Life can change in an instant

What started as a typical day in July of 2017 for the Goutierrez family turned into a nightmare as the father and husband they’ve known for years would have to endure a lifelong battle of extensive care.
The once active, hardworking, and strong husband and father became a brave, hardworking, and strong person who has become more and more active by the day.
Though things will never be the same and back to the way it was before, the family thinks back on their times as a family and how much they didn’t realize what it would mean to them.
It all began four years ago in July of 2017, when Johnnie
Goutierrez received a phone call in the late morning hours from her husband’s boss informing her of an accident that her husband was just involved in. “They told me that I needed to get to the emergency room at Lafayette General as soon as possible and that there was a work-related accident involving Jason,” Johnnie said. “On my way there, I received another call from a nurse asking for consent to intubate him.”
It was then that Johnnie knew that this wasn’t a good sign. The extensive injuries that Jason Goutierrez received from the accident left intubation as the best medical choice. But, once finding out the extent of the accident and Jason’s injuries, Johnnie had to be as strong as she could for her family.
“I was in complete shock,” she said. Being a nurse herself, it wasn’t hard to understand what was going on around her and what everything meant when she heard the words’ brain surgery’ from the mouth of those helping her husband.
Jason Goutierrez had been thrown headfirst into the cement after being catapulted from a bucket truck. Crushing the right side of his skull and having multiple facial fractures along with ever rib on the right side of his body being broken and his collar bone, once Johnnie made it to the ICU, her husband was already being prepped for brain surgery.
“Most of the surgery that day was to remove blood clots from his brain,” she said. “His injuries were devastating, but by the grace of God, he stayed strong through them.”
Jason Goutierrez spent a total of four months in the hospital, recovering from the accident and attending rehab.
Not being able to hear the voice of her husband and father since the accident four years ago, his family was still able to communicate with him. “He can type out a little bit of what he wants to say or he can write it down,” she said. “Though it is very messy, my years of working with doctors and reading their penmanship helped me understand his handwriting. And he still has his sense of humor, that’s for sure.”
Since the accident, there have been a few minor setbacks. First, he contracted pneumonia in early 2018, which caused a seizure. “Thankfully,” Johnnie said, “the CT scan of his head was good, and he didn’t have any more seizures during that hospital stay.”
The Goutierrez family had to learn an entirely new way of life. However, the family is thankful and appreciative to all who have helped in any way. “We had such a wonderful support group,” she said.
In August of 2018, Jason and his family reunited with the paramedics and firefighters who saved his life. That Monday, the day of the 2017 accident, Jason Goutierrez was as close to death as one can get. As there was no way to repay them, the family felt that it was important to let them know how much they greatly appreciated their hard work in saving Jason’s life.
Johnnie Goutierrez shows her unconditional love for her husband every day. Though there are nurses at the home 24/7, Johnnie is 100% involved in her husband’s care and plans to be at all times.
“Our lives will never be the same, and I can’t pity myself for the things that I have lost since that day,” Johnnie said. “He is the one that has lost the most as well as our children who have lost the father they once knew and who will never be the same; but they’re thriving.”
Sam Goutierrez, the youngest of the bunch, is a junior and is maintaining a 4.0 GPA and their daughter Kourtni now has her Masters in Biomedical Sciences.
“We are so proud that they didn’t let this get them down; instead, it made them stronger. Don’t ever take life for granted because life as you know it can be removed in a heartbeat,” Johnnie Goutierrez said. “We defeated all odds and are grateful for my husband’s life.”