SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio man is hoping to reach the good Samaritan responsible for saving his life after a motorcycle crash back in September.
Dominic Iverson, 21, has been riding motorcycles since he was 12 years old.
“It is my passion,” Iverson said. “It is the way I commute. I do have a truck, but I will pick my motorcycle over a truck any day,” he said with a laugh.
On Sept. 19, around 6 p.m. at East Houston Street and Walters, Iverson’s life changed.
“That day, I was working on a video shoot that I was putting together,” he said. “I went home to take a break, and then afterward, I got back on my bike with my camera gear and was heading out around the Alamodome to finish up my work for the day.”
While at the intersection and with the green light, Iverson was abruptly hit by a driver of a car San Antonio police say failed to yield while turning into his lane.
“So I fly off my bike,” Iverson said. “I believe I did a flip, but I wouldn’t know because my life was just spinning. I landed facedown on the pavement at the curb, and it was tough because, at that moment, I didn’t know what condition I was in.”
Iverson was able to reach for his phone and call 911.
“My next concern was my camera gear and if it was OK,” he said. “At this point, people are swarming me, and they are yelling. Some are bringing me water. Someone else called the police also.”
Iverson then looked down and realized blood was gushing from his leg.
“I looked back down at my leg, and my bone is out and bent in this direction,” he said.
The crowd of people rushed inside the gas station to get supplies from the owner to help.
“They came rushing and tried to get ice bags and water bottles and cloth to tie him up so he wouldn’t bleed anymore,” said Ahmed Lokhandwale, the owner of the store. “I was so worried that he got hurt like that. They were looking for a rope, but I didn’t have one, but they got a cloth instead.”
At that moment of chaos, Iverson said a person applied a tourniquet around his leg.
“I don’t know if it was a man or woman,” he said. “I believe that stranger took off their shirt and wrapped it around my leg. It was some kind of cloth, but it saved my life. They saved my life because two of my three arteries were severed in the accident, and I was bleeding out all over the street. Without that tourniquet, I would have passed away within a few minutes.”
Shockingly, Iverson never lost consciousness and was rushed to BAMC. He said he suffered from extreme pain, but the adrenaline running through his body at the time helped.
“It was more of the pain of not knowing what the future is going to hold,” he said. “I am planning to get married next year to my fiancé, so all of those things were running through my mind. I do typically ride with a helmet, but that day I went out without one, and I will never do that again. But I praise the lord because this person who tied the tourniquet around my leg saved my life that day.”
Iverson has been going through physical and occupational therapy. He’s had three surgeries and several more to go.
“Looking at him recover feels awesome,” said Lokhandwale. “Viva America! Because this is America. This is the spirit. Everybody was rushing to help him out. This is what it is all about.”
Now, Iverson wants his story to raise awareness about the importance of looking out for motorcyclists.
“That was one of the first things everybody told me is that San Antonio is a rough place to ride and drive. I just hope that people hearing this story, they can think, ‘OK, let’s make it better’ by taking one more step to look, and maybe we can turn it around for the whole city and turn that reputation around,” Iverson said.
He also had these two messages for the community.
“For motorcyclists who are still out there, always check out those intersections because they can get you,” he said. “Even if you have been riding for a long time. And for people with injuries like mine, just keep fighting. There was a high probability that my leg was going to be gut off. I lost six inches of a bone that the doctors are trying to grow back. You just got to keep fighting.”
Iverson said he would like for the person who saved his life to contact him directly at dominiciversonphotography@gmail.com.
“They didn’t have to do that,” he said. “They could have waited for the paramedics. They could have said that is not my responsibility. There are so many things, but they stepped in, and they knew what the right thing to do and they did it. I really want to say thank you and look them in the eye and let them know, ‘Hey, you saved my life.’ The rest of the years I live out and anything I accomplish, I want to thank them for.”
