Justin was home visiting his family the weekend of March 15, 2009, from Camp Pendleton, CA, (we live in Las Vegas). He was returning to the base on Sunday night March 15, 2009. At 2:16 am on the 16th, he had a single car accident on Interstate 15 in Rancho Cucamonga. It is not known what exactly happened, but witnesses said he was in the far left lane and all of the sudden his car turned to the right across all 4 lanes of traffic and launched off the freeway, down a 35 foot embankment and landed in a concrete ditch; helicopter rolled and slid 300 feet.
He suffered a severe brain injury and a broken left arm. It took paramedics an hour and a half to cut him from the car. On March 20th, the doctors were going to declare him brain dead, however Justin fought back. He was in a coma for 5 weeks opening his eyes on March 30th. The doctors told us if it wasn’t for him being a Marine, if he survived the accident he would not have survived past the 2nd day. They did state however that Justin would never be able to move or do anything; basically he would be in a vegetative state. We had him transferred here to Vegas on April 22, 2009 and he began to make remarkable progress.
It was so amazing to see the progress he was making, especially since the doctors told us all he would ever be able to do is lay there and not do anything. Not my son! He was very determined and worked to prove the doctors wrong. He was moving his arms and legs; would give “high fives”, adjust his glasses if they were sliding down his nose, give hugs and stroke your hair; follow you with his eyes when you came into the room. He would reach for your hand and take objects from you. He said three words; “I want Momma”.
On July 11, 2009 at 12:30 pm the nurses at the rehab facility found him not breathing and were unable to resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead at 1:16 pm. He was promoted to Lance Corporal while he was in the hospital and the minute his Lieutenant starting talking, you could see Justin straighten to attention and put on the Marine face. He also saluted 3 times, it was wonderful!! ~ Jerri Dean