ATLANTA — A 17-year-old hockey player who was paralyzed from the neck down after a devastating collision with the boards has defied doctors’ predictions by regaining movement in his arms and legs just months after being told he would likely never walk again.
Jackson Drum, known as “Drummer” to his teammates at the Coeur d’Alene Hockey Academy, broke his neck during a tournament in Canada in January when he took a hit and went headfirst into the boards.
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“I remember trying to get up and I couldn’t move at all, and then I blacked out,” Drum said. “I was thinking ‘oh man, this is a bad injury.’ I just couldn’t believe what happened.”
The injury was so severe that Drum had to be resuscitated on the ice. Doctors initially gave his family little hope for recovery.
“After a bunch of hospitals denied him care, they told us to send him to long-term care instead of trying to get him rehab,” said his mother, Erica Drum. “They said he’d be on a ventilator forever and a feeding tube.”
Jackson rejected that prognosis.
Ten days after the accident, he began moving his leg — the first sign of what his family now calls a miracle recovery.
Since then, Drum has worked daily with a team of specialists at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, slowly regaining movement in each arm and leg. The progress has been steady and remarkable.
“I can move my left leg up and kick my left leg out. The right leg is just starting to come back in,” Jackson said.
His mother has watched her son reclaim abilities that doctors said he would never have again.
“He can move his legs, he can move both arms, he’s learned how to feed himself again,” Erica Drum said.
Jackson acknowledges the extraordinary nature of his recovery.
“It’s definitely a miracle,” he said.
The teenager’s positive attitude has been crucial to his rehabilitation. When asked how a 17-year-old maintains optimism through such a traumatic experience, Jackson’s response reflects wisdom beyond his years.
“Everyone is dealt certain things that you can’t control. One of them was breaking my neck, for example. Always got to stay positive with it,” he said.
Before the accident, Jackson was pursuing his dream of becoming a professional hockey player. During the same tournament where he was injured, he had scored a goal in the second period to bring his team within one goal— just ten minutes before the life-changing collision.
His mother says everything in his body works now; it’s simply a matter of regaining strength. The family hopes to have Jackson back home in Minnesota by October.
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