American HotRod Mike Curtis Discusses his life-altering accident

American HotRod’s Mike Curtis was involved in a horrific crash several. years ago and has been working hard to recover the full range of motion in his face, which was rebuilt using nine steel plates. His crash left him with some lack of movement in areas of his face, most noticeably his lips and eyebrows. When the American HotRod crew watched some footage from another crash, it reminded Mike of his incident and the struggle he’s faced to recover from the devastating injuries he suffered.

Mike recounted the incident itself, during which the car he was in flipped multiple times, throwing him out the top and leaving him facing a three week hospital stay and a years-long recovery process. The doctors rebuilt Mike’s facial structure over the course of several surgeries, but they weren’t able to give him back full function in his lips, leaving him with a slight speech issue that, while he’s adapted very well, left Curtis feeling understandably self-conscious. However, a doctor saw Mike on television and realized he would be an ideal candidate for his cold laser treatments that stimulate the nerves and muscles beneath the skin, in many cases prompting them to regain lost feeling and movement.

Hopefully with continued laser therapy treatments, Curtis will regain full feeling and motion of his lip and eyebrows, allowing him to return to what he knew as normal before his crash. Pay close attention to the photos from Mike’s crash, you can see clearly that he is very lucky to be alive and, given the absolute destruction of his hotrod, we’d say the lingering effects are relatively minor considering how bad things could have been in such a terrible crash. We do wish Mike the best as he continues treatments and works toward his recovery goals with his doctor.