You can't plan for things like this.
Suddenly I get this phone call and it was a police officer. What happened?
Mike had no clue how bad it was,
and I was just telling him, “It’s a lot worse than you think.”
I’m fairly certain I blacked out for a few seconds.
I remember him telling me to just look down at his leg ,and I can just see,
like, the bones inside his leg.
When I was sitting there, I was just hoping not to die.
You could tell he was losing a lot of blood.
They tourniquetted his leg. It’s bad.
And then they said, We’ve gotta lifeline him.
I had to put my trust in God that everything would be good.
I didn't know that I could die that day.
I didn’t know that it would change my life forever. Hi, my name is Dallin.
If I had to describe myself, I would say I’m very energetic and outgoing.
People say the glass is half empty or half full.
I would say it's either half full or like all the way full,
half with water, half with air.
I remember when he was little, and—and he was just such
a fireball everywhere. Just all over.
Here's the kid that in fifth grade uses his Christmas money to buy
a weighted vest, so he could run to school and back.
Me and Dallin have been friends forever, and we’ve done everything together,
and he's always just been super positive about everything.
I had just finished my first week of seventh grade, and I was like, “Hey,
I’ll go hang out with my friends.” So I went over to my buddy’s house.
He rode his bike over to our house and asked if
I wanted to go do something like go to the river or something.
We would do this often. So, hopped on our bikes,
went down to our nearby river, and we were riding.
And there's these dirt trails that we're familiar with.
We were riding along in, and it was getting pretty hot.
So we, like, got to a spot where we thought it looked deep in there
so we could get in, maybe swim around a little bit.
So we were like, Oh, let's jump in the river.
And we started climbing down this embankment.
We came across a little, like, spot, like a little ledge,
and above us there was just these rocks,
and it was kind of difficult to get down,
so we were like navigating our way across.
And there was this rock, a bush, and another rock,
and we were just stepping over the bush.
So we set our hands up on this ledge above us.
And we put our hands up to steady ourselves.
Just the weight of our hands made this whole ledge fall on top of us.
It was about a three foot ball rolled down and hit my friend Andrew
and knocked him back. It was so quick within seconds that it happened.
And they just came loose and crashed down on us.
The larger one came down on me, and it scraped my leg all the way down
and then crushed my foot.
And I remember us both just screaming and crying after that,
and we both had the adrenaline to climb up that hill.
I'm not even sure how. There were definitely some miracles there.
And we started walking, and we walked about 40 yards, and then I realized
I couldn't go any farther.
So I sat down, and I told my friend, “You go on, you go. I can’t.”
I was too badly injured.
I was just praying as I was running,
just praying out loud that everything would be okay and he'd be okay.
I was praying just to stay alive and for help.
And I was running past like people’s stuff and people’s bags on there,
and there was no people. I couldn't find anyone.
He told me the adrenaline just kept him going, and
the thought of me being seriously injured helped him to just keep running.
He ran about a mile.
I finally found Ed on the trail. He was riding his bike.
He rides his bike every day, and he’ll go down to this river trail,
and he always turns right and goes all the way down the trail and then all
the way back up to his house. But he decided, I'm going to turn left.
Like, I just feel like I need to turn left.
And the first person he saw while he was riding was my buddy Andrew.
So Andrew told me Dallin’s name.
He gave me the direction of where I needed to go.
I’m yelling out “Dallin” the entire time. Finally I hear, “I’m here.”
I came over a ridge, and I saw him.
And as I went over the ridge, he was sitting up, and he laid down
as soon as he saw me coming over the ridge and as soon as I got to him,
I realized, wow, this is pretty serious.
His cut was from the mid-thigh all the way down to his ankle.
His ankle was crushed. So the very first thing that I did was
I noticed that his tourniquet, it was untied.
I tied it up, put it in a very tight knot.
Of course, I'm making sure that he's okay.
I’m making sure that he’s conscious, and he’s not in shock.
And he’s—he’s doing okay.
He carries around pictures of Christ,
and he handed me one of those that helped just calm—not necessarily my
body but my mind to know that, first of all,
I was going to get through this. Second,
that there was someone who had already been through this for me
and that he suffered as I suffered and that he could relate,
and he would help me through it and understand what I was going through.
Suddenly, I get this phone call. It was a police officer.
He said, “I’m down at the river trail. I’m with your son.”
And the first thought in my mind was, what did he do?
My worst fear in that moment was that I would just—I would lose Dallin.
And as I came around the corner to the parking lot where there was
a paramedic, there were fire department, there were police cars.
They said that they had given him morphine
and that they had tourniquetted his leg.
And I at that moment, probably being the wimp that I am, decided that
I would not look. I wouldn’t view his leg or his foot, because
I wanted to be strong for him.
Dallin is getting life-flighted to Primary Children’s.
He's crushed his foot. It's pretty bad.
He's got a tourniquet on his left leg. The worry is the viability of the foot.
Since we pulled up to the hospital and into the emergency room,
we were ushered back to be with him.
And at that point, I focused more on Dallin directly
as they kind of just went by his side.
They immediately took me in for my first surgery.
They tried to make the bleeding stop. I came out of that surgery—
I’m not exactly sure how many hours it was—
but the doctor said I had thousands and thousands of stitches.
I remember telling my dad, saying, “You know,
I heard them saying they don’t think they can save the foot.”
My dad was so funny. He said, “Oh,
if anybody could hop around on a contraption, it would be Dallin,
you know?”
Later that night, Dallin—it was late at night, in the middle of the night.
He woke up, and I was by his side, not really sleeping much at all.
And he goes, “Hey, Dad, do you think this will mess up my running?”
Before my accident, I was the fastest kid in my school.
We would run the mile, and I would get first almost every time.
He had always had a dream of just running on the track team.
And even though we were praying for miracles,
the biggest miracle I think I was praying
for was that something could happen mentally and inside of him,
where he could recognize the Lord's hand in his life
and not fall away from that and not be bitter about that,
because people have physical trials,
but usually physical trials don't affect people until it gets to them
mentally, until it gets to them spiritually,
and it affects them that way.
We went back to the doctor’s office, and then he said, “I’m so sorry,
but it looks like we—we need to amputate the foot.”
I remember Mike saying, “Can you can you give us a minute?”
You know, and the team said, “Sure.”
And they stepped out, and the three of us
just kind of huddled and had a good cry.
I remember my amputation surgery.
I didn't know what it was going to feel like.
I didn't know what I was going to think.
And I remember opening my eyes, sitting up, and looking down at my foot.
I said to my dad, “Well, that’s smaller
than I thought.” It’s been inspiring to watch him.
He had kind of come to grips that this was going to have to be.
And I’ve found that whenever we turn to God that—that it gets—it’s better than
it would be without God. And that's what Dylan did. He turned to the Lord.
There is peace in trusting in Him.
That following spring, when the track season came,
I signed up, and I would run the 800 meter every race I could.
No matter if it hurt, I would finish, and even I got lapped a couple of times
because I was slow. But I—
I would go, and I would finish, just because I wanted to show that
I could do this, even if there was a challenge, an obstacle in my way.
And we just bawled the entire time to watch our boy
do something that he loved
and—and to watch his commitment.
It was such a joyful, happy day that he could cross the finish line.
And sometimes I think that's what hardship gives us,
is a different perspective on what’s important,
helps us find joy in really, really simple little things,
helps us find gratitude in places we wouldn’t have thought to look before.
I love God. I love Jesus.
I know that They have a plan for me and that They will help me through it.
They send other people to us to help, whether it’s a friend, family member,
or even some stranger.
I don't even have words for how grateful I am for Jesus Christ.
I know He atoned for our sins
and that He went through all that we will ever go through for us,
so that we could return to Him and to Heavenly Father.
The day that he ran his race and came in dead last—I’ve never been so proud.
And, at that moment, that spot was the championship spot in my eyes.
He keeps pushing and keeps trying and lifts others along the way.
Even at our darkest moments when we feel alone. Everybody has issues.
Everybody has trials. God knows that we can get through them
and that they will make us a better whole. We can always turn towards God.