ATV accident survivor tells story of determination, healing
Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008
SPRINGDALE - If there was one word Matt Courson used to describe himself, it was active.
"I did it all," Courson told a crowd Tuesday during the last day of the 60 th annual Arkansas Farm Bureau Officers & Leaders Conference at the Holiday Inn in Springdale.
The 22-year-old from McGehee described himself as an athlete during his childhood and teen years and a country boy.
"I hunted; I fished," he said.
He recalled that, as a boy, he would wake up early on summer mornings and play baseball with his friends. Then they would swim, then play baseball again.
His high school baseball team won two state championships. He was All-State in baseball and played baseball at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
While he loved playing baseball, Courson said he probably was not as motivated in school as he should have been and took things for granted.
He recalled an April night about two years ago when he threw a party for one of his brothers who was leaving Arkansas. He said it was a "perfect send-off"for his brother.
The next day, after Courson left work at Sears and ate supper with friends, a buddy called and asked Courson to come over. Courson went to his truck to drive to the house, which was a quartermile from his home in west Little Rock.
The truck clicked, not turning over. An admitted country boy and not to be deterred, Courson hopped on his four-wheeler and drove to the friend's house. Then he remembers lying on his back, stuck, feeling pain in his arm, and yelling "Help !"several times.
He did not get an answer to his pleas for help until the next morning.
Some firemen ended up helping Courson, whose four-wheeler had driven off an embankment.
Courson did not want the paramedic in the ambulance to call his parents because he knew they would drive too fast to get there. Instead, he tried his brother, who could not be reached. Then, the paramedic called his parents. Even though she promised to tell them he would be all right, she ended up telling his dad that his son was "barely hanging on"and to get to the hospital fast.
The ambulance took Courson to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center.
After eight hours of surgery, in which doctors repaired his shattered backbone, Courson began his climb to get better.
"I really shouldn't have made it, but I was a fighter," he said.
He said his father instilled in him the leadership skills he needed. Those were needed after Courson was told he might never walk again because he had a spinal cord injury. In fact, there was a 99 percent chance he would never walk again.
He focused on the 1-percent chance that he would.
When he talked to his father about the odds, Courson said he told him," Dad, I'm going to make a difference. Nothing's going to stop me."
His athletic build was quickly challenged as he began physical therapy; he would sit up, then fall over.
"It was tough. They sent me home in a wheelchair," he said. "I didn't want to take that."
He begin to lie in his bed at home and visualize what he wanted for his life.
"You can visualize all you want to, but until you do it, it's not going to happen," he said.
He related his visualizing to the theme of the conference," The Landscape of Arkansas," and how leaders at the conference can work to improve it.
"We can all change the landscape of Arkansas for the better," he said.
Courson said people admire the abilities of athletes like Darren McFadden, but he grew to admire the athletic abilities of people he met at various physical therapy centers he visited. He described a place he went to in San Diego.
"If you come to this place, you'll see real athletes," he said. "They give everything they have every second of the day."
He descr ibes how he worked with his father to improve his functions in his legs and did it through faith, hard work and determination. Courson gives a lot of credit to his support system.
"My family's just unbelievable," he said. "I've got a great set of parents."
He said his two older brothers are his best friends, and he has a great group of friends.
His plans now are to attend the University of Maryland and do physical therapy at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore.
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