Los Angeles father has part of leg amputated after saving 2-year-old daughter from Venice crash
A Venice father whose quick thinking saved his 2-year-old daughter's life when a truck crashed into their car nearly two weeks ago is on the long road to recovery after doctors amputated part of his leg.
Despite it all, Jordan Stannard is grateful to be spending his days surrounded by those whom he loves the most — his family.
"I just honestly started crying, because I was just so happy to have my whole family around, and it was just really nice," Stannard said, while speaking with CBS LA. "Just kind of a realization of just how much I'm grateful for, and how lucky I am, just to be here at the end of the day."
Stannard said that while he was putting his daughter, Sadie, into their car on Venice Boulevard at Abbot Kinney Boulevard after a trip to the store, his wife was putting their newborn in the other side.
When he heard a truck slam into another car nearby and then saw it hurtling towards him, his instincts triggered and he pushed his daughter into the car and out of harm's way.
"It was just, this is the most important thing in my life, so she needs to get inside the car where it's safe," Stannard said.
He then took the full impact of the truck, which threw him to the ground.
"Everybody is just yelling, everybody, screaming," he said. "I look down, and my foot is not really there. It's been almost sheared off."
After he was rushed to the hospital, doctors decided to amputate his left foot and ankle. As he re-learns how to move, the former marathoner and Ironman says there's no point in being negative, especially with how much worse things could have been.
"There's no room to be like, 'Boo hoo.' There's no room to be angry, you know?" he said. "I want to be the best dad for my daughters, and I can't let this affect the kind of dad I want to be."
Since the surgery, Stannard said that he's had more than one hundred hospital visitors, and that dozens of bouquets have been sent to his room. Despite the fundraising page, which has swelled past $100,000, he said that the thing that deserves the most attention is his wife.
"Most important thing to me is I have the best wife in the world, and she has just really shown up for me, and she is the engine that drives our family," Stannard said. "She is the reason why I'm able to have so much strength."
Stannard said that he's supposed to be released on Saturday and that he plans to return to the gym as soon as Monday, where he'll begin rehabbing for next year's Los Angeles Maratho, after he's fitted for a prosthetic.
