The Mae Beth Story

A drunk driver crashes into a young lady critically injuring her and changing her life forever.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

A man was driving drunk and he hit you and he ran off.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

So he ran? Okay, that's pretty cowardly.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Yeah, I remember being hit head on. I remember pressing on the brake to try to get the vehicle to stop and my legs wouldn't work. One nurse I remember like touched my face to make me look at her and she said, Do you want to live?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

You battle through it. You get through it. And you know that that that is nothing shy for. Hello and welcome to a very special edition of Tennessee Roll Call. We are here in Tracy City, Tennessee at WSGM Radio 104.7 on your FM dial. Be sure to go and check them out. We thank them for letting us use the facility today. And I've got a very special guest with me, Miss May Beth Ruling, who is going to share with us a very tragic incident that occurred uh a long time ago that left you, unfortunately, left I mean it's completely changed your life. And uh we're gonna be talking about that. Found out that the gentleman involved in this was under the influence at the time. Such a such a shameless crime that uh that occurred that left you in the condition that you're in. But first of all, before we get started, uh tell us who Maybeth Ruley is.

unknown 1:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

So I grew up in Grundy County. I lived in Palmer, Tennessee all my life. Um I went to Grundy County High School. I was a cheerleader pretty much all my life. I even played softball all my life. I was a pretty active girl growing up. Uh I had a lot of dreams. Like I always wanted to be in healthcare, like to work um within the EMS, a nurse, just like busy stuff like that. And I don't know, the dreams and the hopes I had for myself eventually just crumbled after I was hit by a drunk driver.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Uh healthcare. What kind of what kind of healthcare did you want to get into?

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Um, nursing.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Is that what you're going to school for now?

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Um, I'm going to school for now a social worker. So because I made the decision, well, physically able, I couldn't well, I feel like I couldn't be a good enough nurse and always h would have to prove myself. So I was like, Oh, if I could be a social worker, I didn't have to walk. I could be sitting and still helping people. Uh-huh. And especially like just being there for someone else within the field because I would have the credentials to help someone who if similar happened or more of a traumatic. How far are you there's going? I graduate next December.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Awesome. And you know where you're gonna go?

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Um, I don't know yet. I know next semester I'll be in my practicum and I don't get to pick that. They just what's best for me.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Awesome. Let's go back to that day. Do you remember much about what you were doing that day?

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah, um, I remember every detail actually. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Oh that that's that guess that's kind of good and bad in a way.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

But before the accident happened, what were you doing that day?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Um I woke up that morning because I had a doctor's appointment, and I remember getting up, and I still remember the clothes that I put on. It was Christmas leggings because it's December, so and that day I was going to go do Christmas crafts at the assisted living place here in Tracy City. And so my mom drove me because her car wasn't working at the time. So she took me to my doctor's appointment, and when leaving, I told her that I could just drop her off from work, drop her off to work since I was coming back later that evening to do Christmas crafts with the residents there. And I was really depressed that day. I was going I've struggled with depression mostly all my life, but coming back, she was like, Oh, maybe you should ask your sister to go with you to be there with you at the apartment. And I was like, No, I think I'll just go home. So I went back home, and I remember fixing me a bowl of ice cream and watching The Walking Dead, and I started to get really cold and sleepy, and I was like, Oh, I can have an hour nap. So I went laid down and I set my alarm for 6 30 p.m. at night. Of course. And I woke up and I freshened my makeup up a little bit because the the residents there just always liked seeing younger people there. And I spent most of my time volunteering all the time. Well, that's good.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

That's I mean, you do definitely have a big heart.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Yeah, I do. I loved they taught me a lot. Okay. And after what happened to me, I kinda feel a little bit for them at the time because now I'm I'm disabled just like they were, and I understand from a different perspective.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

But now you were watching The Walking Dead, and I guess it was brand new back then. What what year was this?

SPEAKER_00 5:23

2017.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

2017. Yes. So uh about what time did this happen?

SPEAKER_00 5:28

718 is when I looked down at the clock before he hit me.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

And it was dark?

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Yes, so I my alarm went off at 6 30. I got up, 7 o'clock, I'm on my way, but I pulled over because I was I called my mom and I said, I'm really tired. I'm not for sure if I want to come or not. But I was like, I'm gonna get off the phone with you and ask dad, because I'd asked my dad to borrow some money because I was gonna do a diet. And I hung up the phone with him and I put my phone down and I was like, Well, I guess I'll go down there because I promised the residents to do Christmas crafts. Then seven minutes from leaving the place at the junction at the red light by L and L, I was on my way and I saw a black truck as it was so there's a curve, and I kept on saw him going over in my lane, but it was far back enough. I was like, well, you know, maybe he just text and driving or got distracted. And then when I saw him go over again into my lane, he wouldn't move out of my lane. And here I am, 45 miles an hour, or whatever I was going, and him the same amount. And then I remember being hit head on, and as the vehicle is spinning, I I was trying in that second to look for my phone because I was like, someone has to save me. I don't know what to do. I wanted to call 911 as the vehicle was spinning. And I could my phone wasn't there, and I remember pressing on the brake to try to get the vehicle to stop, and my legs wouldn't work.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Yeah, so I couldn't stop the vehicle. And then I finally hit the telephone, the light pole. And yeah, um, then I woke up and the first thing I felt was glass in my mouth, and I was tasting blood, and I looked down at my arm, and my arm's just open, it has lacerations everywhere. And then I try to get out of the car, so I try to open the door, but my legs don't work, because I even still remember trying to kick the door open at that time, and I then passed out, and then I woke up to an officer of Grundy County, and he was like, a man was driving drunk and he hit you and he ran off. So I'm going to Well He didn't even stop. No, he ran a mile up the road, is when they caught him, and they said he was holding a boot in one hand and a missing shoe, like missing.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Oh, so he was actually out of the truck at the time.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

He ran away, yeah, and they couldn't find him. But they eventually did, after the officer said, I'll be right back. When they found him, he came up to my car, the drunk driver, and he was like, Oh, I'm so sorry. And then I hear law officers saying, put him in the car. And then I wake up again after I passed out a couple of times and the fire department was there, and they said, Ma'am, we're gonna get you out. Um, and then I I heard someone say they had to use a crowbar. So they open the door and then they said, and then the ambulance comes there and they say, We're gonna get you out of this car, and I was screaming and begging for them not to get me out of the car because I knew once they put my body on that yellow board to keep me stable, that was gonna hurt really bad.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

About how long was this period from the time that you wrecked to the time that the ambulance got to you?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Um, it felt like forever. I knew that the fire department was the first ones at the scene.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

And was it com was it would that be coma?

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Coma, yeah. Okay.

unknown 9:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Yeah. And then uh so they was able to get you out, and I'm and at this moment you you're still conscious and you're still feeling it really.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yeah, and I as I'm laying there, you know, I see the moon and I remember praying out loud. I was like, God, just please take me away right now. And then I heard um a woman on the EMS team, you know, it's Grundy County, it's a small county. So I knew everyone on there, and I remember hearing her voice, and she was like, No, don't say that. We're gonna get you um up and and you know, in the card so you can get help. And then it was at that point they were trying to ask me questions so I would stay awake. And then yeah, um, it's just so weird all how it happened as well because the wreck happened in my best friend's yard. Oh really? I didn't know that. So um I drove her to Erlinger all the time because her baby was born premature, so I would take her to Chattanooga, Erlinger. And it's so weird because I was like, the helicopter is what took me to Erlinger at a place I'd stayed for months because I was helping my friend with her baby. Wow. And here I am fighting for my life, you know, at this same place.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

So you're going to w uh do crafts with people, yeah, and then have this happen. And I mean, I I'm sorry, not sorry. I I I appreciate the fact that he apologized and all like that, but he ran. Okay, that's pretty cowardly. Yeah. I'm not gonna I'm I I'm not gonna have any sympathy for that. He that that was very cowardly. First of all, it was cowardly for him to get behind the wheel of the vehicle to begin with and injure somebody. But then he ran from it as well.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

So and what he also did was he worked at a place in Manchester working on homes constructions or whatever, and it was told that he was smoking weed all day at work and also drinking beer because when the police opened the door after he hit me of his truck, beer cans just fell out.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

And that's when they it was an indicator of all four people having fun, whichever way they want to have that fun. But when you get behind the wheel of that vehicle, we don't need to be well. Absolutely amazing. So you didn't even think at this moment you were gonna make it.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

No, I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

And and by the way you were talking, you were fine with that because of all the pain.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yeah, I just and even now, you know, because I I struggle with pain daily, and sometimes I'm like, oh, you know, I just wish it I would have died. Oh yeah. But another thing that still bothers me to this day, because I think about it a lot, before he had hit me, uh a witness, a man that had been following him from and he lives in Grundy, following him from Manchester up the mountain, he noticed the guy had been drifting off all the way up Man Tra Manchester Mountain, Tracy Mountain, and he called dispatch three times and he wasn't able to get through. And I always think about that, well could I've been saved, you know, if I I'm I I've I I can understand why that would go through their mind of what if you got to okay, they took you to Swanee first, right? No, they uh Oh they immediately Yeah, live flight.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

They immediately live flighted you to Erlanger.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Okay. How long were you in Erlanger for?

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Um, I was in the ICU for two weeks and then um they transferred me to like the trauma floor. I was there for a month, and then they sent me to a physical rehab for three months. And then I got a blood clot after I got home. I was only home for two days and I got sent back to another rehabilitation.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

So uh all this happened over a period of like six months that you were kinda in and out of the hospital.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Um when you when were you told that the extent of your injuries?

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Um, so I remember even being on the helicopter, and I remember being taken into the ICU, and when someone has a wreck or something like that, you know, all the nurses, the doctors are checking you out, and I was getting mad at all of them because I'm like, why is everyone touching me? No one had told me like what happened, and I'm I'm going crazy, so that's probably So did you forget what happened by the end? Yeah, because it it felt like a dream, all that. I just felt like I was in a dream.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

So you were in the hospital and didn't really know why.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Yeah, and so that's why I was like going off on these nurses, no one touched me. And then uh one nurse, I remember her, she had a red jacket on, but she like touched my face to make me look at her, and she said, Do you want to live? And I was like, Yeah, and she was like, Well, for us to save you, you're gonna have to calm down a little bit and work with us. And I remember telling myself, Okay, Beth, you're gonna have to work. And then I kept on asking them what had happened, and she because in my head I'm thinking I did something wrong. And she was like, Oh, I think they said you got hit by a drunk driver. And then after that, I remember passing out and then being waken, woken up by the surgeon, so he can tell me like he's about to decompress my spine and put rods and screws in it.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

When were you told that this was uh a paralyzing event?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Oh, um probably like two weeks after my surgery. A doctor had came in there with some students, and um he said you have a 50-50 chance of ever walking again. So take that how you will. Yeah. But you know, it didn't feel it still felt like a dream. I was like, what is this guy talking about? You can break a bone, which the but broken bone, my spine punctured my spinal cord, so that's why I can't walk and have so many problems. But I was like, he's crazy. How can you break a bone and just not be able to walk again?

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Now you couldn't move during this time period, right? So did you already have an idea that this was what's going on, or did it kind of just seem so for real surreal when he told you?

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Yes, surreal. And also at the time I had my phone, I didn't get to have my phone till two weeks. So as this ha is happening, I'm looking at my phone and I'm having people message me saying, Oh, I broke a leg and i it it will heal, like you'll be fine. So I have that false hope of like, yeah, this isn't permanent, even though the doctor said 50-50. You know, I had any other any chances now of anything being fixed or well I got my bladder back, bowel and bladder, so I can pee and use the restroom on my own. And I do have mobility, I can stand, but as far as like getting up and just taking off walking, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

If do you mind telling me that because I didn't know about the bowel and bladder thing, do you mind telling me the extent of the injuries?

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Oh yeah. So a spinal cord injury is wherever you're injured, I'm at T4, so from my chest down, everything is affected. I'm diagnosed from the spinal cord injury with a neurogenic bowel and bladder, and that is pretty much your bowel and bladder being paralyzed. Most patients with a spinal cord injury have to catherize themselves or get some kind of surgery so they can catheter their belly button, and some paralyzed people get a clo colonoscopy bag, or they have to like digital stem, as they call it. But yeah, I was thankful enough to so you didn't have to go through all that or well for four months I had a foley catheter, is where the catheter just stays in you. And then when I went back to the other rehab because I had the blood clot in my leg, the doctor there trained me to pee. He was like, every four hours you're going to sit on the toilet and you're going to try to pee. And one day I did. I had to you I had to watch YouTube videos of like waterfalls to try to like get it in my head of like, hey, you know, you can pee.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

I love your attitude. Yeah. I'm I I'm I'm over here right now thinking, wow, having to be retrained just to go to the restroom.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

And you just you have such a good attitude about it. I mean, you definitely are facing this like a champion.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

I feel like, you know, I can't go back and change it. And unfortunately I'll try to make the best of it and spread awareness. You know, just by doing this, maybe if someone sees it, like people can take drinking and driving more seriously.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Well, I think a lot of people get really complacent. You know, they drink and drive before and make it from the bars and stuff and go home. A lot of people even think that it's not a big deal until it is a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Yeah, until someone kills their family or well, this right here is very true.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

I mean, I'm glad you're still with us. But this this killed the OU. I mean, this you're you're you're having to relearn everything it's i in even how to use the bathroom.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

You're having to relearn everything.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Until and too, like the challenges of going out in public. Like I live in a world that wasn't made for me, wheelchair users, disabled people.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

And that's what I'd like to get to next, if you don't mind. Um a lot of people that don't have to deal with this type of stuff would completely take it for granted. Like having to reach something high and things of that nature. Uh, can you tell us what a day-to-day basis that you go through?

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Well, every morning when I open my eyes, I get nauseous because I'm like, oh, it's another life. And then I look in my wheelchair and I'm like, oh, I have to transfer to my wheelchair and then be up and constantly be in pain all day.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Are you able to get any help on that?

SPEAKER_00 19:58

No. Cause like, you know, pain pills, they don't help. It's just a pain that's just there.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Nothing they can do for the nausea the morning nausea.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

No, I think it's just mentally I'm like, oh crap. And then I look at my chair and it's a reminder of what he did to me.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Just so you have to get up in the morning and and face that and get back in the chair. Yeah. Um what what from then?

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Um, well, there's always like I have to take a shower and with that it it's hard to. I feel like I never get cleaned enough because I have to like transfer to my shower bench and then be assisted sometimes in the shower to make sure I get cleaned. And I live in an apartment, so it's not very like I don't have an accessible shower. I always have to just adapt to the things that I have. And then so I I drive. I have a car now with hand controls that I can drive, but it's just everything wears me out because it everything I go out to do when I open my door to be in the public space, um, there's challenges all the way around and I'm constantly have to think of a plan each time I go out.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

But how long does it take you like from the m from the time you wake up to the time you're ready to leave your house?

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Ooh, I always have to get up like three hours early because of so I'm very spastic. My legs will kick out spasm, and in the morning time it takes like an hour just to get my legs settled for the day so I can pull my pants up and get dressed and put my shoes on. I'm just constantly having to fight with my body. And I always get at places like an hour early because you never know of the inconvenience of like an elevator not working, a parking spot, not a handicap. parking spot.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

And I remember you telling me something, we'll mention this. There was a Facebook post not too long ago that uh I guess somebody said something about handicap parking. And and you know you you made a comment or made or you you had I want I want you to tell it but you you had made a comment trying to tell people how important something was and you got flat for that. So tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

At my apartment complex a truck had parked his bed over the sidewalk so when leaving my apartment to get to my car and to the ramp um I couldn't because his truck bed had parked over the sidewalk. And it's happened multiple times. Like the first time I can yeah sure he didn't mean it but this was every time and I didn't think too much of it until one night I had to go to the emergency room and thankfully my boyfriend was there but he had to push me through the grass. And when I uploaded that video to like show like please be aware of people with mobility aids because they need the sidewalks to like just look out for that to think of that. Some people were in the comments making excuses for the truck driver saying oh it's because the parking lot structure even when I went out there myself to measure the parking lot and say hey a truck bed is usually this there's no excuse.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

You're not asking for the world. You're asking for a just be mindful. Yes and and and just the correct because I wouldn't have known that you know I wouldn't have thought of that. And that's why I posted it so people could but why I wonder why people have to automatically become so defensive. I know I mean because I again I could have been very well that person that parked over the sidewalk not thinking not being mean right or insensitive but just not thinking.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

So I appreciate the fact that you tried to make an awareness for that because I'm going to be more mindful of it from now on. But why wouldn't somebody just decide they want to just be mean about it. No the I think it's overall they just don't care about disabled people until it's them that well not and I don't think a lot of people have the bravery that you do as well because you have that yeah and of course I can understand you having those moments of weaknesses but you've you battle through it. You get through it and you know that that that is nothing shy of heroic.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Well I'm not that I'm not saying nothing you don't go through. I mean it's it's it's nothing shy of heroic every day. So I'm I'm just very very proud of you that you are able to do what you're able to do. Uh talk us about like you know you talk about you know getting into your car. What what challenge is that?

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Um well I drive just a Kia car and it's not adaptive so I have to take my wheelchair apart, put the wheels in the back seat and then I have to pick up my whole frame and then throw it over me and that puts me in pain more I'm already in pain so you start the day in pain and now you're having to go that's why sometimes I just want to be home in the bed.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

I don't mind I don't blame what what would be more beneficial for I I guess they would have they have vehicles out there that are and are those uh do you have access to that or no they're just they cost so much money.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

You know and that's another thing the drunk driver Anthony took from me was I don't have nothing. I got hit by him at 19 years old. I'm 28 and I don't have nothing.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Well I think I I think you got a little bit going on for you. You mentioned your boyfriend can we let's talk about him for a second.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Yeah what's his name his name is Dante and I've been dating him for five years this month would be five years.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

And I understand he is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Yeah yes I knew he was different because even when we first started talking he never asked like what happened to you why are you in a wheelchair?

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Just he didn't care I mean you you are you are May Beth. You're not somebody Yeah and even now he never complains about helping me it's just he's he says it's never bothered him and well I'd say he's a keeper then yeah he is May Beth thank you for being with me today and telling us I know that's hard for you to do having to kind of relive that I relive it every day so I don't care sharing my story. Well keep sharing your story and and we're gonna share it as well