Jerry Wood crawled his way out of the back of his crushed car and over a steep ravine to find help two days after his wreck.

Jerry Wood relived the treacherous two nights he spent stranded in an embankment through a detailed story of the events that took place with reporters Tuesday.

The Fort Worth lawyer was driving down a winding road on Oct. 13 in Palo Pinto County when he said his car dived off the road and into the embankment.

"I remember going through the curve and hitting that area, and I knew if I hit my brakes too hard I would roll in and go down into the ravine," Wood said. "And I certainly didn't want to do that."

When Wood came to, he said he quickly discovered a stick had become lodged in his throat. He used his own pocket knife to dislodge the stick.

"I was very scared and panicked and wanted to keep the stick out of my throat," he said. "I knew I had a knife in my console."

But after he made the incision, he soon became worried he might have made a fatal mistake.

"At that point, I thought that was the end," he said. "I thought I had slashed my throat. I just sat there and bled. But again, after a few minutes, I was still breathing and exhaling. The stick was dislodged [and] it went out the window somewhere."

Wood managed to dislodge the stick without any damage to his vocal cords, but barely.

"The doctor said I performed the tracheotomy very well, but I put the knife in too deep," he said. "I could have lost my voice."

Getting the stick out of his throat was just the beginning of his ordeal. Wood had also suffered several broken ribs and a punctured lung, which were injuries that made it nearly impossible to climb out of the deep ravine for two nights.

"You pray a lot," he said of his time stranded. "You think a lot."

On Sunday morning, he finally managed to climb out of the steep ravine and on to the side of the road. As he stood in search of help in blood soaked clothes, two drivers passed him by before a Good Samaritan, Paul Sanders, picked him up.

And nine days after his Friday the 13th crash, Wood was given the okay to go home after his hospital stay.

"I don't know that it's changed me," he said. "I certainly don't want to imply that anything I did was heroic. You rely on your survival instincts and you do what you have to do."

While Wood said he prayed to keep alive, his wife, Tarrant County Criminal Court Judge Molly Jones, said someone must have been listening.

"This is a miracle," she said. "I knew he was a strong man. He is an extraordinarily strong man. But my feeling is that the Lord has granted us no less than a miracle."

E-mail rrodriguez@wfaa.com