On April 15 of last year, Dan Cunningham worried about a lot more than his taxes.

He feared for his life.

Cunningham, now 64, of Butler was driving on Litman Road when his car was involved in a violent collision with an SUV.

He had to wait more than two hours while emergency personnel tore the roof from his vehicle to get him out.

“I knew I was losing blood because I was bleeding in a few places,” Cunningham recalled. “The air bags jammed my glasses into my face and I needed 28 stitches there.

“I needed another 60 stitches to close a gash in my forearm ... I knew I was fading in and out of consciousness and I was going into shock.”

Cunningham knew his condition because he served as a medic in Vietnam, where he treated serious injuries on a regular basis.

“I knew I had to stay awake, keep alert ... I just kept jabbering and talking to myself,” he said. “I knew it was bad. Honestly, I didn't know if I was gonna live or die.”

Cunningham was flown by helicopter to UPMC Mercy, where he immediately underwent surgery for a broken right tibia that had penetrated the skin, a left broken femur, a broken hip and pelvis.

He required over 100 stitches total and also cracked his C-2 vertebrae.

An umpire for 35 years and an amateur baseball coach for 40, Cunningham is also the president of the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame. Cunningham is the longtime manager of the Saxonburg entrant in the Eagle County Baseball League and that community did not field a team last year because he was unable to coach.

“I didn't want to think about it, but I figured my baseball days were done,” Cunningham said. “Doctors figured I'd be laid up for more than a year.”

To the contrary, Cunningham served as plate umpire for the Freeport-Knoch game Monday at Pullman Park — returning to the diamond less than a year after his near-fatal accident.

He spent two weeks in the hospital before being referred to the short-term rehabilitation program at Concordia in Cabot.

“Inpatient Rehab Director) Kermit Bateson told me I'd be weight-bearing in six weeks,” Cunningham recalled. “That was hard to believe at the time, but I was confident they would get me there.”

While at Concordia, Cunningham's daily regimen included 50 sit-ups daily, other assorted exercises, along with lifting 25-pound weights over his head 50 times.

He also worked on his laptop, fished in the pond behind the Lund Care Center and read on the balconies of the facility.

“When Dan came in, we knew we had a lot of work to do,” physical therapist Tony Geitgey said. “But his attitude was positive from the first day and he always worked hard.

“We had him do some bike work to loosen him up, to keep him from getting stiff from all the scar tissue. Dan was very motivated, so it was easy to work with him.”

It didn't take the physical therapists long to realize much of that motivation came from baseball.

“He missed it. He wanted to get back to it, but wasn't sure that he could,” Geitgey said. “We emphasized how important it was for rehab patients to envision returning to normal activities in their lives.

“For Dan, that meant a return to baseball.”

Cunningham agreed,.

“Baseball has been such a big part of my life ... I never stopped to think about it until it was taken away,” he said.

While at Concordia, Cunningham was taken to some amateur games in Saxonburg on some evenings.

“It lifted his spirits and everybody at the games seemed to know him,” Geitgey said.

Cunningham was discharged from Concordia July 8 and was walking with a cane two days later.

His sons, Darin and Jason, came home from out of town to stay with him for a few weeks.

Cunningham still works out three days a week at Concordia, riding a stationary bike, doing the treadmill and lifting weights.

But he's also umpiring again and is bringing a Saxonburg team back to the Eagle County League as its manager.

“I've gotten back to life,” he said.

And he will have a new player on the roster.

“I played high school ball years ago, but haven't played since,” Geitgey, now 44, said. ‘When we took Dan to one of those games, I got a chance to step in the box and hit a few pitches, just horsing around.

“Dan liked what he saw, I guess, and asked me to come play for his team this summer. I figured, if he could come back from what he went through, I can do this.

“I coached Dan in physical therapy. Now he can coach me on the baseball field,” Geitgey added.