Motorcycle sounds
Piano Music ♪
Riding on a Harley Davidson
you don't have a ceiling over you,
you're out there.
There is nothing between you and the road,
and the air.
You're going through nature.
When I see things outside, I don't see
anything ugly outside...
just appreciation of life,
which we all take for granted.
[Sound of crashing]
Slow Piano Music ♪
Young man driving the SUV
ran the stop sign
and hit Dave on his motorcycle.
[Sound of helicopter overhead]
Then we transfered him over to the
helicopter and they took him to
Strong Memorial.
He told me to tell his wife that he
loved her
and tell his dad he was sorry.
They told me that it was pretty horrific.
That Dave... was pretty bad.
When I first heard about the accident
I was...
I was in shock.
There's probably seven doctors, one right
after the other that just kept coming in.
He had multiple organ injuries, he had a
pulmonary contusion, and he had
rib fractures.
His leg was mutilated.
I have never seen anything like that.
Dave sustained multiple fractures in his
lower extremities.
Dr. Gorczyca had to provide internal
fixation to stabilize those injuries.
Had he not had that done he could have
lost his leg.
He dislocated his spine in two separate
regions
and had two separate spinal cord injuries.
It was just... it was nuts.
I put my head next to his and I said,
"Don't you dare die."
The surgery had to realign both
dislocation injuries,
put the spinal column back in place,
and decompress the pressure off the
injured spinal cord in both places.
Many of us on the care team were worried
that he wasn't going to make it.
He remained in a coma for almost 3 weeks.
Dr. Molinari was very optimistic,
he'd come in and say,
"He's going to be independent in a chair.
He's going to do everything he did
before...
except he'll be in a chair."
And I just remember meeting with one of
the other doctors
and I had said to him,
"What does that mean, really?"
And he just looked at me and he said,
"Your husband has a complete spinal
cord injury,
he has no movement from below the injury."
He said,
"He has a less than 1 percent chance of
ever walking again."
How do you tell somebody whose in the best
health of his entire life
that you're not going to be able to do
the things that you were doing before.
So I just kept saying,
"You know, are you sure you can't...
like move your foot?"
I don't know, one day we were just sitting
there and I was like, 
"Come on, just move your toe."
and he did, and it was just the slightest,
you know...
response but we were just like...
Did you see that?
She flipped back the covers and he
wiggled his toe,
I really felt like crying.
When Dr. Molinari came in and I was like,
"Hey, check this out, you should see what
he's doing."
I was exhilarated, we were euphoric.
Once we got home I was like, what do we
need to do
to keep him comfortable so he can...
function in the house.
I waited for the dust to settle and...
then I just said, "Hey I want to come over
and we'll play around a little bit."
Lee is family.
He's like your father, uncle, brother,
nephew
he is like best friend all rolled
into one.
I said, "Well lets see if we can just get
you on the floor."
And before I knew it he's in the living
room and he's like,
"Come on you can do this."
I'm in the kitchen, I'm thinking
oh my god, what are they doing in there.
How's that feel Murph?
Yup, that hurts.
That hurts.
The first year was just trying to get him
so he can stand up.
Because of his drive...
It drove me.
The two of them are always coming up with
these goals.
He said, "We're going to try to
walk again."
Dave decided that he was going to
do this 5K.
Newark has a new comfort home,
called Laurel House.
So he thought that would be a great way
to raise money for that cause.
I said, "If you really must do this,
then we'll do it."
His father started it off with his old
Red Rider BB gun to start the race off
and off we went.
And we just kept going one foot in front
of the other.
It's like watching one of your kids learn
how to walk I think.
They're out there applauding him and
rooting him on.
You know he ain't going to let anybody
down, you know.
It's just people helping people.
It's a wonderful thing to watch.
People were chanting, Murphy strong.
He goes, "How much farther?
How much farther?"
People that had passed us in the 5K,
that actually came back to walk with us
as he crossed the finish line.
Cheering and Applauding!
Music ♪
I could be ♪
A hero high up on that silver screen ♪
And I could be ♪
The figurehead of high society ♪
He did it in two hours, and 14 minutes,
and 36 seconds.
And he raised a lot of money which
was great,
he raised almost $5,000.
And he's not done.
When I first got out of the hospital Tracy
took me out for the first time in the
wheelchair.
And boom it was bright!
We went by a pine tree and I reached out
and grabbed some needles,
and I broke them up and smelled them
and I started crying because I almost
never smelled them again.
If we could have that outlook everyday
maybe everybody is supposed to
almost die once.
Miracle.
Rock star.
He's my hero.
He does it cause he wants to be a
better person,
and I don't think he's going to stop until
he's back to where he was 4 years ago.
I think he might run his next 5K.
If he told me he was going to fly I would
believe him.
There's no stopping him I don't think.
I just figured when I got hit God gave me
a bigger challenge.
There's hardly words to say the gratitude
I have to my wife, and Lee,
and the doctors that put Humpty Dumpty
back together.
Anything's possible.
Anything.
It's not just fighting through this,
it's fighting through this with
someone else.
Fight the lies with the truth ♪
Keep my eyes fixed on you ♪
I will sing the truth until the dark ♪
I will use my fighting words ♪
Fighting words ♪
I'm so tired of forgetting what I'm worth ♪
So I will use my fighting words ♪
