A former UCLA offensive lineman who lost part of his left leg in a 2012 motorcycle accident testified Thursday that he has only vague memories of the crash, but he described with vivid detail his often-painful rehabilitation and how he draws strength from friends and loved ones.
“I’m thinking there’s nothing I can do, I’m going to die,” 29-year-old Amir “Nick” Ekbatani said in recalling the moments immediately after the crash. “It’s something that was hard for me to figure out what was real and what was imaginary.”
Narrating while a Los Angeles Superior Court jury was shown video footage of the time-consuming process of removing, cleaning and putting on his prosthetic leg, Ekbatani said some of his happiest moments come when he meets others who regularly swim with him.
“I draw a lot of inspiration from connecting with people,” said Ekbatani, who has undergone 13 surgeries. He says he still worries that an infection could occur and require his doctors to amputate more of his leg, possibly above the knee.
According to previous testimony in trial of Ekbatani’s negligence suit against the state of California and Caltrans, he was riding his motorcycle north on Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach about 10:20 p.m. on July 14, 2012, when a southbound taxi van driver failed to yield the right-of-way when turning left onto Diamond Street, colliding with the motorcycle.
Ekbatani’s lawyer, Garo Mardirossian, said the intersection is considered “skewed” because Diamond Street crosses PCH at a diagonal so severe that Caltrans is obligated to take extra precautions to protect motorists.
He said motorists traveling south on PCH go up a gradual incline that does not allow them to fully view oncoming traffic until they reach the intersection and that the roadway would be safer with a left-turn signal.
Attorneys for the state say the intersection is safe and that taxi driver Mesfin Kinfu’s careless driving caused the accident.
Ekbatani testified that on the night of the accident, he was headed to meet with friends. He testified he was driving about 35 mph and that his motorcycle headlight automatically turned on when the engine was running.
“Out of nowhere, there was an obstruction in my right-of-way,” Ekbatani said. “I don’t recall the specifics, but I do remember sensations, extreme panic.”
Ekbatani also said he believes he took a look at his leg while lying down as people comforted him. He said he has no memory of being taken by ambulance to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, but does recall waking up at the hospital and seeing himself surrounded by family members.
He said his doctors delivered some good news first, but then told him about his leg.
“They told me they had to amputate my leg,” Ekbatani said. “I didn’t believe it at first. It’s like my brain wouldn’t understand it.”
Ekbatani said he lifted the sheets and looked at the aftermath of the amputation and smatterings of blood. He said he took heart thinking about South African Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee nicknamed the “blade runner.”
“I saw Oscar and said to myself I was going to be fine, I have one leg,” he said.
He said he was later transferred to Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in San Pedro and was hospitalized a total of about six to eight weeks. During that time, he said, he had some “terrifying moments” as he dealt with hallucinations and the side effects of the many painkillers given him.
“There was just this constant feeling that I was going to die,” Ekbatani said.
He said his then-fiancee, onetime USC women’s volleyball player Kelli Tennant, entered a second role in his life as his caretaker. He said she comforted him while also dealing with “my unpredictability” as he battled mood changes.
“Since day one, she was like an angel,” he said. “I’m grateful to her. She saved my life.”
Tennant testified earlier in the trial that she met Ekbatani a few weeks before the accident. She said they lived together and became engaged in 2013, but she called off their wedding plans because of the stress of dealing with her caregiver role.
Ekbatani said he enjoys working out, but has to balance doing so with the impact it has on his body. He said that doing too much can force him to have to deal with severe pain later.
Ekbatani played for UCLA from 2006-09. He obtained an MBA from USC after the accident and said he recently traveled abroad for the first time in his life, visiting countries in Asia and South America.
–City News Service