‘Life can change in just a moment’

It’s the call no parent wants to receive.

Thirty-two years ago, Boulder City resident Carol Hanson was awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call stating that her son, Ben, had been involved in a head-on collision while driving home from work in Las Vegas.

“Ben was driving home to Boulder City when a vehicle driving the wrong way with his lights off slammed into Ben,” she said. “The combined speed was 120 mph.”

The drunk driver was pronounced dead at the scene and Ben was alive but in critical condition to the point where he was originally pronounced deceased as well.

Flight for Life arrived and airlifted Ben to the trauma ward at UMC.

“That’s when I got the most horrible call in the world at 1 a.m.,” she said. “They asked, ‘Do you have a son named Ben Hanson?’ They said it was the trauma ward calling and that we needed to get there as soon as possible.”

When the family arrived, Carol said she didn’t even recognize her oldest son.

“He had no face,” she said. “I identified my son by the tan lines on his feet from wearing his sandals. We were in shock and had no idea what to do.”

Her talk was part of last week’s “Every 15 Minutes”, a nationwide program at high schools to show the dangers of drinking and driving, especially this time of the year as spring break, prom and graduation often have several temptations. While Every 15 Minutes is just a mock event, what happened to Ben Hanson was very real. Carol Hanson spoke on the second day of the event inside the high school gymnasium to a large part of the student body.

She continued her discussion by saying the family was encouraged to sign all of her son’s organs away to be donated to others.

“They took me out of the room and I was told that he was not going to make it,” she said. “Ben was in a coma. I didn’t know what to do. He was my oldest son and I was not going to lose him in this way.”

Ben was in a coma for three weeks and during that time, Hanson said she was, again, told there was no hope of him surviving and even if he did, he would have the memory and brain function of a 2-year-old. His face had to be reconstructed using titanium and a rod was placed in his shattered leg. His eye was hanging out of the socket but it was able to be repaired.

When he fully recovered from the coma, Ben had to be taught how to walk, talk and eat again.

“I was angry at the selfish act of someone getting in a car drunk,” she said, noting the driver left behind eight children. “That’s why we don’t call it an accident, it was a crash.”

While most drinking and driving stories rarely have a happy ending, that was not the case for the Hanson family. Toward the end of her talk, she brought out Ben to the applause of the students and faculty on hand. While he chose not to speak to the audience, he did assure them that he can speak.

More than a mock event

Two of the parents in the gym Thursday were David and Kara Zwahlen, whose son, David III, was extracted from the one of the vehicles and airlifted to the Boulder City Hospital. There, doctors did everything they could to save him but were unsuccessful. They received the grim news from one of the doctors in the waiting room.

“It was definitely tough, especially knowing this is something that could have happened and all his dreams and everything he’s worked for could have ended that day,” Kara said. “Knowing I could no longer have my baby was very tough.”

The elder David agreed, saying he can’t imagine not being able to communicate with his son as he does every day.

“It showed how quick and fleeting life can be,” he said. “Life can change in just a moment. It shows kids that they’re not bulletproof and that this can, and does, happen.”

Kara added, “I found myself hurting for the student who was the drunk driver and his family knowing not only the number of lives lost but that his life was basically lost as well. This was a very, very powerful program and every student should have to see it.”

Day 1

On Wednesday of last week, despite unseasonably cold weather, winds and a light rain, students gathered in the high school football parking lot for the first day of Every 15 Minutes. There, they saw two cars that had collided following one driver choosing to drink and drive. They saw a handful of their schoolmates either dead or badly injured and another taken away to jail.

First responders arrived at the scene to help those they could. Firefighters used the Jaws of Life to tear apart the doors of one car while one student had been ejected through the windshield.

A handful of parents were on the scene and while it was just a mock exercise, it was still emotional.

“Just the thought of it is very deep and profound,” said Brandon Mills, whose son, Will, was one of the deceased. “It’s a fantastic program and I think every high school student should have to be witness to something like this.

“I want to hear about his experience and what he got from it. This type of thing really happens. Thankfully this was just a mock situation. I can’t even fathom if it were real. Just the thought brings tears to your eyes.”