Crash Victim Slowly Recovers in ICU

By: Kristin Bauer - Email

Updated: Mon 11:44 AM, Feb 25, 2013

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Christopher Evans remains in the ICU at Bryan West after a crash last weekend. His fiancé says just days after Valentines’ Day he left for a little bit, possibly to get her a gift and never came home.

Just a week later, his family is thankful he is alive.

“The car rolled five times, and he was ejected 300 feet from the vehicle,” said Hijazi Lewis, Evans’ fiancé, "so he's lucky to be here today."

Twenty-seven year old Evans lost control of his SUV near 56th and Alvo Road on Feb.16. Emergency crews rushed him to the hospital where he underwent brain surgery.

Family members say he's paralyzed on one side of his body, but he's showing small signs of improvement.

"He is really scared and in a lot of pain,” said Lewis. “We just keep praying. We’re not going to stop praying."

Family members say alcohol was not a factor in the crash, and he was wearing his seatbelt. The airbags in the car never went off.

Among the tragedy that night, there was one bright spot.

"It didn't look like he was breathing,” said Tyler Masserant, an ER Nurse. “It didn't look like he was alive at all. He was a good 30 yards from the vehicle."

Masserant was driving home to Omaha after a basketball game in Lincoln when he came upon the crash.

Masserant jumped into action—wrapping a sweatshirt around Evans head to slow bleeding until paramedics could get there.

“I think I did, hopefully, what anyone else would do, but it definitely helped that I had some sort of idea what possible injuries could be. His outcome would have been much worse if he had been laying in the median much longer."