Grant may have saved lives
Myonk5
Grant took crash impact for daughter
MONTREAL (CP) -- Alexandria Grant will have her father home for her fifth
birthday next Monday and it's thanks to him there will be a celebration at all.
Boxer Otis Grant, still on blood thinners and pain-killers, said Thursday it
was to save Alexandria and a fellow passenger, boxer Hercules Kyvelos, that he
absorbed the impact of a horrific June 10 highway crash north of Montreal.
"We were coming to the top of a hill and I saw the car coming," said Grant,
who met with the media Thursday for the first time since the crash that killed
the woman who hit them.
"I knew there was going to be a crash. I swerved so I'd take the impact on my
side. Luckily, it worked, because both Herc and Alexandria were able to walk
away. It was worth it to take the impact."
The accident occurred when 43-year-old Jasmine Giroux, the woman who died in
the wreck, was driving north in the southbound lane. Her car struck three cars,
including Grant's.
Grant was knocked unconscious and had his left shoulder broken in two places,
four ribs fractured and suffered bruised ribs and internal bleeding. He said it
still hurts most "when I sneeze."
The former World Boxing Organization middleweight champion, who hopes to
return to the ring, spent three weeks in hospital, the first seven days in
critical condition on a respirator, before being released a week ago.
It was Kyvelos, an top welterweight prospect, who pulled Grant from the
wrecked car. While distracting Alexandria, Kyvelos used his cellular phone to
call an ambulance.
"I knew lying on the ground that I wasn't going to die," said Grant, 31, who
had been on his way to pick up his wife, Betty Mullins, from work. "I was
conscious.
"I knew what I was doing. But then they took us away in separate ambulances. I
didn't know where my daughter was and I kept asking for her. Finally, someone
said she's OK. After that, they drugged me and I remember waking up seven days
later."
Grant found out later that the hospital priest had performed last rights on
him.
"People said it was really scary," said Grant, who had just returned from
sparring with world light-heavyweight champion Roy Jones in Florida when the
accident occurred.
His wife, his parents, trainer Russ Anber and his brother, former Canadian
lightweight champion Howard Grant, spent much of the first week waiting at the
hospital for signs of recovery.
"When they took Otis off the respirator, he was talking and all of a sudden
you could see the life come back in him," said Anber, who has trained Grant
since he was 13. "Then seven days of living on nicotine and caffeine hit me all
at once.
"It was a lot of relief."
It was Grant's reputation as one of the rare positive role models in boxing
that prompted Jones to give him a world title shot last November, his last
fight. Jones easily won in 10 rounds, but it was Grant's biggest career payday.
Grant has never been in trouble. He earned a recreation degree from Concordia
University in Montreal and, when not in the ring, he works as a counsellor at a
suburban high school.
Those who know him are not surprised that he bucked human instinct to
sacrifice his body to save his daughter and his young protege.
"I'm really proud of him," said Mullins.
Grant said he can't train for six months because of the blood thinners and
won't rush back to the ring.
"I started physiotherapy (Wednesday)," said Grant, who had been planning to
fight for two or three more years. "The physio asked when I want to come back
and I said I just want to get healthy.
"It'll take as long as it takes. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to fight again,
but if it doesn't happen, my future is pretty secure. I'm employable. I have a
job and if I ever lose it, I'm sure I could get another one."
While Grant discussed the accident, Alexandria flitted about the Molson Centre
restaurant like any soon-to-be five-year-old.
"She's just like her father -- very strong mentally," said her mother. "It
hasn't affected her psychologically.
"She talks about the accident and that probably helps. It's really honourable
that he took the impact himself. He only had two seconds to react and he
thought about saving her."
"She didn't swerve or nothing," Kyvelos said of 43-year-old Jasmine Giroux,
the woman who died in the wreck Thursday night. For reasons that may never be
known, Giroux was driving north in the southbound lane. "I can't say for sure
that she didn't brake, but I don't think she did. She just kept coming right at
us."
The car the woman was driving struck three cars
i cheehuahua
Otis survived. It never ceases to amaze me how deep our love for our
children is. Otis made a good choice...and I am glad he survived.
i cheehuahua
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Michael NOSKY
hope and pray that if i was ever in the same situation, that i would
display half the courage of otis grant.
mfnman
MFN...@webtv.net
www.inergy.com/MFNMan
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