Victims of Accident Beats Odds, Becomes a Doctor

Don’t say “I can’t” around Emmett Cox, who made liars of physicians who thought he would not survive a horrifying bicycle crash. He endured 25 operations and became a doctor himself.

“I’ve used my own self-esteem and determination to get where I am today,” said Cox, 35, intern of the year at Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center in Los Angeles. “I’ve had a lot of setbacks in my life, but I’m not going to let that get to me.”

His determination also earned him a residency in the hospital’s orthopedic surgery unit over dozens of other top medical students.

Would He Live?

In August, 1978, the only question was whether Emmett Cox II would live.

He was pedaling his bicycle near the St. George’s Medical School in Grenada, where he was in his fourth semester. He collided with a school bus, crashing through the windshield. His friends thought he was dead.

His nasal bridge was gone. So was his forehead. His upper jaw was broken; his teeth were shoved to one side of his face. The outer covering of his brain was exposed, and a piece of glass was lodged in one eye. Hardly anything was left of his face.

Days later, he risked a look in the mirror. He thought he was hallucinating.

“I looked grotesque,” he said.

After initial surgery on Grenada, Cox was flown to a Miami hospital. Lying bandaged in bed, his leg in traction, he heard his father crying in the hall.

‘Prove Him a Liar’

“The doctor said, ‘It looks very bad. If he’s alive tomorrow morning, he’s lucky,’ ” Cox said. “I said, ‘No way is this man going to tell me I’m going to die. I’m going to prove him a liar.’ ”

Seven operations were performed in Miami. Since returning to Los Angeles, his home since 1972, he has had 18 more, the most recent in May.

Infections have hampered his reconstructive facial surgery, which requires bone grafts. Ribs were used to form his forehead. He needs three more operations to sculpt a nasal bridge and remove facial scars.

His nose is bumpy from loose skin that eventually will fold over the new bridge, and his left cheek is sunken.

‘Appearance Bothered Me’

An old ID card shows a handsome, smiling Cox. After the accident, he said, “My outward appearance bothered me. I stayed in a lot.”

But it didn’t keep him from medical school.

“Don’t express the words ‘I can’t.’ I’m not a quitter,” he said.