Isidoro Di Salvo was pretty much your average 20-something. When he wasn’t fixing helicopter engines for work, he was playing video games.
That all changed on the night of March 26, 2014.
The Burnaby resident was coming home from Brentwood Mall that evening. As he stepped up to a crosswalk on Willingdon, he got the walk sign.
Di Salvo looked both ways, but his view was partially blocked by an articulating transit bus. He began to cross, but he didn’t see the car running the red light.
“I remember a pressure,” he told the NOW, adding he didn’t feel any pain, but then he blacked out.
When he came to, Di Salvo was lying in the middle of the road being helped a couple of doctors who happened to pass by, and eventually first responders from Fire Hall No. 5.
The firefighters helped stabilize his head and checked for broken bones. He had numerous breaks. When paramedics arrived, a decision was made to take him straight to Vancouver General Hospital instead of the local hospital. It was a decision Di Salvo’s surgeon would later tell him likely saved his arm.
Nearly three years after the fateful night, Di Salvo recently dropped by the fire hall on Hastings Street to thank the first responders who were there for him.
“I have so much more respect for firefighters in general, and paramedics,” he told the crew.
Meanwhile, the firefighters appreciated the thank you and visit.
“It’s kind of nice to hear sometimes how people do,” said Capt. John Titley. “We do what we do. We put people in the ambulance and that’s usually the last time we see or hear from them.”
Titley, who was working the night of the accident, suggested Di Salvo was ultimately lucky with how everything worked out.
Besides nearly losing his arm, Di Salvo spent time in a wheelchair, continues to rehab and still gets pain.
“I feel like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz sometimes. Everything is stiff,” he joked.
The crash and resulting injuries also meant the now 24-year-old had to give up his job working on helicopter engines.
Di Salvo started volunteering with the Neil Squire Society in Burnaby, an organization that helps people with disabilities find jobs, eventually landing a permanent job there.
He admits, after the crash, he hated life for a while. But not anymore.
“I’m the happiest guy now. I’m happy to be alive,” he said.
