“I almost died and now I’m here to live a brand new life, it might be the best thing that happened to me, made me wake up and realize I have a daughter to raise,” 23-month-old Kaitlyn.Rice and his fiancée, Lauri Barcelona, have a consignment store in Ventura selling clothing and accessories for children, Kaitlyn’s Little Corner, named for their daughter.Rice said that his wallet was in the SUV’s glove box when the accident occurred and although he arrived at CMH as an unknown person, it didn’t take long for his identification to become known.“Lauri was at CMH with Kaitlyn,” who is recovering from pneumonia. “They were upstairs for Kaitlyn’s breathing treatment when I was brought in.”A CMH worker recognized Rice from previous visits to the hospital during Kaitlyn’s illness and realized that the little girl and her mother were on the premises.Rice and Barcelona have been busy making presents for CMH personnel who looked after him.“My car is totaled” and Rice’s driver’s license has been pulled for the time being due to the seizure he had that caused the accident and the second seizure he suffered while being transported to CMH.But, “I’m just glad I’m here and that I have a whole new feeling,” about his life, said Rice.
SP man home while recovering from 126 solo vehicle accident
April 21, 2004
Santa Paula News
A Santa Paula man who received a skull fracture and was placed in an artificial coma after a solo vehicle accident has been released from the hospital and said that the experience has changed him.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesA Santa Paula man who received a skull fracture and was placed in an artificial coma after a solo vehicle accident has been released from the hospital and said that the experience has changed him.Casey Rice, 33, suffered a severe head injury when he lost control of his SUV on April 5 while traveling from northbound 101 onto eastbound Highway 126.Rice’s passenger, Gregory Lapatosky, 52 of Ventura, was slightly injured in the accident that led to the two men being trapped in the overturned SUV and extricated by emergency using the jaws-of-life.Lapatosky told CHP investigators that Rice had suffered a seizure right before he lost control of the vehicle.Rice “wound up getting a blood clot and the doctors had to cut a big horseshoe shape in my head and cut a piece of my skull out,” to relieve the swelling to his brain, he said.Rice’s other injuries included lung injuries, massive bruising and a split tongue, now sutured together.He was released from Community Memorial Hospital on Friday, April 9.
