12-year-old Austin Booker back in class after close call with Amtrak
You don't forget being hit by a train, then living to talk about it with your classmates at Christian Fellowship School--unless you are Austin Booker.
Every Guardian Angel in heaven and on earth surrounded the 12-year-old son of Lora Booker and the late Jim Booker on that fateful August 28 day in downtown Du Quoin.
What could have been the darkest hour in a family's life was, instead, its finest.
Austin was back in class for the first time Wednesday since being struck by a northbound Amtrak train at the Main Street crossing in Du Quoin. The staff and classmates held a pizza party for him,
As darkness fell over Du Quoin Wednesday night they sat and talked about the accident--and certainly the blessing--on their porch.
Austin and a bike-riding companion were waiting on the east side of the tracks for a freight train to clear, not knowing that a northbound Amtrak behind the freight train was pulling into the Main Street station.
"They call it a ghost train," said Austin. It was perfectly screened by the freight train, and the whine of the diesel engine and electric generators masked the warning horn of the approaching Amtrak. . The train was pulling into the Du Quoin yard at 25 miles per hour. As soon as the freight cleared, Austin headed across the tracks and "WHAM!" Austin and his bike were hit by train's front guard. Austin was thrown into a utility pole. He worried that his riding companion, Brandon Nippe, had been struck, too. But, Brandon was a heartbeat behind Austin and was not hit.
The impact tore a large circular gash around Austin's leg near the thigh. Austin and Lora kept a running count of the stitches--30 at Marshall Browning Hospital, another 100 stitches at Cardinal Glennon to close sections of the large wound and a final 30 stitches to hold a catheter in place that was used to drain the wound and feed antibiotics into it.
He was in Cardinal Glennon for nine days, three surgeries while in the hospital and two more as an outpatient. He goes back in about a month to make sure everything is healing properly.
Meanwhile the family's two dogs (a black lab thinks it's a lap dog) are glad to see Austin home and wanted to join us on the Booker porch,
There's a new bike in Austin's future. "I don't want to ride one until this heals," he said.
Sounds like a Christmas present or an Easter present. But, no doubt, the intrepid Austin will be back on it as soon as he can.
Amtrak hasn't entertained a reunion yet between Austin and the woman engineer who struck him. "We just want to tell her that he's alright."