In December 2008 Cruise came home for a winter break that would change his life. Within the first week he lost a friend to a drug overdose. On December 16th he and his friends attended the funeral in the morning and then headed to the beach. Cruise was skim boarding as he had many times before, but this time when he cut into the wave his board slipped out from underneath him and he fell backwards and hit his head.
His friends on the beach thought he was joking as he lay in the water until a wave flipped him over and he still wasn’t moving. They pulled him out of the water and he was rushed to Delray Medical Center. After multiple x–rays, cat scans and MRI’s he was sent to emergency surgery for the next 6 hours. They replaced his C4 vertebrae with a small cage in the front and pins in the back to stabilize his neck. In a split second Cruise had been paralyzed below his shoulders. He spent two weeks in the Delray ICU trauma unit and on December 31st was transferred to Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia for rehab. He remained there for the next two and a half months, working hard to be strong enough to return home.
Rehabilitaion at Shepherd Center
Cruise made amazing progress in the first few months and with a C4 injury he is lucky to be breathing on his own. He was on a ventilator that kept him stable for the first several weeks, and eventually weaned off the tracheostomy at the beginning of February. We didn’t hear his voice for six weeks until his strength came back and he could speak around the trach. Our experience at Shepherd Center was amazing; each patient has a team of therapists and nurses that provide daily care. Once Cruise was out of ICU his inpatient rehabilitation program consisted of three hours of physical and occupational therapy and several other appointments throughout the day including speech therapy, recreational therapy, assistive technology and counseling. Once a week he could participate in a community outing and also had the opportunity to observe sports teams and participate in research studies.
When he arrived at Shepherd Center he could shrug his shoulders and had some movement in his neck. Over time he has strengthened his neck and shoulder muscles and gained weak contractions in his biceps and deltoids. His spirits have been amazing despite going through intense trauma; he is the same old Cruise – joking and laughing through his days. We have had incredible support from friends, family and everyone at Shepherd Center that has made this journey a little easier. Cruise was discharged from inpatient on Thursday March 5th and spent a week in Day Program, where we worked as a family in preparation for going home. On March 17th, 2009 Cruise finished his last day of Day Program and flew home to Delray Beach the following day.
The doctors and therapists at Shepherd were wonderful and very positive although they give no prediction of what the future might look like for Cruise. Approximately 11,000 people per year suffer from spinal cord injuries and they know very little about recovery. One doctor explained that they know what the spinal cord does but they don’t know how it does it. Every individual is different, every injury is different and there is no way to know how things will develop for Cruise.
We are all feeling very good about things to come for Cruise. He has an incredible amount of support and resources near by and we have no doubt that he will have a fulfilling, wonderful life, even if it is different than expected.