The wife of the triathlete who was hit by a vehicle last Saturday assures that her husband’s recovery will be “very slow”
Santi continues to shake when she remembers the call she received from a friend of her husband last Saturday morning to announce that her husband had been hit by a drunk driver.
He knew that, although the caller assured him that his life was not in danger, his condition must have been serious, “otherwise he would have called me himself.” And, unfortunately, he was right. His partner, José Manuel Murcia, 51 years old and president of the Guerrita de Alcantarilla Triathlon club, was on his way to the La Arrixaca hospital in an induced coma and with multiple injuries to his face and body. Upon his arrival at the hospital, he was admitted directly to the ICU, where he continues.
Today, precisely, he will undergo surgery for the second time due to the serious injuries he has on his face, which have had to be reconstructed, and on his jaw. “He has a crack in his skull, a fractured cervical, he lost all the teeth in his mouth, he has burns all over his body from being burned by the road and various contusions from the fall. It is a miracle that he is alive », affirms his wife.
The driver was returning from the Librilla parties and in the breathalyzer test he showed a positive rate of 0.65 milligrams per liter
From the group of athletes that José Manuel presided over, they issued a statement asking “for justice to do its job. We don’t want people like that on the road. This insurrectionist, to say the least, came to party, without realizing that our party is riding a bike, ”indicates the statement from the Guerrita de Alcantarilla Triathlon club.
“It is not fair that a man who goes out with his bike in the morning, suddenly, because of the irresponsibility of a person driving drunk at the wheel, can see his life taken away.” The doctors who treat José Manuel assure that his recovery will be very slow and they do not rule out the possibility of sequelae from the injuries. “I know that he will get ahead because he is a very strong person,” says Santi.
José Manuel lives for sport. In the club they practice cycling, ‘running’ and swimming, and attend numerous tests throughout the country. The last one in which he had participated was an ‘ironman’ in Vitoria-Gasteiz, together with 2,500 fins from all over the world.
The car did not stop
Santi remembers that that Saturday morning they went out by bike in “a group” of five companions. «They circulated arranged in a staggered manner, without occupying the entire road: two of them in front, another two behind and the last one, my husband, who closed the group, along the RM603 road, at the height of the Los Ventorrillos de la Costera area, in the municipality of Alhama de Murcia.
A 29-year-old boy, who was apparently returning from the Librilla parties, rammed them from behind at around 8:30 am. Sources of the investigation suggest that he did not even see them, since there were no signs of braking on the road. In the breathalyzer test, he showed a positive rate of 0.65 milligrams per liter, nearly triple the maximum allowed, which is 0.25 mg / liter. José Manuel took the direct hit. Two other companions, those who were in front of him, were also run over and, after flying through the air, they all fell to the ground. The bicycles ended up several meters away from the cyclists, made a mass of metal in the middle of an open field. The helmets they were wearing saved the lives of all three.
One of the cyclists who was leading the group observed the accident by turning his head back. «He assured that his three companions jumped into the air. They looked like dolls, “says José Manuel’s partner. Two of them suffered minor injuries and were released that same Saturday afternoon. But the one who got the worst of it was her husband, who from the hospital continues to fight to recover as well as possible in the toughest test of sacrifice of his life.
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