Iowa man makes most of life after fall leaves him paralyzed
"I will overcome anything that happens"
"I will overcome anything that happens"
"I will overcome anything that happens"
Sometimes in life, there is addition by subtraction.
It's a lesson Andrew Strom knows too well.
"Before my injury, I kind of mopped around and didn't realize what I had and I lost it." Strom said.
June 11, 2015, the 22-year-old Ankeny, Iowa, man had just returned from Iowa National Guard training.
He had been drinking with friends.
What no one knew at the time, was the emotional stress Strom was going through over his parents' marital problems.
"I hadn't talked to anybody how it's eating me up. And that was a mistake," Strom said.
Later that night, drunk and alone, Strom jumped out a third story window falling 35 feet.
"The goal was suicide, I believe," Strom said.
But his memory is a little unclear.
"If I was sober, I would have handled it differently," he said.
When he woke up, he was paralyzed from his waist down.
Doctors told him he'd never walk again.
"At first I was sad, but right away I was thinking, what am I going to do now?" Strom said.
He said rather than becoming more depressed, he felt like an emotional weight was lifted.
He had clarity.
"Be resilient, stay positive, optimistic," Strom said.
He spent five months at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals Lincoln campus.
His family rallied behind him.
His mom and brothers permanently moved to Lincoln.
At Madonna, he discovered not only several staff members are spinal cord injury survivors, but so is the program's director, Dr. Paul Krabbenhoft.
"When they see someone, one such as myself, or another member of our team, Kip Ransom, who is a psychologist who is a quadriplegic, he'll come rolling in on his wheelchair as well, and they realize things aren't as bad as I was thinking and there might be life for me after I leave this place," Krabbenhoft said.
Strom played on the Madonna Magic basketball team with Krabbenhoft for two years.
He also learned adaptive climbing using just his arms.
Strom drives and lives in his own apartment.
"I can do just about everything an able-bodied person can, just a different way of doing it," Strom said.
His goal is to graduate with an engineering degree at The University of Nebraska.
Strom, a sophomore, found yet another role model at the College of Engineering, its interim dean, Lance Perez, another spinal cord injury survivor.
"That helped myme bounce back. That helped me kind of realize what I can still be," Strom said.
Strom has created his own Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Pa-Haok8Iand has produced several videos answering questions about being paralyzed.
One of his videos is about how he gets in and out of a car.
"I use that channel to help other people with the same issues as me. I also want to answer questions I used to have," Strom said.
Strom also volunteers for a Nebraska National Guard Child and Youth program that's starting up a robotics team.
"I wanted to be a mentor for these kids because they are growing up the same way I did with a parent or both parents in the military. So I know what it's like to have somebody be deployed," Strom said.
"I really enjoyed helping other people and teaching other people things."
Strom doesn't dwell on what he's lost but all that he's gained and what he can and will do in the future.
"Just the thought in my head that I will overcome anything that happens," Strom said.
Strom said the reason he wants to become an engineer is so he can someday develop a better more affordable wheelchair or smart combat uniforms that would automatically render first aid if a soldier is wounded.