Three-time ADCC champion Dean Lister is healing from a ruptured spleen following what he says was a hit-and-run that occurred on April 1.
Lister first shared the news of his injury a couple of weeks ago. He has since detailed the specifics of what happened on his GoFundMe.
“Thursday night I stepped outside to go eat. I heard a loud scraping sound to my left and turned just in time (bad time) to be hit by a car. I put my hands up and I think I even jumped, it hit me super hard and knocked me down onto my back, I’m not sure how far it threw me but on the ground I found the whole left side of my body was kinda frozen and the air was knocked out of me, I could feel problems breathing immediately.
“I eventually (couple seconds later) was able to look to my right and the car that hit me was a bit in the distance already. It looked like a mix between a car and a truck, [maybe] an old el Camino? Car was gone but didn’t speed away. I sat up and my left side was in new type of sharp sharp pain mixed with a dull ache in my back and shoulder. For some reason, the theme music from Law and order was playing, well I hit my head at some point of this so Obviously it wasn’t real. I got up and thankfully I was close to home still so I just went back there. My body hurt but my left side was far far worse.
“Since I had a plane to catch in the morning and didn’t want to miss it, I convinced myself to just go to bed, I was not hungry anymore at all. Although it was difficult to rest, somehow I did sleep a little but could only lie down on my right side, not my left or my back. In the AM, the pain was so much worse that I knew I couldn’t make it to the airport. Straight to the doctor and doctor didn’t have me wait at all, within 3 minutes in the door, I was told to get X rays.
“I went straight to the (Urgent Care) clinic for X rays and the doctor there told me to go straight to the hospital since I couldn’t lie down flat on my back, said he was concerned it could be my spleen. So I go straight to the hospital and am admitted straight away. I get a Cat Scan and yes my spleen is ruptured and now the pain is worse but I’m on pain killers. I really dislike hospitals and hate the idea of spending time in one.”
A friend of Lister has set up a fundraising page to help the athlete and coach cover his expenses, both from the accident itself and for missing income due to not being able to teach. You can donate to the GoFundMe here.
