emergency-medical-services","tag-trauma-services","tag-uchealth-memorial-hospital-central","tag-uchealth-parkview-medical-center"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhole blood helped save his life when seconds mattered - 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