The thin line between an ordinary family errand and a catastrophic, life-altering nightmare was erased in a fraction of a second on a busy Venice street. Today, a 38-year-old Los Angeles father is recovering in a hospital bed, missing his left foot but secure in the knowledge that his split-second instinct kept his two-year-old daughter completely untouched by a hurtling piece of metal.
Jordan Stannard’s life changed forever outside a neighborhood grocery store, but the father of two refuses to let the tragedy define his future. Speaking from his hospital room, Stannard made his perspective clear: there is no room for self-pity when your child is safe.
Seconds to React on Venice Boulevard
The ordinary Saturday turned chaotic at the bustling intersection of Venice Boulevard and Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Stannard, accompanied by his wife, their two-year-old daughter Sadie, and their six-week-old newborn Shae, was doing what parents do every day—loading groceries and bucking his toddler into her car seat.
Suddenly, a massive GMC truck barreled down the street, completely out of control. The runaway truck slammed violently into a Mercedes SUV that was waiting for a parking spot, but the impact barely slowed it down. The vehicle kept hurtling directly toward Stannard and little Sadie.
With no time to think, only to act, Stannard used his own body as a shield.
“I literally just threw her into the car,” Stannard recalled in an emotional interview with ABC7 Los Angeles. “I remember the truck fully hitting my body and hitting me and twisting me around.”
The impact was devastating. While Sadie remained completely uninjured inside the vehicle, Stannard bore the full force of the collision. The damage to his lower left leg was catastrophic.
“It looked like I had stepped on a grenade or a bomb,” Stannard described. “It looked like my foot was pretty much blown off.”
The Medical Toll and a Daunting Road Ahead
Paramedics rushed Stannard to the UCLA Medical Center, where trauma surgeons worked frantically to assess the damage. While his right foot was injured, the trauma to his left side was simply too severe to overcome. Doctors were forced to amputate Stannard’s left foot and ankle.
The physical loss of a limb is only the first hurdle for the young family. Friends and loved ones quickly established a GoFundMe campaign to help shield the family from the immediate financial shock wave of the disaster.
The baseline logistics of their daily life have been completely upended. The family currently lives in a three-story condominium—a layout that is entirely unnavigable for a patient recovering from a major amputation. According to the fundraising page, the family must now urgently relocate to a temporary, single-story home while Stannard heals and learns to walk again.
The community response has been swift. By Wednesday, July 1, the community had rallied to raise more than $110,000 to assist with medical bills and relocation costs.
An Athlete’s New Focus
Before the crash, Stannard was an avid athlete. Rather than abandoning that part of his identity, he is already rewriting his goals. He told the Los Angeles Times that he fully intends to run the Los Angeles Marathon next year on a prosthetic limb.
For Stannard, the emotional stakes of his recovery are far higher than any athletic achievement. He is determined to model resilience for the two little girls who still need their dad.
“I have a responsibility to my daughters to be the best dad that I can be,” Stannard insisted, holding back tears during his recovery. “I never want them to say, ‘Dad got in an accident and he was never the same. Dad got hurt and he’s been angry ever since.’ There’s no room for feeling bad for myself or being angry.”
As the shock of the impact fades into the reality of physical therapy, Stannard says he is anchored entirely by gratitude. Looking at his daughters, he knows the price he paid was worth it.