Henry Akins is recovering in the hospital after a motorcycle accident that may have been fatal if he hadn’t been wearing his helmet.

Akins, who is often regarded as one of Rickson Gracie’s best black belts, posted a photo of himself in his hospital bed yesterday and recounted the story of the accident:

Greatful to be alive…I got in a really bad accident last night as I was coming home from Hollywood after editing some… Posted by Henry Akins on Tuesday, September 4, 2018

“Greatful to be alive…

I got in a really bad accident last night as I was coming home from Hollywood after editing some of my seminar footage. I was riding home on my motorcycle when a Range Rover coming from the opposite direction decided to make a left turn as I was approaching the intersection. I slammed on the brakes to avoid getting t-boned and went flying off my bike landing on my arms and face. The helmet saved me from losing my lower jaw. I jumped up as quickly as possible to avoid getting run over by the other cars coming and collapsed in shock. Was taken to the emergency room trauma unit. Doctors at UCLA did an amazing job. I couldn’t move my neck so they had to check to make sure it wasn’t broken, and also did scans to make sure I had no internal bleeding.

I was very lucky to have just a broken wrist and they had to suture my thumb back together which was torn down to the ligaments and tendons. So grateful, because I know it could have been so much worse. I definitely had the universe looking out for me, grateful it wasn’t my time to go.

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I apologise to all my students at Dynamix who were excited to have me back teaching this week and all the students in Monterey looking forward to seeing me this weekend, I was really looking forward to seminar too. I’m home in bed resting now, thankful that I’ll be making a full recovery. Special thanks to Matt and Sarah Jones who came to the hospital and stayed with me all night, Josh Fiore who came to see me right away to make sure I was ok, I couldn’t ask for better friends and my girlfriend Jessica Jones for taking care of me. I appreciate all my other friends who also found out through the grapevine and reached out to make sure I was ok.

Sad thing is the Range Rover stopped and then just drove off so I assume they were probably drinking. Lesson learned…Grateful to still be here with you all :)”

We wish Akins a speedy recovery!