Senior Dane Justice, a music major and saxophonist for the Wind Symphony and Jazz Band, was severely injured during a bike crash Oct. 27 that left him with a fractured left wrist and skull.
As a result of his injuries, Justice says he likely will be away from Truman for the rest of the semester and will be unable to play his saxophone.
“The most important part of my life is saxophone. And this is going to be putting me on the back burner for a while because obviously, I don’t have a left hand to play.”
– Dane Justice, senior music major
Justice also was expected to be a soloist with the orchestra, and he says he now has to give up the part.
Justice says he expects after physical therapy, he will be able to play saxophone in the future.
Justice says he underwent surgery Oct. 29, and a plate was inserted into his radius to hold the bone together. He says the rest of his injuries — including fractures to his thumb, wrist and skull — are expected to heal on their own without any additional surgeries.
Justice says he was riding his bike home from Ophelia Parrish during the early hours of Oct. 27 when the accident occurred.
“I wasn’t going any faster than normal,” Justice says. “It was just late at night, and I was tired. I wasn’t focused as well as I should have been.”
Justice says his bike slipped in the grass and he overcorrected too far, crashing face first into a small brick wall.
“I slammed into it at about 20, 25 miles per hour,” Justice says. “I was in my own pool of blood and decided that was not a good place to be. So I started crawling out into the middle of Normal [Street].”
Justice says he was calling for help when a friend saw him and came to his aid. He says his friend contacted the Department of Public Safety and called an ambulance. Justice initially was taken to Northeast Regional Medical Center, but was transferred to University Hospital in Columbia later that day.
Todd Justice, Dane Justice’s father, says in a Facebook post his son was released from the hospital Oct. 29.