From car accident to engagement

When Jessica White left Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines Sept. 2 , she left with the promise of a ring on her finger.

White left engaged to Matthew Freese, both of Creston, who decided he wanted to spend his life with her after a car accident left him hospitalized for several days.

Romance

Freese, 28, and White, 29, went on their first date in July 2015, about six years after they first met through a mutual friend. The two had reconnected when they began working at Bunn-O-Matic together.

“He didn’t tell me where we were going,” White said. “It was a surprise. Then he took me out to eat in Des Moines and he took me to the Funny Bone (a comedy club).”

Since that first date, White gave birth to their first child together, Corbin, a little brother to White’s first son, Carson. Several weeks after Corbin’s birth, everything changed.

Accident

“It all kind of blurs together,” Freese described.

The blurs were the accident he was in Aug. 31, from which he was flown by air ambulance to Des Moines.

According to an Iowa State Patrol report, Freese, driving a 2004 Toyota west on Highway 25, became fatigued, crossed the center line and the front left side of his vehicle made contact with a 2016 Chevrolet driven east on Highway 25 by Collin James Cory, 22, of Altoona. Cory swerved right in an attempt to avoid a head-on collision, but a collision was unavoidable.

Freese’s vehicle entered the south ditch, where it rolled and came to rest on its top. Cory’s vehicle entered the north ditch facing south. Debris from Freese’s vehicle made contact with a 2013 Chevrolet driven west on Highway 25 by Sasha Lea Miller, 26, of Greenfield, causing front-end damage.

Freese was transported to Des Moines by air ambulance for non-life-threatening injuries. Cory refused medical treatment at the scene. Miller was transported to Greater Regional Medical Center for injuries caused by the airbag.

“I got a call from my work actually. For some reason the ambulance called them looking for me, but I was on maternity leave,” White said. “My best friend at Bunn, she called me and told me about it, and I was like, I don’t know, I kind of freaked out.”

White was told her boyfriend was in a rollover accident and was unconscious.

“I didn’t know what had happened,” White said. “It was one of those things where you go, ‘Is he alive?’ It was shocking.”

Des Moines

Freese had keys to both of their vehicles, so White’s friend picked her up and drove to the hospital.

“Nobody had any idea what was going on when I got there,” White said. “The guy in the ambulance called me and let me talk to Matt. So, I knew he was able to talk and knew he was alive.”

Freese was flown to Iowa Methodist from Creston for various injuries, including a piece of metal through his knee, and White and her friend drove to the Des Moines hospital after taking her oldest to stay with family and packing baby items for her 1-month-old.

“I just remember being taken by ambulance to the hospital, and then being Life Flighted to Des Moines and being in the trauma center for quite a while,” Freese recalled.

Once in Des Moines, Freese was put under anesthetic to clean out the metal from his knee that White described as “really bad to where it was showing his bone.” He also had stitches inside his body and outside, as well as cuts on his face and bruising along his entire left side.

“It was probably like 11 when they finally let me and his mom and dad in the trauma area. It had been a couple hours,” White said. “There were a lot of emotions, knowing that he’s alive and OK. I was just very happy.”

Proposal

After knowing Freese was okay, she crawled into the hospital bed with him and they cuddled for a bit. That’s when it happened.

“I knew that I loved her and I did want to spend my life with her,” Freese said. “I guess, when the accident happened, I guess I couldn’t stand the thought of her not being by my side for the rest of my life, so I couldn’t help but ask.”

“I knew Matt had something up his sleeve,” White said. “He just looked at me in the eyes and said, ‘I can’t hold it in anymore. I can’t wait another day.’ And that’s when he proposed.”

“I told her that I didn’t have a ring yet, but I would look,” Freese said. “She told me, ‘Even if you don’t have a ring, all I needed was to have you here with me and alive.’”

By Friday afternoon, despite not having a shining metal band on her left hand, White left the hospital engaged to the man she loved.

“I know I probably should say the proposal,” White said, “but being able to see him, knowing that he was alive, that’s probably the thing that gets me the most.”