I remember when I broke my neck in 1972. I was 22 years old.  I sustained a C5-6 fracture from diving into a lake and hitting a submerged tree stump.  I had no movement from the shoulders down.  I remember having what amounted to ice tongs stuck in the side of my head, and 10 pounds of traction hung off the top of my head, to reduce the pressure on my cervical vertebra, while the swelling in my spinal cord went down...hopefully. I was stuck on a contraption called a Stryker frame, so they could flop me over like a pancake, to prevent pressure sores.  It was primitive by today's standards.

There were no steroid treatments to reduce swelling...just the hope that my body would heal itself. There were no CT scans or MRI's. Just an X-ray to see how much damage my spinal cord had sustained.  I was lucky.  The results of the X-ray indicated that my cord was not severed, and with my symptoms, there was hope that I would regain some movement...but nobody knew how much.  Only time would tell. 

One of the first thoughts that came into my head after my accident was:  "I'll never be able to drive a car again."   I had been married for one year, and we had just purchased a new 1972 Mazda RX-2 with a rotary engine.  It was a real screamer in its day, with about 130 horsepower, and a four speed stick.  It was a kick to drive, but I figured that my driving days were over. Of course I had no knowledge of hand controls, or other adaptive equipment.  At the time I was quadriplegic, so I really didn't know what to think.  

I had always been a car nut, having traded in my 1966 Mustang for the Mazda.  Yeah, I know that sounds crazy now. Who would trade in a classic like a Mustang for a rotary engine Japanese car that nobody had heard of?  But remember, this was 1972, and I was young and clueless.  The Mustang had become a mechanical nightmare, with transmission and cooling system problems, so the new Mazda seemed like a winner.  And it was fun.  But I figured I'd never drive it again.

Fortunately, I was wrong.  After the initial trauma and despair had worn off a bit, I became consumed with recovering.  I was fortunate....after about 8 weeks, I had regained substantial motion in my legs, and my arms and hands were also beginning to work.  In time I would regain enough strength and motion to walk short distances, and with a lot of time in rehab and at the gym, I regained my ability to drive a car.  I was even able to control the colonus in my left foot enought to negotiate a clutch. Today, I've given up on clutches.  They're just too much work, and with the Sportronic transmission and paddle shifters on my Mitsubishi Outlander, I can shift up and down at will.  

As it turns out, I could have saved myself a lot of sleepless nights had I known about hand controls and other adaptive equipment for automobiles. Today there are NASCAR drivers with disabilities, and look at Clay Egan, the first quad to compete in the extreme off-road sport of rock crawling.  In looking back, I think it was my irrational fear of losing the ability to drive that continues to fuel my enthusiasm for machines with motors.  It has become, like a lot of things, a privilege that I don't take for granted anymore.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to fire up the Outlander and go for a sunset cruise while listening to the Eagles. (Yes, I am a child of the 70's.)

 

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