After crippling accident, biker back on the road

Oakland Tribune, Feb 22, 2008 by Matthias Gafni

OAKLEY -- After riding his Harley-Davidson Panhead all day through the Central Valley, Cliff Duggins looked forward to grabbing dinner with his wife and friends.

The motorcycle enthusiast called his wife at the grocery store and told her he'd be home shortly to grab a bite at their favorite Mexican joint in Bethel Island. It was a dinner he'd never make.

Meanwhile, Kelly Ann Johnson, after downing eight beers earlier in the day, decided to shop at a convenience store about the distance of two football fields away. The legally intoxicated 25- year-old, whose driver's license was suspended after a prior DUI conviction, jumped into her blue 1985 Honda Civic hatchback, according to court records and police.

As Duggins roared east on East Cypress Road at 50 mph, he passed Knightsen Avenue, only a mile away from his Oakley home. Johnson, with a setting sun in her eyes, headed west on the same two-lane country road.

She then turned left into the store parking lot and changed both their lives forever.

On a recent Wednesday, Duggins, 59, talks about his amazing recovery from the horrific Nov. 24, 2004, accident that nearly took his life. After nearly four years, Duggins has defied doctors who said he wouldn't survive or walk again. He's a changed man in many ways -- some good, some bad.

With his physical abilities limited, Duggins has devoted his life to keeping his nightmare from repeating itself. He bought a trailer for his truck and started a tow service for local drunken bikers. They can call Duggins at any hour and he will pick them up and take them home, with motorcycle in tow.

As he speaks of his almost two dozen major surgeries and more than 100 visits to doctors, Duggins politely mentions that he's only good for a few more questions as his freshly healed legs are going numb again. Standing in front of a Valero gas station, he points with his right hand to the spot where the drunken driver hit him. His left arm, which was shattered in the accident and is filled with rods and screws, doesn't work well these days.

Although in relatively remarkable condition, it's hard to miss the long scar on top of Duggins' closely cropped, receding hairline, marking where surgeons had to cut in order to recreate his disfigured face.

"My whole face was gone," he says, pointing to his cheekbones, eye sockets and teeth, all which had to be replaced by doctors with skin grafts, plastic and metal.

Duggins limps and has back pain from his broken tailbone, which doctors decided to leave broken. He no longer jogs five miles a day and can't bend to wrestle with his 14 grandchildren. He wears a pain patch and takes 12 pills a day all because Johnson -- now 28 and serving a four-year, four-month prison sentence in Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla -- decided to drive a short distance to the store.

"That's what really burnt me," Duggins says, his eyes welling up. "She could've walked up here. She's devastated my life."

Duggins didn't spot Johnson's car until they were close enough to make eye contact.

"When I looked up. She was right there, and all of a sudden she just turns, and I had nowhere to go," Duggins said. "I went, 'Uh- oh!' and threw my bike down, and that's all I remember."

Witnesses said that when the side of Johnson's car hit Duggins, who was wearing a helmet, he was thrown as high as a nearby telephone pole.

His buddy, who was six cars behind, was the first on the scene and started clearing Duggins' mouth of blood and teeth to open his airway. A registered nurse and paramedic happened to be driving by and immediately treated him as well.

Meanwhile, the drunken driver ran back to her house. Officers later found her inside, crying and telling an officer she had fled to call police. No calls were ever recorded from her one-room rental, police said.

Mary Duggins was unpacking her groceries when she heard a caravan of emergency vehicles race by. Her husband was due home any minute, but instead her best friend pulled into the driveway. It all came together.

"How bad is he?" she asked.

"He's real bad," her friend said.

They raced to the scene, and Mary Duggins made her way to her husband, who was in and out of consciousness.

"It's not my fault and I love you," was all her husband could muster before being carried to an ambulance. A police officer asked Mary Duggins if he should call a clergyman.

"You don't understand," she told the officer, "he's not dying."

On his way to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, Duggins almost did die. In fact, he flatlined three times, needing to be shocked back to life each time. At the hospital, he was placed on life support, where he went through 24 pints of blood as doctors scrambled to stop his internal bleeding.

An emergency room physician told Mary Duggins that her husband would be lucky to survive the next 48 hours.

Doctors put Duggins into a medically induced coma.

After nearly a month in the coma, Duggins awoke to months of grueling rehab. Doctors told him that he had only a 20 percent chance of walking again.