Another young man in his 20’s, Bill, playfully dived into the surf and hit his head on a sandbar. Instantly, he could not move or breathe. Thanks to friends who were nearby, Bill did not drown. However, he was paralyzed from the neck down. Doctors told Bill that he also would never walk again.

First Reaction

“I wanted to commit suicide,” Bill confessed, “but couldn’t in the hospital bed.” Bill had served in the Vietnam War and was planning to be an airplane pilot. When he was injured in 1969, all his dreams were shattered, and he saw no reason to live.

Need to Face the Challenge

Bill, on the other hand, did not have knowledge of God’s promises. However, something happened one day that moved him to do something about himself.

After merely existing in the hospital for eight months, Bill was wheeled into a bathroom to be shaved by a male nurse. “When I looked in a mirror,” he said, “I saw a person that was not me!”

Bill had been a strong 200-pound [90 kg], six-foot-one-inch [185 cm] man, but now he was a mere 90-pound [40 kg] skeleton. He refused to believe that the image of the person in the mirror was his own. The experience ignited in him a fighting spirit to accept the challenge of his disability. “The first year of your disability is the critical time,” Bill says, “for that’s when you decide which way you are going to go.”

Bill finds the greatest difficulty in living with a body that is limited and a brain that is not. “It’s like having a jet-propelled mind in an oxcart of a body,” he says.

There are also physical complications that are associated with spinal cord injury, such as lack of bladder and bowel control, pressure sores, and respiratory problems. Ed has had kidney problems ever since his injury and has periods of from six to seven days at a time when he has a temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit [40° C.]. Not being able to control bladder and bowel is also most frustrating to Bill. As he puts it: “You never adjust to having the body of an infant.”

Not being able to control bladder and bowel is also most frustrating to Bill. As he puts it: “You never adjust to having the body of an infant.”

“Try to forget your disability,” advises Bill, “and go out and live your life as best as you can. If you do not act like a disabled person, people will not treat you like one.” Bill practices what he preaches. He has successfully owned and operated a business, getting around on his golf cart, in his wheelchair, and on crutches.

“The greatest compliment to a disabled person,” Bill advises, “is to treat him as normal, to relate to him as you would to anybody else.” True, some may find this hard to do. There may be a personal mental or emotional barrier between them and disabled persons. However, the more we get to know these as individuals, the less we think about their disability.