Man, paralysis sucks. I am so glad to see that Kevin Everett will likely walk again. I can relate to what his family is going through.
One week after I started 7th grade my mother was in a car accident and broke her neck. The doctors said she would likely never walk again. Of course, being doctors they had to add percentages to show how smart they are so they actually said there was a 98% chance she would never walk again.
After several weeks and some super-duper experimental hip-bones-connected-to-the-neck-bone surgery performed by one of the best surgeons in the country, my mom moved her finger (there was something like a 60% chance she would not regain use of her arms). Of course, this was very exciting news for us in much the same way that a laugh or a twitch is exciting news for the family of Kevin Everett.
Being so excited by her progress my mom could hardly wait to show her doctor. When he came to check on her that day she showed him her excitement and moved her finger. The doctor replied with “oh yeah?” and asked if she could touch each finger to her thumb in succession. There was no “congratulations” or “nice work”, just an “oh yeah, can you do this?!?”. My mother was pissed. To this day I am not sure if the “fuck you doc” was audible or not.
I have often suspected that encounter to be part of what made my mom work so hard in physical therapy. I don’t know if that was the intention or not.
The good news is that today, Kevin Everett is showing promising signs and my mom walks with a limp.
