'It's a miracle that he's alive,' says brother of Steinbach highway crash victim
Michael Bueckert, 26, is in hospital after he helped a man whose car was stopped on the road, brother says
Ryan Fast says he had no idea his brother was in an accident as he drove past a three-car crash in Steinbach, Man., on his way to work Wednesday morning.
"Then I got the phone call from my mother and I was like, there's no way that was him. There's no way," Fast said.
He says his older brother, 26-year-old Michael Bueckert, had just dropped off his son at a babysitter's place and was driving to work around 6 a.m. when he stopped to help a man needing assistance with his car on Highway 52 past Road 33 E in west Steinbach.
Fast, who is in contact with the man, says the man's car was immobile after hitting the curb when it skidded on ice.
As the two men worked to get the man's car onto the boulevard and off the highway, a vehicle raced toward them, said Fast.
"[The man] saw the car coming head-on and he yelled at Michael to get out the way, and [the man] like, jumped to the boulevard," he said.
"Michael slipped on the ice, and half his body was able to reach the boulevard but the other half … he got launched about 15 feet, against the curb, by a car going roughly 80 kilometres an hour."
Bueckert was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition, then flown to Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.
'He is a broken record right now'
Fast said his brother was in surgery Friday for some of his injuries, which include more than a dozen broken bones, a shattered pelvis, lacerations, brain hemorrhages, a spinal injury, internal bleeding, infections and blood loss, which required a transfusion of six to eight pints of blood.
"He is a broken record right now. It's like a puzzle, but you gotta find the pieces.… They say it's a miracle that he's alive," said Fast.
This surgery is one of many future procedures Bueckert will likely have to undergo as a result of his injuries, including surgeries to restructure his pelvis.
Fast said hospital staff told his family Bueckert will need to spend at least two months in hospital, but recovery could take up to three years.
The area where the crash occurred is well-lit with street lights, said Fast, who wonders if the roads were icy and how the driver of the car that struck his brother didn't notice him.
In an emailed statement to CBC News, an RCMP spokesperson said as of Thursday, a traffic analyst was still investigating the incident and no charges have been laid.
No other injuries were reported at the scene of the collision, the spokesperson said.
Fast said doctors initially told his mother they weren't sure if his brother would survive the crash. He's still trying to come to terms with what happened.
"I was just in shock, how he's, first off, so young," he said. "Second off … I'm the one who does the crazy stuff, I'm the reckless one. Why is he in this scenario?"
Community support
As for Bueckert's five-year-old son, Fast said the boy doesn't yet fully know what has happened to his father.
"That's a tough one.… All he knows right now is that Daddy is being taken care of by doctors and he's sick," Fast said.
Kahlan Unrau, Bueckert's step-brother, says people in Steinbach have come together to support the family during an uncertain time. A GoFundMe page to raise money for ongoing expenses and support Bueckert's son had reached over $18,000 by Friday evening.
When Bueckert is released from the hospital, Fast says he will be there for his older brother.
"He was [a] babysitter to us. He was a role model. He cooked for us," he said. "To now basically have these roles swapped … I need to take care of him."
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With files from Felisha Adam