Jerad Hawkins, a former collegiate baseball player and now coach, is taking a lesson from his own playbook after life threw him a curveball.
While hanging out with some friends at the Lake of the Ozarks in late September, someone threw a ball into the water.
“I ran and dove into the lake,” Jerad said. “Took a breath and that’s all I remember. My friends got me out of the water, on a dock and had to do CPR three times. I woke up the next morning with a broken neck, a C5 (spinal cord injury).”
First-responders life-flighted Jerad to University of Missouri Health Care, and he underwent surgery to fuse his spine together.
The accident and surgery changed Jerad’s life; however, he knew that the support and love he had for his girlfriend, Brooke Simpson, would last forever. The day before he came to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ specialized spinal cord injury program, he made it official.
“I was in the hospital for a week, and I called my dad and said ‘go find a ring,’” Jerad said. “My family showed up (later) and gave me the ring. I put it in my pocket of my hospital gown and earlier, (Brooke) and I walked down the hallway with her phone in my pocket, so I told her she left something in there and she grabbed (the ring). She stuck by my side through everything. It’s so easy with her.”
With his new fiancé by his side, he began navigating life in a power wheel chair and with limited mobility. Through it all though, he has strived for independence.
“He wanted to take control of his own rehabilitation,” Janelle Hansen, MSPT, a Madonna physical therapist said. “His personal goals were just to be independent. It didn’t matter if he was wheelchair bound as long as he could be independent.”
He also desired daily progress.
“My goal was to get better every day,” Jerad said. “Whether that was moving a finger, getting up on my own; something small every day, that at the end of it all, it’s just another step.”
Through daily physician visits, coupled with intense physical and occupational therapies, Jerad worked hard to activate and strengthen those muscles.
“We didn't set any goals for walking or for stairs at first because he couldn't stand up or even sit up without help,” Janelle said. “So, it wasn't really appropriate to set walking goals. At the very beginning, barely anything was activating. The muscles that were required to stand up were not activating when he first got here. But whatever would activate at the very beginning, we knew if it could activate, we could strengthen it at least to some extent.”
In physical therapy, he started with the Functional Electrical Stimulation Bike to activate his muscles. Then moved to the Lokomat Robotic Gait Trainer and began taking steps and using the body weight support treadmill. He then progressed to the Proprio Reactive Balance System and the ICARE by Sports Art, a body-weight supported elliptical, to advance his mobility. Finally, he used the RiftonTram and two different walkers and before he left, he even took a few steps without any device. He could even take the stairs.
“Every single day, there was something that changed with Jerad,” Hansen said. “Something that got better, something more started moving. He always was a very hard worker, and so whatever task or challenge we had for him, he put everything he had into it. It was always a treat to work with Jerad.”
Similarly to his lower extremities, when Jerad first arrived at Madonna, he had a little bit of movement in his right hand, but not much in his left. Although, his arms were working, his fine motor skills needed the most improvement.
“We used some different electrical stimulation devices, like the Bioness, to really help hone in on that grasp and release,” Katelyn DuPont, OTD, OTR/L, a Madonna occupational therapist, said. “That stimulation really gave him an extra boost to get some of that strength and activation back in those hands.”
That boost played a huge factor when he started working on the driving simulator, another step on his journey to independence. He could hold the steering wheel and did not require as much adaptive equipment to make driving easier.
While making daily progress in his recovery, Jerad’s sense of humor remained despite his situation.
“That’s my life,” Jerad said. “That’s the way I’ve always been. It’s what gets me in trouble, but it’s also the person I’m always going to be. I work my tail off as much as I can. I try to take some humble pies here and there, but if I can make you laugh or make you smile, that’s what it’s about.”
After a month at Madonna, Jerad walked out of the front doors and returned home to Wathena, Kansas. He has since resumed his role as a father. He plans to return to coaching baseball in some capacity and hopes to return to work later in 2024.
Filled with challenges and a team of support, his rehabilitation journey is one he will never forget.
“All the smiles, all the great people,” Jerad said. “There's never a dull moment. But it's an amazing place. They do an amazing job. The Lord's here. They just love everybody.”
