Help US Army Chaplain Erik Leto after Hit-and-Run

On Monday, September 23rd, United States Army Reserve Capt. Erik Leto, a Chaplain with the 375th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, was driving to work on his motorcycle in the early morning hours outside Raleigh, North Carolina.  With almost no warning, he was run down from behind by a car traveling at high speed.  Erik was violently thrown across three lanes of the Interstate into a cable safety barrier.  The other driver sped away, leaving Erik alone and dying, literally in a ditch beside the road.

For almost 15-minutes, Erik had to administer his own trauma care.  He had a concussion, all the ribs on his right side were broken, but worst of all, almost all the skin and muscle was sheared off the front of his right thigh. 

In Erik's own words (here's the link to his groggy Facebook post  very soon afterward), he said, "So I’ll be honest -- and with the training that I'd received -- I pretty much expected there wasn’t much hope for me. No one could see me, I was down in the ditch, it was dark, multiple injuries that were life ending, and no way to treat any effectively. I said my prayers, talked to my God, and I made my plans to go home.  But I didn’t have peace with this ...  I had no peace because I did not feel like this was what God wanted, and so I stopped and I took a moment and I said, 'Lord, what do you want me to do?'  I said, 'My son is 24 he’s got his life ahead of him and he’s doing good.  My wife -- bless her heart -- with 29 years of marriage we’ve had a great run.  You know she’ll be okay.'  But then I thought about my 15-year-old daughter and that’s kind of where things changed. She was too young to go without her daddy and that’s when I realized that God wanted me to fight for her... I knew I had to fight!"

Erik's Army training quickly led him to use his belt to tourniquet his leg,  turn to his “good side” and to begin crawling up to the road.  He finally made it out of the ditch and pulled himself up against the cable barrier.  He waved his hand to stop traffic, but no vehicle would stop.

At one point a car slowed, cracked the window, looked at him and then drove off.  At that moment, he truly felt he would end up dying despite his efforts.  He was slowly bleeding out and about to lose consciousness.  He laid back down and began praying.  Next thing he knew, he looked up to see a friendly face looking down at at him.  A local resident -- another pastor, in fact -- had stopped and suddenly realized the urgency of the situation and called 9-1-1 for emergency aid.  He later said he stopped because, “I saw a man beside you and holding you.”  And he thought, "How strange that a man would be standing holding somebody else on the ground."

Erik was in ICU for a week, has had four surgeries to try to save his leg, and is fighting intense pain.  All that time, he also has not stopped smiling, being thankful for the kindness of a stranger, of the blessings of being in a great country with great care where he has a chance to save his leg, and forgiving all those involved, especially the hit and run driver.

The surgeons at Wakemed Hospital in Raleigh are still hopeful they can save his leg, and they are fighting hard for him because of how hard he fought for himself.   We believe they will save his leg, but even still, he will need many, many months -- maybe even years -- of intense physical therapy and rehabilitation for such a severe injury.  

His wife, Terri, has not left his side, so obviously she is not working.  At this very difficult time, they do not need to worry about how to make up for lost wages or how to pay for their mortgage or utilities or groceries.   Erik has devoted his life to his God and his country, and though he was very reluctant to allow his friends to create this funds request, now is our time to give back to him.  He would be the very first to pray for and rally behind each of us!