James was on the brink of death in late July, fighting pneumonia as he lay in a coma at xxxxxxxx Medical Center after being hit by a freight train.

He awoke about a week after the train accident in a hospital bed and in pain, unable to move and with no memory of how he got there. Heath said his immediate emotional reaction was "terror."

Shortly after he regained consciousness, Heath asked a nurse to help lift his right leg back onto the bed. That's how he learned that his leg was gone, severed above the knee by the train.

"I don't remember it at all," Heath said. "I don't even remember walking down the track. I'm glad I don't remember."

A CSX train engineer told emergency responders that 31-year-old Heath was lying "curled up in the fetal position" between the tracks just before 1 a.m. on July 20, as the train was approaching the intersection of Westland Farm Road and xxxxxxx just north of xxxxx xxxxx.

Rescue crews said Heath heard the train whistle and moved to get off the tracks, but not quickly enough. The train dragged Heath by his leg for about 50 or 60 feet before it came to a complete stop.

According to paramedics, Heath was conscious and alert when they arrived. Heath said he might have been conscious, but only in an altered state.

"I must have been out of my mind to lay down on the train tracks," he said.

Heath said he believes he was high on heroin at the time and that is probably why he ended up lying on the train tracks, though he doesn't recall what was going through his mind. Heath said he often walked on the train tracks, sometimes three or four miles a day.