Patton’s Caddy was hardly “crushed”, in fact it was restored and is currently on display. From what I’ve read, Patton wasn’t that badly injured... makes one wonder what happened in the hospital.
http://www.dvidshub.net/image/529047/after-accident#.U0cMC6hdW-0
bttt
What happened in the hospital was he threw a blood clot that killed him. Not particularly unusual for a quadriplegic flat on his back for weeks.
Tony,
He was very seriously injured:
Taken to a hospital in Heidelberg, Patton was discovered to have a compression fracture and dislocation of the third and fourth vertebrae, resulting in a broken neck and cervical spinal cord injury which rendered him paralyzed from the neck down. He spent most of the next 12 days in spinal traction to decrease spinal pressure. Although in some pain from this procedure, he reportedly never complained about it. All non-medical visitors, save for Patton’s wife, who had flown from the U.S., were forbidden. Patton, who had been told he had no chance to ever again ride a horse or resume normal life, at one point commented, “This is a hell of a way to die.” He died in his sleep of a pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure at about 18:00 on December 21, 1945.
[Axelrod, Alan (2006), Patton: A Biography, London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-1-4039-7139-5]