'I Feel Amazing': Teen Released From Hospital Month After Fiery NH Crash
DUBLIN, N.H. (CBS) – A New Hampshire teenager who was behind the wheel in an explosive crash caught on another driver's dashboard camera is home after a month in a Boston hospital.
Sam Lachance says all he can remember is the last 12 days he's spent at Spaulding Rehab recovering. The 18-year-old is already embracing his second chance at life.
"I feel amazing," Lachance said. "I am so glad to be home."
He flashes a big smile sitting in between his mom and dad. It's hard to tell the 18-year-old is fresh out of the hospital.
"To me I feel like basically I'm going to make it to a hundred percent," Sam says.
The fiery crash left him with burns on his face and hands, a fractured foot and a collapsed lung. Doctors also removed his spleen.
He says he has "zero memory" of the day of the crash.
The day was January 22nd. Sam was heading back to college when his Jeep crossed the center lane of Route 101 in Dublin, New Hampshire. It hit a tractor-trailer causing its fuel tank to explode.
Dashcam video of the violent crash is helping Sam make sense of it all. "Seeing that video was, it was just basically telling me what happened and how I got all my injuries," he says.
Several good Samaritans pulled him from those flames. "Thank you, very much, you saved my life," Sam said. "I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for your guys."
His mom and dad are both thankful their son is back under their roof.
"That whole day is still so fresh," Jessica Lachance said. "I don't think I'll ever forget that day and that phone call so to have him here now with me is just incredible."
"I'm basically getting a second chance at life here," Sam said.
Sam says as soon as he's fully recovered he's heading black to Keene State where he's studying to be a graphic designer.