It was a typical Monday morning as then-16-year-old Justin Carey got ready for school and walked to the bus stop about 6:50 a.m. He popped in his headphones and began listening to music on his phone while he waited for the bus. The next thing he remembers is waking up in a hospital days later.
“I was thinking, ‘Where is my family and why am I in the hospital?’ ” Carey said in Clark County Superior Court.
Carey, now 18, testified Wednesday afternoon during the trial for Shaun C. Johnson, who’s accused of striking the Battle Ground teenager with her car June 10, 2013, while driving under the influence of methamphetamine.
Johnson, 48, of Amboy, faces charges of vehicular assault, possession of methamphetamine and bail jumping.
Carey had to have his right leg amputated at the knee as a result of the injuries he suffered.
He appeared in court Wednesday donning a prosthetic leg alongside his service dog, Shiva. Carey received the dog last year to help with his post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
Carey testified that he remembers little from the day of the crash.
He said that while in the hospital, his father told him he had been hit by a car, and when Carey looked down, he saw metal rods in his leg. “I slowly got information and was a little freaked out,” Carey said.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed in Superior Court, Johnson was traveling south on Northeast 82nd Avenue toward her workplace shortly after 7 a.m. While en route, she said she dropped a lit cigarette onto the floor and removed her seat belt to bend down and retrieve it. Her 2006 Nissan Altima veered off the road south of Northeast 289th Street and struck Carey.
Carey landed in bushes after being flung more than 80 feet. The impact fractured both of his legs and severed an artery in his right leg.
Emergency personnel responded to the scene but didn’t see Carey because he was concealed by the bushes. Additionally, Johnson didn’t tell anyone she had hit Carey. She later told police she didn’t know she had hit anyone. A tow truck driver found him more than 90 minutes later, court records said.
In the weeks that followed, Carey underwent about a dozen surgeries.
He said he decided to have his leg amputated because he knew he would never have feeling or be able to move it again. However, he said he knew it would come at a cost.
“My passion and plan was to join the United States military,” Carey said. “They won’t allow an amputee to go into the military.”
Before the crash, Carey was a member of the ROTC and was studying to take tests for the military, he said.
Now, he’s altered his plans. He wants to attend college and is interested in studying music.
Carey had to relearn how to walk and do other everyday tasks. “I can’t ride a bike or do the things I used to at all or the same as before,” he said.
Multiple times a day, he experiences phantom pain — a sensation in which he feels pain where his lower leg used to be. The sensation makes it difficult for him to sleep at night. He said it often feels like his right toes are curling.
“I have to fight my toes moving that aren’t even there,” he said.
Carey’s mother, Janette Chumley, testified through tears on Wednesday that her son has experienced issues with his short-term memory as a result of his injuries.
She said an officer called her the morning of the accident and said her son was being air-lifted to a hospital.
“I didn’t hear much after that,” Chumley said. “All I heard was Life Flight, Justin, and I panicked.”
When she arrived at the hospital, she was taken into a room to speak with a chaplain.
“I really didn’t want to hear what he had to say because I didn’t want my biggest fear to have come true,” she said.
Chumley saw her son briefly before he was rushed into surgery. “They said they didn’t know if he was going to make it, ‘but we will do our best,'” she said. “We told him to hold on and stay strong and fight for his life.”
After spending about seven hours in surgery, Carey pulled through. But the battle wasn’t over yet.
His lower right leg had become septic and was making him sick. The only option was to remove it.
“I knew at that point, he was not going to be a functioning teenager again,” Chumley said.
Carey was discharged from the hospital July 8. He remained wheelchair-bound for several months until he was fitted for a prosthetic leg, Chumley said.
She said her son sunk into a deep depression. He wouldn’t come out of his room or eat for about three weeks. “I felt like I was going to lose him,” she said.
Carey talked about committing suicide and was put on anti-depressants and suicide watch for a week, Chumley said.
“He still has days like that. There’s been a lot of dark days,” she said. “We take it one day at a time.”
Johnson’s trial is expected to wrap up today, with the jury then beginning deliberations.
