Woman uses faith to survive crash

Rhonda DuBose was heading into Hartsville on Highway 151 on March 6, while a pickup truck was coming from the opposite direction.

That was the last thing she remembered.

She woke up a month later in a hospital room at the Medical University of South Carolina not knowing what had happened to her.

It didn’t take her long to know that she was lucky to be alive. The pickup truck was carrying fencing material and a long 2x4 piece of wood flew off the truck, went through the windshield and impaled her in the chest.

“It happened so fast that I didn’t know what happened,” DuBose said Tuesday. “It almost tore my neck off. I didn’t even have a chance to tell God to have mercy on me.”

DuBose’s injuries were severe. Her right arm was almost ripped off, her collar bone, shoulder blade and seven ribs were broken. And she had a collapsed lung.

“It was pain city when I woke up,” she said. “I thought about Jesus on that cross. A voice told me that I didn’t even touch the pain that Jesus went through. I know my faith has made me strong enough to endure this.”

The 2x4 crashed through the windshield, went through the steering column of the Ford Taurus she was driving and barely missed her aorta when it slammed into her chest. It splintered and portions of it landed on the deck of the back window.

Dubose stands a smidgen below 5-feet-2 inches and weighs 90 pounds. She was airlifted to MUSC, where she underwent three surgeries.

“It’s a miracle I’m walking today and have any of my mind left,” said DuBose, who was recovering from colon cancer when the accident occurred. “I give God the glory for surviving this. I keep thinking of the song by Carrie Underwood, ‘Jesus Took the Wheel.’

“I live one day at time now. I almost crossed over that bridge to heaven, but I heard my sister (Linda McCall) calling me. I turned around and knew I was in this world again.”

DuBose said her sister has been her caregiver. She has been living in McCall’s house while going through the long recovery process.

DuBose declined to give the name of the person driving the truck. She doesn’t remember anything about the accident and has relied on her sister to fill her in.

She was told that the driver of the truck was elderly and didn’t have the load tied down. She was also told he might not have known the load blew off because he left the scene of the accident. She said she’s not suing the driver.

“I’m just thankful that my life was spared,” she said. “I’m so thankful that I’m willing to give my testimony to those who want to hear it.”