WILL FINDS A WAY: Condon overcomes paralyzing dive
Painted Post native Will Condon has battled back from a paralyzing dive into a North Carolina pool.
Will Condon doesn't remember the day that changed his life. He doesn't remember jumping into the swimming pool, doesn't recall the feeling of his vertebrae pushing into his spinal cord, doesn't remember the ambulance ride to the hospital with a broken neck.
He remembers flashes of fluorescent lights two days later. Maybe there was a fuzzy image of a nurse walking in his room. He recalls more clearly tubes coming out of his mouth, the sight of concerned family members and his girlfriend around his hospital bed.
But mostly what he remembers from that May day in Charlotte, North Carolina, was what he felt. Or didn't feel. The former two-sport standout at Corning West High School, now a teacher and baseball coach, was paralyzed from the armpits down and would soon be told by his doctor there was concern he would never walk again.
Unable to talk because of the tubes sticking out of his mouth, Condon instead spelled out a message that would carry him through months of rehabilitation: "Not for long."
"I never once doubted that I wasn't going to walk again, because you're not going to stick me in a wheelchair for the rest of my life," he said.
Nearly six months later, Condon is again walking, largely but not completely back to his old self as he continues occupational and physical therapy at the HealthWorks Wellness & Fitness Center in his hometown of Painted Post, where he is living with his parents as he recovers.
Even with all the work and determination that have carried a recovery that has been at times painful and frustrating, Condon, 29, doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for him. Even describing himself as courageous or close to it is tough. It comes much easier for Lou Condon Jr., his older brother by six years.
"I've watched Willie grow up from when he was a baby and when he sets his mind to something, he makes it happen," Lou said. "More so than myself, he has that fight and that attitude of, 'I'm going to do whatever it takes to succeed.' ... You could just see it in his face that he was determined this was not going to beat him. This was not going to be the new chapter that was going to stop the book of William Condon. He just fought through it the entire way."
For someone who was a high school athlete and coach, and who comes from a family of coaches, Will readily acknowledges this was a team effort. He is more inclined to point the finger of praise toward doctors, nurses and physical therapists at Atlanta's Shepherd Center, one of the top facilities in the country for those recovering from spinal cord injuries. Condon said without them it's hard to say where he would be right now. The same goes for his family, particularly parents Lou Condon Sr. and Barbara Condon, who left their home, their lives and were there for their middle son for 129 consecutive days, doing anything within their power to help his recovery.
Not to be overlooked was the outpouring of support – both financial and emotional – that came from co-workers at Charlotte's South Mecklenburg High School, friends, high school classmates and people he had never met, including the Corning-Painted Post High School football program, which raised more than $5,000 to help with his medical costs.
"People talk about how the world is going to hell and what are we doing with this society?" Condon said. "But when tragedy happens, people band together. They want to help, they want to see success. They want to see victory over bad things. That meant the absolute world to me. You never really know until something like this happens that people are going to be there for you."
Life-changing moment
May 27 was the start of Memorial Day weekend and a summer-like day in Charlotte, with temperatures in the lower 80s. Condon and two friends decided to go swimming at the pool at Condon's apartment complex.
Condon had crashed into opposing players hundreds of times as a lineman during his high school football career. He had taken numerous tumbles while skiing. He used to go to Ithaca and jump off the cliffs into the water. A 3-foot leap from the side of the pool on this day should have been no big deal.
"All I did was hit the water," he recalls. "I didn't hit any sides, I didn't hit the bottom. I just hit the water. It did a number."
As was later explained to Condon, the tension of the water surface created a whiplash effect that snapped his head back. Just a "fluke accident."
Condon would have drowned if he hadn't been pulled from the pool by his friend Garrett, who said he didn't want to relive that day in response to an interview request. Condon ended up with a broken neck and about 48 hours later had surgery at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. His C4, C5 and C6 vertebrae were fused. Just a few hours before going swimming, Will had been texting professional wrestling trivia back and forth with Lou Jr., ready to enjoy Memorial Day weekend.
Back in Painted Post, the phone rang at the home of Will's parents. His mom answered and the person on the other end asked to speak to Will's dad, who was told they needed to get down to Charlotte as soon as possible. They had no luck in securing a flight, so they decided to drive down along with Lou Jr. and their other son, Dan. They left at 8:30 that night and arrived at 6:30 the next morning, heading directly to the hospital.
"There was just so many things just running through your mind and you hope and pray the entire way," Lou Jr. said of the car ride. "Luckily by God's watch over him, he was OK. It took some time to get back, but he was OK."
A crushing message
The initial prognosis was devastating. Will was told the spinal cord injury was incomplete, which meant there was hope, but it was still unlikely he would ever walk again.
"The medical field can never really tell you whether you're going to or not," Will said. "One doctor came in – he was the head of the rehab center at Carolinas Medical Center – and said people similar to my injury, one out of three was walking, but he wasn't walking very good and was in a wheelchair most of the time."
Beyond the spine injury were the secondary effects. Condon's lungs were in extremely bad shape, with the oxygen to his lungs going up and down every day and mucus buildup creating extreme risks. He ended up needing a tracheotomy so a breathing apparatus could be inserted.
Condon also couldn't eat or drink, with his liquid intake limited to swabs of water on his tongue. He couldn't talk either, adding to the frustration. His girlfriend, Tanya Mishina, came up with a system where he would blink when she got to the correct letter of the alphabet to spell out words.
"When people think of paralyzed people, they think, 'Oh yeah, their legs don't work,'" Condon said. "That's not the case at all. When you're paralyzed, everything's gone – walking, eating, breathing, typing, going to the bathroom. Everything. It just doesn't work."
He spent several days in the intensive care unit at Carolinas Medical Center, where he was immobilized. Hospital personnel and family connections encouraged Will to continue his treatment at the Shepherd Center. He arrived there June 6 and his immediate reaction was, "This is the place I need to be."
They started by giving him a bottle of water and feeding him pudding, the first time he had eaten since the accident. After four days in the ICU there, he began in-patient acute therapy. The Shepherd Center would be his home for the next three months.
"If I can say anything about the Shepherd Center, it's just amazing, it's fantastic," Condon said. "From the case managers to the therapists to the nursing staff, even the administration, it was just unbelievable. They just welcome you with open arms and everybody is just so positive there, which made such a huge difference."
Help through tough times
When Condon arrived at Shepherd, he couldn't feel anything from his stomach area down to his feet. He had extremely limited movement in his arms and wrist and wore a neck brace that would remain for more than two months.
Barely able to communicate and confined to his bed, with the tube stuck down his throat for weeks, Condon took comfort and inspiration from those who love him most.
"Luckily I had my parents there. They were there the whole time, from day one," he said. "Without my family, without my parents, I don't think I would have made the same type of recovery."
Condon's mom would read him books about meditation. His dad, the head baseball coach at Corning Community College, would read him "Standing Tall: The Kevin Everett Story," which chronicled the road to walking again for the former Buffalo Bills tight end, who was paralyzed during a game in 2007. That book had a big impact on Condon's outlook. His parents spent the first 30 days in dorms at the hospital, then stayed in a hotel setting before returning to the dorms after Will was moved to the day program.
A conversation with David Streeten, who is the brother of one of Will's best friends, Duncan Streeten, added to the optimism. David had suffered a life-threatening brain injury during a cliff diving accident in 2004 before fighting his way back.
Will's co-workers from school drove four hours to Atlanta to see him and played a big role in helping his ongoing GoFundMe page (www.gofundme.com/27jvczh5) raise more than $7,000 toward his expenses.
For family and friends, helping Condon feel better was made easier by him helping them to feel better. That optimism carried over to the staff at Shepherd.
"A lot of frustration, a lot of tears, but I never, ever, ever didn't believe that he wasn't going to walk out of there," Lou Sr. said. "Everybody he talked to, therapists, physical therapists to occupational people, they all said, 'Yeah, he's going to do it.' ... His will was probably the biggest thing. They just feed off it. It's amazing. It's the most phenomenal place I've ever seen in my entire life."
Lou Jr., a teacher in the Campbell-Savona School District and a junior varsity football coach at Horseheads, visited his brother in early August, when Will's condition had started to improve.
"It broke my heart for him because he was so strong and focused, even more so than I've ever seen," Lou said. "He said, 'Louie, this is not going to beat me. I'm going to do whatever it takes.'"
Lou Jr. later told Will he made the situation so much easier on everyone else with his optimism. Will takes pride in that comment and in his own determination in general, which at times has been at odds with self-doubt.
"If somebody told me I couldn't do something, I wouldn't quit, I would work harder," Will said. "That's always been my mindset: Don't tell me what I can do."
'Game time'
Determination is one thing. Legitimate hope is something else. As optimistic as Will and those around him were, he admits there were dark days, including a moment when he was stuck in a power chair and broke down crying, looking up to his dad and telling him, "All I want to do is get up. All I want to do is just get up and walk out of here. Dad, I want to go home."
Brighter days followed. More than a month into his stay at Shepherd, a twitch of his right hand provided a sign things were headed in the right direction. His mom and dad were moved to tears that day.
A day or so later, Condon was in bed and had movement in his left knee, leading his therapists to come rushing in.
"You're just like, 'Game time! Let's go! Let's do this thing! This is going to happen,'" Will recalled. "I still get kind of choked up about it because I was like, 'Oh my god, it's actually happening. This is going to happen. I'm going to stand up again.'"
By July 14, Condon was standing, albeit with help from his therapists and with excruciating pain.
"I definitely lost it on that day," he said. "I didn't know when I was going to stand up again. The longer that takes, the more you kind of start to think, 'Is this going to actually happen?'"
Said Lou Sr.: "I think the most rewarding part of it was the day he stood up. It was just sheer determination. Here's a guy who came here June the Sixth and literally moved very, very little, if anything, from the neck down and now he's standing up."
By Aug. 4, more than two months after he jumped into that pool, Condon was taking steps with the help of a walker. He left the Shepherd Center on Sept. 28, keeping his promise from when he arrived to walk out of there under his own power, with just a single crutch to support him.
"That moment, that’s what I wanted," he said. "I didn’t want to wheel out of there, I wanted to walk out of there on my own two feet. I feel like the therapists helped me do that. My own willingness to work for it was what made that happen."
On his graduation day, Will gave a speech that had his therapists and nurses both laughing and crying. He relayed his message of hope to those less fortunate, encouraging them to focus on getting better day by day.
"Word got out of his speech and everyone said, 'Oh, he's the one who gave the big speech on his graduation day,'" Lou Sr. said. "It was colossal. It was just one of those things that you had to be there to see it. It was fantastic."
Hometown reaches out
Word got out to the Corning-Painted Post area of Condon's injury. During one of the summer sessions for the Corning varsity football team, Hawks head coach George Bacalles relayed Will's story to his players, who decided they would use their yearly fundraiser to help one of their own. Through T-shirt sales and donations, the football program raised $5,216 for him. The message on the T-shirts: "Can't Hold Me Down."
"We've got a lot of great kids in our program, all the way from seventh grade and all the way through the senior class," said Bacalles, who coached baseball with Condon in the school district in 2011. "That's the type of kids we have."
Bacalles updated the players on Condon's recovery during the season and reminded them about the work he had put in.
"Here's somebody who went from being told he wasn't going to be able to walk again to now being able to walk out of a hospital," Bacalles said. "It was a touching story."
The Corning football program honored Condon before a game against Elmira on Oct. 14 at Corning Memorial Stadium. Elmira's coaching staff includes Mike Johnston Jr. and Jeff Edwards, who coached Will at West High. They hugged him on a night that left Condon with an added appreciation for what that group of kids, and his hometown community, had done for him.
"That moment was surreal," Will said. "To have an entire community support you, people you don't even know supporting you, is just unbelievable. You just don't expect it. Even the kids, they didn't know who I was. They came out and said, 'Glad to see you're doing better. We tried real hard to get you some money to help you out.' It's a cliche, but there really is nothing like coming home. To have your community support you like that, it's beyond humbling, it's beyond gratification."
More work remains
The recovery is ongoing for Condon, who can walk without crutches, but not for extended distances. During a recent trip to Simmons-Rockwell, though, he decided to forego the crutches and had his hands in his pockets. His mom looked at him and started crying, telling her son, "If you didn't tell somebody that you've been through this, people wouldn't really even know.'"
He has grown to appreciate a great deal more little things like driving a vehicle, going archery hunting or hanging out in the woods with his English Setter, Maggie. Condon is hoping to return soon to teaching as a substitute at Corning-Painted Post and has his sights set on ultimately going back to his profession full time in September.
Running, or walking, the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta is another goal down the line, a way of showing appreciation for those who helped him at the Shepherd Center and a way to show far he's come.
Doctors have told him about 95 percent of his recovery will take place within a year of the injury. Weekly rehab continues at HealthWorks and Will said he feels like a new person each week, doing things he couldn't do before.
The ultimate goal is to simply be the guy he was before that jump into the pool.
"I want to feel like people are looking at me like they did before I got hurt," he said. "Like I'm Willie again."
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