Imagine ringing in the New Year with festivities, laughter, and fireworks, only to have chaos blast its way through your celebration. That’s exactly what happened in New Orleans, where the streets were bustling with people bidding farewell to the old year, and welcoming the new. But, as fate would have it, the jolly night was shattered in a way only life knows how.
As the clock inched towards midnight, a pickup truck emerged out of nowhere, speeding down the famed Bourbon Street. In its wake, it left a scene right out of a horror movie, claiming 14 lives and leaving countless others injured. Among those caught in the storm was 51-year-old Jeremi Sensky, a man whom life seems to adore testing.
Jeremi was not unfamiliar with adversity. A few years ago, an accident had already confined him to a wheelchair. As he celebrated the New Year’s Eve, he could never have guessed he would soon find himself a victim once more. On Bourbon Street, amongst the joyous revelers, Jeremi became acquainted with turmoil again as the truck knocked him off his wheelchair, breaking both his legs.
“I didn’t know if I was going to make it here,” Jeremi confessed, reflecting on the chaos and support he received. “Everyone helped me out. I’m all put back together again. I’m happy to be alive, man.” Now, isn’t that a curious twist of fortune? From a paraplegic frequently tested by life’s harsh examinations, to once again finding broken bones amidst a sea of confusion.
Initially, the noise that filled the air wasn’t something Jeremi could decipher. At first, he thought it was an explosion, an understandable leap given the circumstances. “Someone was yelling behind me,” he recounted, “and I turned around and heard a loud noise.
Before he could piece together the chaos, he found himself earthbound. Filling in the gaps of memory, he remembered thinking, “The next thing I remember, I was laying on the ground, and my leg was all floppy, like it was broken.” If you ever wanted a vivid description of something you never wish to experience, there it is – Jeremi lifting his leg, allowing gravity to do what it does best, fold his misadventure into reality.
Though his encounter brought him close to a lineup with the gunman who rained bullets on bystanders, being prone on the ground remarkably kept Jeremi out of immediate harm’s way. He survived surgery, and though confusion fogged his waking hours post-operation, he found relief in survival, chaos bedamned.
“I heard gunfire,” Jeremi recollected, “and I kept thinking, I hope I’m out of the way from the gunfire. I hope I’m low enough on the ground that I wasn’t in the way of the gunfire.” It’s not often one considers being on the floor a savior, but in Jeremi’s case, it seemed a sinuous twist of fortune, where the bottom truly became rock solid stability.
As he yelled for help, grappling with what’s left of his night—both physically and mentally—the scenario grew more surreal. Pieces from his chair strewn like reminders of an incident begging belief. Yet there he was, by what could be an explosive-laden truck, contemplating the blend of improbability and irony life served him that evening?
First responders arrived, swiftly carting him off to the University Medical Center. Even amidst post-surgery befuddlement, the question “What on earth just happened?” lingered, lingering as a content little cloud beside him. “I thought it was an explosion,” he recounted. “I thought something blew up.” But nope, life threw him its chaotic curveball not with a bang but with rolling tires.
Despite the night’s pandemonium, Jeremi chooses gratitude as his guiding star. “I’ve been through a lot in my life, man,” he confesses. “I was paralyzed in a car wreck. That was probably the worst part of my life, and I’ve been in a wheelchair ever since. I hate to say it, but I feel lucky right now. I am alive, and the people I was with are still alive.” And isn’t that the essence of resilience? Taking the worst and flipping it, like an improbable page, into a chapter of optimism.
So, while the year started with a chaotic bang for Jeremi, he isn’t fazed. Life handed him lemons dipped in chaos, and he’s busy stirring a concoction fit for tales to be told. As for his vivid outlook going forward, “I’m alive, man. I’m alive. Everything’s good.” says it all.
So, cheers to Jeremi, the man who proved that even life’s odd deck of cards can’t deter the joyful gamble called life. His story—a narrative of survival, with grace under impossible pressure—continues as the clock ticks forward, inviting each of us to live a little larger.
