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Being stubborn can sometimes be a good thing.
Brad Johnson, 47, Warsaw, can now walk after about 15 years of being a quadriplegic, thanks in part to his stubbornness.
"They told me I'd never walk again. They told me I'd never use my hands again. I was a total quadriplegic. I wouldn't listen," said Johnson Monday, as he was getting ready to bowl a few games at Gilliam Lanes.
In 1979 in Muncie, Johnson was riding his motorcycle, not very fast, when a drunken driver behind him thought Johnson wasn't going fast enough and gave Johnson's bike a little push with the car.
"He ran completely over me and ended up in front of me," said Johnson. The accident "broke my spine in eight places."
After the accident, Johnson was able to walk, but he suffered severe, almost debilitating pain from his injuries. He lost his job because he could no longer drive the 78,000 miles per year his job required him to drive.
In 1988, Johnson met a doctor who said the pain could be eliminated with a surgical procedure. Johnson trusted the doctor and went ahead with the surgery.
During the surgery, Johnson suffered nerve damage. After the surgery, Johnson was wheelchair bound.
Johnson decided he didn't want to remain a quadriplegic and looked for a way to change his condition.
In 1991, he was referred to the Chicago Institute for Neurological Surgery and Neurological Research.
From then until August 2002, he had 15 additional spinal surgeries. Through the years of pain and surgery, doctors kept telling Johnson he wouldn't walk. Johnson didn't listen.
Before his last surgery in August, he was standing up. Not straight up, but he was standing. Now, with the last surgery, he's standing tall. He does use a walker, but he is walking.
The last surgery included screwing titanium cages into his cervical spine. Johnson said he was the first person to undergo the procedure, the second person being "Superman" actor Christopher Reeve.
With each of the surgeries, Johnson has had therapy. With the last surgery, his occupational therapists asked what his goal was. He told them he wanted to bowl. And golf. That's why he was at Gilliam Lanes Monday, to work on his bowling.
Johnson's physical therapist Fred Luster said they have been breaking down the process of bowling in therapy and practicing it before Johnson actually began bowling.
"What we're doing today," Luster said Monday, "is he's putting the pieces of what we worked on in one movement." Monday, Luster held onto a belt around Johnson to help him keep from falling. But Johnson didn't need Luster's help too much, Luster said. "Everything he is doing, we worked on in therapy."
Before his accident in 1979, Johnson said he averaged 160 in bowling. His golf game was near professional. To get back to bowling and golfing, he's been working on his balance, strength and coordination.
Before Monday, he bowled only one other time since having his surgery, and that was with his nurse Cora Ludwig. That time, he bowled games with scores of 79 and 124.
Johnson gets his therapy through the Kosciusko Community Hospital Regional Rehabilitation Center at the KCH Wellness Center. Colleen Swihart is his occupational therapist and Luster is his physical therapist. Both were bowling with him Monday.
"It's pretty remarkable where he started and where he's at now," said Luster. He said he didn't expect Johnson to be at this level of ability so soon.
Ludwig said she's been working with Johnson for approximately 5-1/2 years now. When she started with him, he couldn't walk. They started his therapy at the YMCA in the pool.
"He gradually kept coming up," she said of his improvement. Now that he's walking, she said, "Doctors said he wouldn't walk. He proved everything against what they said."
When she started working with him, he didn't have a very positive attitude. That, too, has changed she said. "His positive attitude is so much better. He's now at the point where he can do things with his son, like play catch, and do his own hair. There's so much he can do now compared to what he couldn't."
On his first frame of his first game Monday, Johnson got a spare. He got one more spare later in the game and two strikes.
The final scores of the first game Monday were Johnson, 109; Luster, 108; and Swihart, 104.
Upon winning, Johnson said, with a smile on his face, "Beat him by one pin! Yes, sir. One pin!"
Not bad for a man who was a quadriplegic for more than 15 years and had 16 surgeries.
