“Ryan Hockensmith awoke from a medically induced coma in Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center on Nov. 6, 1999, three days after his 22nd birthday. Immediately, he wished he hadn’t.
“The pain was by far the most excruciating and enduring he had ever felt. This was going to put a crimp in his dream of becoming a staff writer for Sports Illustrated — if it didn’t kill him.
“Hockensmith looked at his mother, Christie, and his then-girlfriend and now wife, Lori Kubacki.
“‘It was a surreal moment. I remember thinking, ‘There’s no way I’m going to survive. This must be how it feels to die. These are the two most important women in my life. Should I tell them how I feel about them before I die?’… ”