A Guyton man is struggling to regain his health after being hit by a pickup in a three-car pileup on Courthouse Road.

On July 18, Jeremy Rooks, 26, was driving home after work at around 9 p.m. Traveling on Little McCall Road, he approached the four-way stop at Courthouse Road. He stopped and then tried to make a left turn onto Courthouse Road when Yvonne Watson, 46, of Springfield struck him on the left, according to the accident report.

She had been driving north on Courthouse and failed to stop at the stop sign. Watson’s car pushed Rooks’ vehicle into the southbound lane of Courthouse Road where it hit a Cherokee Jeep driven by Amber French, 41, of Rincon.

He sustained a bruised kidney, three cracked ribs, a dislocated hip and a crushed pelvic bone. The car he was driving was totaled and his family remains dumbfounded over how he escaped death.

“We just don’t understand how he survived it,” said Roxanne Ford, Rooks’ mother-in-law.

Rooks was immediately taken to Memorial Medical Center Health University where he is still residing. After lying in the intensive care unit for two days, he was placed in a regular room last Friday. On Monday, he endured a four-hour surgery in which a metal plate was inserted to hold his pelvic bone in place.

His wife Amber, 23, has been his side at the hospital since the accident, only leaving to get something to eat and to attend their church, Savannah Church of Christ. They have been married for five years and have a 2-year-old daughter, Kelsie.

“He’s in a lot of pain,” she said.

Though placed on a morphine drip, it fails to ease the pain. She noted the only way he gets relief is by taking pain pills in addition to the morphine.

At first, he could not move because of the pain, as well.

Ford said that he cried when his legs were lifted so that he could be bathed. Even pushing him up in bed once he slides down was pretty much out of the question.

Now, he can move a little.

“He can move his upper half, but it’s hard for him to move his lower,” Amber said.

Rooks may be transferred to the rehabilitation unit so that he can regain his ability to walk.

While he continues to heal, Kelsie waits for her parents at home with her grandmother.

“She misses us,” Amber said.

Ford brings her to the hospital to visit her dad on some days. She is having to accept that she can’t be right up under her dad. His pain won’t allow it.

If he can get desk work at his job, Modern Classic Motors  in Hilton Head, S.C., where he is a mechanic, Rooks will be out of work for two to three weeks.

If he can’t, he’s looking at four to eight weeks of no work.

Amber is a stay-at-home mom and while he has insurance, without a paycheck, the family’s bills inevitably will pile up.

The Rooks are seeking donations to help out with their expenses.

Their neighbors have already stepped in to assist the family.

“The neighbors have been a great help,” Ford said. “You never know till things like this happens who really cares,” said Ford.

Those interested in helping the Rooks may make a donation at The Heritage Bank to the Jeremy Rooks Fund.