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Perseverance Pays Off for Local Man Recovering from Car Accident

A northwest Arkansas sheriff’s deputy continues to recover from injuries he sustained in a car accident while on the job.  KSMU’s Michele Skalicky has the story of how far he’s come.

Jonathan Moran had been working as a Carroll County Sheriff’s deputy for only about six months when the accident occurred.  He was driving his patrol car to assist a fellow deputy with a domestic disturbance call in Oak Grove on July 7th.

"Some way, somehow, on the way up there, I was told, I misjudged a turn.  Instead of turning left like I was supposed to, I went straight, and straight ahead was a dirt road.  I was told when I hit this dirt road, I guess I went off a ditch...and crashed into two cedar trees, which I successfully took them off the ground, and took out some fencing and rolled between five and seven times, I was told, and came to a rest in the middle of the dirt road upside down," he said.

He doesn’t remember the accident at all.  The deputy, whom he had been on the way to assist, went searching for Moran and spotted headlights facing the road.  By that time he thinks he had been upside down for nearly an hour.

He broke his left shoulder blade and fractured several vertebrae.  He underwent two surgeries to remove one and fuse others together.

"I'm all patched up.  Luckily, my spinal cord didn't sever or else I wouldn't now be able to do this," he said.

Moran showed how he could lift his right leg.

When he first arrived at Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital after leaving Mercy Springfield, he had a small bit of movement in one arm, but he was bound to a wheelchair, unable to walk.

According to Mercy physical therapist, Caitlin Buening, he had some sensation but not much movement below his neck fractures.

But Moran was determined to walk out of the hospital one day. 

Buening says her patient refused to give up.

"We had to decide when he was tired.  He never said, 'I'm done.  I'm tired.  I'm done for the day,' anything like that.  We had to decide when our therapy session needed to end because he was always motivated, always willing to try the next thing," she said.

The latest technology was available to help Moran recover.  He used an electrical stimulation bicycle, which allows electricity to take the place of the nervous system, and riders with spinal cord injuries are able to pedal.  He also had access to a standing frame, which he despised, but which allowed him to simulate walking while his trunk and upper body were supported.  And the Bioness system, which delivers electrical stimulation to activate and contract specific leg muscles, also was a big help in Moran’s recovery, he says.  He loved joking with the staff and giving them a hard time.

"I got to mess around with all these nurses and therapists and kind of test them a little bit and their reflexes by pretending I was falling (laughs) or something, you know," he said.

About a month after he arrived, he had recovered enough to go home.

"By the time it was time to get out of here, I wheeled myself to the front door, and they brought me a walker, and I was able to walk from the front door all the way to the car," he said.

He returned to Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital last week for the first time since he left, and the staff was happy to see him.

"You're wearing your glasses.  You have no brace, this is like a new guy," Caitlin Bruening said. 

"Surprise (laughs)," Moran said.

He goes to physical therapy five days a week now  in Berryville, Arkansas where he lives.  He still uses a wheelchair, but he can walk with the help of a cane.  And he says he’s OK with whatever the future holds.

"I'm not 100 percent yet, but time will tell.  Maybe I'll get there, maybe not--either way I'm comfortable.  I feel I'm lucky to be alive," he said.

He appreciates little things more now, he says, like friendships and the breeze on his neck.  He wore a neck brace for two months and just got it off last Friday.

He’s wanted to help people for as long as he can remember—even holding up for kids who were being picked on in school, and that’s why he decided to become a deputy.  He says his goal is to return to work someday.

"I would love to go back.  That's pretty much my plan--just finish all this and go back.  I tell my friends, I can't let them have too much fun without me, you know.  They can't have all the fun," he said.

And if attitude is everything, he’s got a good chance of getting back in his patrol car someday.

Michele Skalicky has worked at KSMU since the station occupied the old white house at National and Grand. She enjoys working on both the announcing side and in news and has been the recipient of statewide and national awards for news reporting. She likes to tell stories that make a difference. Michele enjoys outdoor activities, including hiking, camping and leisurely kayaking.