Family Undergoes Terrible Experience and Reaches Out to Irresponsible (Unknown) Driver via Local Newspaper

I'm going to post a letter that was sent to my hometown newspaper from a family that has undergone a catastrophe due to the careless actions of someone who left the scene of an accident like a coward and left his victim to die.

This is the most powerful letter that I have ever read, and I hope the person responsible owns up to what he/she has done.

To the editor:

This is addressed to the person that drove into the back of Don Morlan's car around 10:30 p.m., Dec. 1. After ramming his car and forcing him to go directly into the path of the oncoming snowplow, you just sped away.

Did you even look back at the devastation you caused?

Have you been enjoying your holiday? Don has been lying in the ICU at Marquette General Hospital in traction, on a ventilator, fighting for his life. He sustained 39 broken bones.

Both of his arms and legs were broken in many places, including both femurs. He had compound fractures, a broken hip, pelvis, both elbows (one was also dislocated), and his sternum was split open. The doctor said that he never saw anyone with that many broken bones who was still alive.

Don has already had four long surgeries to try and put him back together and has more to look forward to. He will have a long, hard road of therapy ahead of him to try to get back the use of his arms and legs. It is very doubtful that he will ever fully recover.

Don is a father and grandfather. He will spend his 40th birthday next month still in the hospital. He has always worked very hard and was going to his job at the Goodwill Farm when you changed his life forever. Don often has nightmares of the accident. Everyday he relives seeing himself being pushed into the plow and feeling his bones being broken and crushed. He never lost consciousness, so he was awake the whole time they were cutting the roof off of his demolished car and pulling him out.

He was awake and screaming in pain on the ride to Keweenaw Memorial and the trip to Marquette in the ambulance when the muscle spasms set in. It was the first thing his mother, daughter and other family members heard when we walked in the emergency room.

Maybe you can live with yourself and what you have done. Maybe it doesn't bother you that you left him to die in a ditch on that cold, dark night. We want to make sure that you at least know how badly you have hurt a good and decent man. Our family would like to thank the driver of the snowplow who called for help and stayed with Don until they arrived. We would also like to thank everyone else who helped. We encourage anyone who saw anything or knows anything to contact the police, if they have not already done so.

Thank you.

KM Family

Hancock