“Hitting their stride”
March 28, 2007
Family Fun Fest has something for all ages
April 2, 2007A Cut Off man was impaled through the neck by a tree limb early Wednesday after the pickup he was driving accidentally swerved into the roadside tree in Mathews on the La. 1 exit ramp from U.S. 90.
The limb pierced the driver’s neck on one side, and exited out the other side, said state Trooper First Class Rodney Hyatt.
Corey Dubois, 30, was taken to St. Anne General Hospital in Raceland “with serious injuries,” Hyatt said, but was later transferred to Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans. He was driving alone.
Dubois, however, was in “excellent” condition Friday morning, said his mother, Connie Hebert of Larose.
“It’s unbelievable,” Hebert said. “The tree limb missed everything (inside Dubois’ neck). The doctors say it’s a miracle, that they can’t believe he could go through this and live.”
Central Lafourche High School student Derrick Hotard was driving on his way to school behind Dubois when he saw Dubois’ 2003 GMC truck crashed into the tree, Hebert said.
Hotard “could see the branch through his neck,” she said, “but at first he thought it was a bone.”
The limb, which was two-and-a-half to three inches in diameter, penetrated the truck’s driver’s side window, “and then the tree fell down,” she said.
Hebert said that Hotard applied pressure to Dubois’ wound to try to stop the bleeding.
“I want to stress how grateful we are to this little guy (Hotard) who found him,” she said. “I really think he saved his life.”
Dubois has stitches from one side of his face to the other, Hebert said.
Dubois, who is a boat captain for Danco Operations, was driving to Superior Shipyards in Golden Meadow to work on one of Danco’s boats, she said. The crash occurred at 6:30 a.m.
“In my eight or nine years with the state police, I have known fence posts to have impaled drivers.” Hyatt said. “I can’t remember another case of a tree impaling a driver.”
Blood samples were taken from Dubois and sent to the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab in Baton Rouge to check for the presence of alcohol and drugs, he said.
