My story
The night everything
changed
September 24, 2004
After a helmet-to-helmet hit in the third quarter of a varsity football game, I was slow to get up. A coach helped me stand and walk to the sidelines. Then everything changed.
On the sidelines I collapsed — unconscious and unresponsive. The trainer called 911. My eyes rolled back, I was foaming at the mouth. Medical professionals came down from the stands. The ambulance finally arrived and rushed me to the hospital.
A scan showed bleeding on the brain. The doctor told my parents I needed immediate surgery. They asked the neurosurgeon if I would survive. His answer: "I don't know."
Things in the operating room were not looking good. The doctor was getting ready to tell my parents I hadn't survived. But then this happened — as the varsity game ended, students and fans gathered at the center of the field and prayed. I very miraculously survived surgery that night. But my story doesn't end there.
Five weeks in a coma. Imagine slowly coming out of it unable to walk, talk, read, or eat. I had been a star athlete and student — now I was starting over.
I shouldn't even be alive — but here I am: married, working full time, and dad to an awesome little girl. Attitude is everything, and I share the secrets to overcoming the impossible.
