INDIANAPOLIS -- Christmas week didn’t go the way Dan and Charlene Kleine had expected. The couple spent the past seven days at Eskenazi Hospital as Dan recovers from a bizarre accident that nearly cost him his life.
In their first TV interview since the accident, the couple explains what happened on December 19, and the miraculous events that occurred since.
Sudden boom
Dan says he had just finished a long day of ministry when he sat down in a recliner in his living room to watch a football game on TV. It wasn’t long before he fell asleep.
“I was totally out of it,” he told WTHR. “So I don’t think I really heard a thing.”
Upstairs, Charlene was crocheting and watching a movie. She heard it all.
“It sounded like a plane to me because the noise was so loud. It was just like a sudden boom and the house just shook, and I then I heard what sounded like a moan, so I just jumped up and ran down there,” Charlene recalled.
By that point, the damage was done. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department says a car traveling southbound on Drexel Avenue didn’t stop at a stop sign, nearly slamming into a SUV that was headed eastbound on Washington.
“The SUV swerved to miss that car and ended up launching itself into the house,” said IMPD Capt. Rebecca Lake at the scene of the accident.
The Kleine’s east-side house, which sits at the southeast corner of Drexel and Washington, was hit head on. The SUV plowed straight through the front door and into the living room where Dan had been sleeping. Started awake, his eyes opened to find a large vehicle on top of him.
“I was smashed between the car and the stairwell. I couldn’t breathe. I was just barely getting air,” Dan explained. “I thought perhaps the furnace had exploded… or I thought maybe something had dropped from the sky. I didn’t understand this car had come up flying into the house. I was disoriented.”
Frantic moments
What Dan did understand was his wife was – in his words – going berserk.
“When I looked, I didn’t see him anywhere, so I just started screaming. I was screaming to the top of my lungs,” Charlene said. “I’m just going to be honest. I was just hysterical. I couldn’t really think. I just didn’t see him. All I saw was this car and it was like I was in a bad movie or a dream or something.”
Dan tried to move his fingers and toes. They moved. All of them moved!
“They wiggled, and that was good,” he said. “Not knowing the extent of my injuries, I figured that might be it. I might just die there. I didn’t know. But when I was able to move and heard the screaming, I did let her know I was alive.”
“I heard his voice, and he said ‘I’m alive. I’m alive. I’m here. I’m here,’ and that’s when I went to get help,” Charlene explained.
Her path was blocked by a still-running, leaking, smoking SUV at the bottom of the staircase. Unable to reach her husband, Charlene climbed the stairs, opened her bedroom window and yelled for help. Neighbors had already started coming outside and told her they had contacted 9-1-1.
Rather than climb out the bedroom window and onto the roof, she decided to go back down the stairs and to climb over and through the rubble. Charlene was determined to help Dan, who was still trapped and struggling.
“I finally made it down, and at that time I see my neighbor looking at me through the hole in the wall, asking am I ok?” she said.
They tried move debris to get to Dan, but it was too heavy.
Rescued at last
The Kleines say, moments later, about a dozen firefighters arrived and lifted the SUV a few inches backward.
“The greatest thing was seeing those firefighters come in,” said Dan, smiling in his hospital room as he recalled the moment. “They went ‘1-2-3 push! 1-2-3 push! And it didn’t move much – only that much off of me – but that was enough to get me out.”
Dan was rushed to Eskenazi Hospital, where he was diagnosed with nine broken ribs, a broken leg and internal injuries. He also has bruising and wounds all over his body and lost a small part of his right ear. And yet he knows he is very fortunate.
“Thankful to be alive!” he said.
Dan and Charlene are also thankful for the outpouring of support from family and friends, who filled Dan’s hospital room with Christmas spirit.
“All kinds of people here this week. Two to three hundred visitors. It was just a constant stream,” he said.
“It was unbelievable. Wasn’t a dull moment up here. I can tell you that,” agreed Charlene.
Dan says his prognosis is good. Doctors told him he will need several months of physical therapy, and bruising and soreness will start to subside in several weeks.
It may take longer to repair all of the damage to the house.
Dan told WTHR the impact of the crash resulted in significant structural damage – both on the inside and outside. So as Dan gets ready to be released from the hospital Thursday night, he and Charlene say they’ll be ringing in the New Year in a hotel room – not in their damaged home.
“That’s OK. It could be a lot worse. I could have never walked again or might have died,” he said. “Yeah, I reflect on that a lot. I'm very fortunate.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been established by one of Dan’s nephews to help pay for his medical bills and repair costs. Those who wish to contribute can find a link to the fundraiser here.