Teen survived crash 3 years ago, reflecting on “hidden blessing” (exclusive)

Three years after the devastating accident that left him with critical neck and back injuries, graduation Suafel Mesfin.

The 17-year-old Logan High School Senior tells people that the devastating crash was a “hidden blessing” because of everything he learned to push through the difficult physical and mental recovery.

“This showed what I can do. I could get through this,” says Utah -Tone year old. “This journey, even though it left scars, both mentally and physically, these scars are not a reminder of what I lost, but what I got.”

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On March 28, 2022, around 7:45, his older brother Kirubel drove him to school in a Nissan Altima. Then Surafel was a beginner and his older brother was a senior.

“We just walked around, just listened to music,” says Surafel about the moments before a water truck “came to hurt us.”

“I remember seeing the truck coming towards us, but I was too late to say anything. And after that everything turned black,” he adds.

When he woke up, there were glasses and shards of metal everywhere – and when he saw his brother dropped behind the steering wheel, Surafel thought he had passed away.

Then his own physical pain met.

“I screamed in anxiety,” he remembers. “It was only all over my body, especially my hips and hips.”

Paramedics ripped the brothers out of the car and flew them to two different hospitals. Although Kirubel was 18 at that time, Surafel was only 14, so he was sent to a children’s hospital in Ogden.

Surafel, whose parents and older siblings moved to the United States from Ethiopia before he was born, received two broken ribs and injuries to the neck and lower back. A Gofundme was established at that time to help the Mesfin family.)

Hospital staff prepared him for the challenges he would physically face the devastating crash, but he says no one talked to him about the mental obstacles he would have to overcome.

“No one really told me that I would constantly fight on my entire journey,” he says. “It was basically a losing fight against my body, only deterred daily about what I could do and what I could no longer do at that time.”

“It was basically just a wave of depression,” he explains. “I couldn’t move. And there was just a battle between me and my body, in principle, because I needed help with everything.”

He needed help eating, sitting upright or using the bathroom.

“It was daunting. I just felt useless,” he says. “Why did this happen to me?”

His brother had more extensive injuries. He underwent several emergency brain and heart surgery during the hours after the crash and then had additional procedures to treat his broken arms, wrists, hips and spine.

But Kirubel could also recover and he is now a 22-year-old student who mainly in psychology at the University of Utah.

Surafel plans to go to the same university in the fall and main subject in biology – and he hopes one day will be a neurosurgeon.

The teenager says that the resilience and gratitude he received through his recovery gave him a new purpose and that he became more involved volunteer in school and in his society. “I’m trying to grow closer to the person I want to be now,” he explains. “I want to become someone who turns his pain into an opportunity and acts with kindness and makes others feel seen, valued and cared for.”

“I couldn’t have done this without the support of my friends, family and society,” he says. “My friends and family said to me:“ Keep push forward. “I will fall sometimes, but what is important is to come back every time so I can just continue to drive forward. I think it helps me a lot.”