“One minute I could back-flip off the ground, and I couldn’t breathe the next.” - Nick
It all started years Ago… January 27th, 2008
Extremely athletic and ready to take on the world, Nick found himself in a hospital bed on January 27, 2008. He had fished high school 9 months before and he was ready to start an adventure of a life time. Wanting to travel the world, live out of a van, thumbing it around Europe; but you have to have a little bit of money to start this kind of adventure. So he spent the summer of 2007 working on Landscaping crews, earning as much money as he could.
Spending the winter snow skiing on Schweitzer mountain in North Idaho, he decided you attend the community college. 1 semester down, he spent the weekend of January 25-27 2008 at some high school friends university in Walla Walla, Washington.
It was on the way home that life completely changed for Nick and his family…
Sunday morning Nick drove home; only the 3 1/2 hour drive took him 8 months to complete.
While driving, Nick hit a patch of black ice and his car slid off the road and into a nearby parking lot where the car collided with a flat-bed semi trailer. Nick was whipped across the car and hit his head no the trailer, causing a chunk of his skull to be forced 3 1/2 - 4” into his brain.
Nick spent the next 8 months in the hospital, 4 of these months were in a coma.
Doctor’s told Nick’s parents that he had a 50% chance to live, and IF he lived he might not be a normally functioning human. He might not ever walk again, might not ever talk again, and normal life of a 19 year old was nearly out of the question.
Going back to college?… How about breathing on his own. We can think about the next stage IF he can ever move past this one.
—————————————————
Now, over 15 years after his accident; after years of therapy and exercise, years of working hard to be able to do what he could do without even thinking about it before his accident; Nick will be graduating with his Associates of Art (AA) AND his Associates of Science (AS) degree’s on May 12th, 2023.
