(CBS News) — David Platillero was riding his bike to class at the Blackbird Academy music school in Nashville, Tennessee, when he got into a terrible accident that would change his life.
A year and a half ago, a driver ran a red light and crashed into the then 24-year-old. Platillero cracked his head on the windshield as he was launched into the air.
“I was told my body went about 10 feet in the air and landed on the pavement 100 feet away,” Platillero, who goes by the stage name David Francisco, told CBS News. “I don’t remember any of it.”
The only thing he can remember is waking up in a hospital gown with his arm in a splint and both of his legs propped up, covered in bandages.
The hospital notified his parents about the accident and their son’s serious injuries. They drove 100 miles from Knoxville, Tennessee, to be by his side, as doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center prepared them for the worst.
“The arm is the last of his concerns,” David’s father, John, recalled an orthopedic surgeon telling him over the phone. “He has a severe spinal cord injury.”
“It’s like the worst call you could possibly get,” David Platillero said. “They told me I was never going to walk again.”
For 10 days, he lay in a hospital bed thinking about his injuries.
“I cried every day,” he said.”Who would want to marry someone — who would want to be with someone like me who’s dependent on people? It was sad.”
But he was also worried about the woman who hit him. He never stopped asking about her.
“From what I was told, she really distraught over the whole thing,” Platillero said. “She had been crying. I didn’t want her life to be ruined because of this.”
Platillero wanted to get in touch to offer his forgiveness.
“It sounds like it was an accident,” he said.
For five months, as he underwent physical therapy at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Platillero searched for the driver, who he later discovered was 23-year-old Freya Markowski.
Then one day, he got a text.
Read more and see video, here.
