Man's brush with paralysis averted after undergoing spinal care

While he was driving away from the scene, he was struck by an oncoming car.

Clark, 91, who lives in Henderson, said he looked both ways but didn't see the vehicle that struck him.

"It hit me on the driver's side in the rear," Clark said. "It kind of spun me around."

He said he remembers hearing the voices of the emergency workers who treated him along with having vivid memories on the ambulance ride to Duke Hospital.

At Duke University Hospital, a CT scan showed he suffered from severe spinal cord injury. Doctors told him his spine was completely separated during the incident.

"I'd seen a few traumatic spinal cord injuries, and this was probably one of the worse ones I have seen," said Dr. Alexa Bramall, a neurosurgery resident at Duke who treated Clark.

Doctors expected that Clark would be completely paralyzed following the accident, but there was movement in his hands and legs, meaning there was hope he would regain full body movement.

A team of physicians, including neurosurgeon Dr. Rory Goodwin, all of whom decided that using MRI imaging to check the condition of the spinal cord would be too risky for Clark

"We wanted to make sure that we set him up (so as to) not cause any secondary damage, which would have been catastrophic in his case because his spine was completely unstable," Goodwin said.

Doctors were able to stabilize Clark, whose spinal column was fused back in alignment.

He woke up after the procedure not aware at all about how closely he came to being paralyzed.

"I just assumed that perhaps I would walk sometime some day," Clark said.

After a few months of recovery, rehabilitation and checkups with Goodwin, doctors told Clark he was making great progress.

He was able to get back on his feet, with the help of family members who still want him to take it easy.

"He wants to run," said his nephew Graylon Bryant.

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