Asareel Renteria was patiently waiting at a red light about to turn left and make his last pizza delivery of the day. That’s the last thing he remembered on July 20, 2024.
He was told that strangers asked him to be still as they cut off his seatbelt.
What he’d learn later is that a driver coming the opposite direction tried beating a yellow light. In doing so, the driver lost control of his car and ran head-on into Renteria’s car.
Fortunately, good Samaritans got Renteria out ofhis car and called 9-1-1.
He was rushed to Harris Health Ben Taub Hospital where emergency room nurses and doctors treated him for a number of broken bones including his right arm, right leg, ribs, left wrist and pelvis.
Renteria was stabilized and taken into surgery the next day when he underwent a 12-hour surgery to place metal rods in his leg, arm, wrist and pelvis.
“I remember thinking ‘Am I going to live or die?’” he recalls. “Recovery was hard. I was in the intensive care unit for three to four days and I needed four blood transfusions.”
After spending three months at Ben Taub Hospital, Renteria went to a rehabilitation program.
“I am so grateful I was given a second chance at life. This accident could have been much worse,” he says. “I’m grateful to the doctors and nurses at Ben Taub Hospital—they were all great.”