Each month, we want to highlight a consumer of the AZSCIA and hear their story, and see the remarkable things people are doing around the community. We know everyone has a unique journey that got them to where they are today, and we hope to highlight that. If you have someone that you want to recommend for this section, please feel free to call us or leave us an email.
This month we are highlighting Tim Surry. He is going to tell us a little about his injury, challenges he faces living with SCI, and advice he has for individuals who are newly injured. Take a few minutes to read Tim's empowering story.
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It was a typical Friday night in my senior year of high school. Someone was having a house party. My buddies and I jumped in the car and away we went. It was getting to be about 10PM and the parents were coming home. Everyone had to leave the house. You know, they had to clean the house up and get it back to normal so the parents don't know a party just happened at their house…yeah right!!!
We weren't done partying so we did what boys do, went to a park and climbed trees, wrestled each other on the grass, just having fun and rocking out to the new Whitesnake album. We all had 12:30AM curfews so after the winner of the nights wrestling match was determined we jumped in the car and headed home. Well that's the last thing I remember. I woke up 3 weeks later in the hospital. I was in bad condition as drunk driver ran a stop sign and crashed right into where I was sitting. It's probably a good thing I don't remember because I had a broken femur that actually stuck out of my leg, broken wrist, broken rib, and shattered my top and bottom jaws, with numerous chipped/broken teeth. I was messed up!
The doctors were really concerned about fixing my leg, but for some reason they couldn't stabilize me. My mom told them that I kept complaining about my back hurting. The doctors decided they needed to give me a CAT scan and see what's going on internally. That's when they found out I ruptured my aorta. The doctors were amazed that I hadn't died. They found my parents and explained the situation, saying that I probably would die on the operating table, if not, chances are I would be paralyzed from the chest down. They had no other option, do surgery and maybe die or die... Well I came through the surgery with flying colors.
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