Patient reunites with doctors who fixed his spine after holiday mishap 1 year ago
VALHALLA, New York (WABC) -- This holiday season is looking much brighter than the last for a man who's now walking again one year after shattering his vertebra while attempting to hang holiday decorations on his home.
On Wednesday, he got the chance to reunite with the doctors who gave him the Christmas miracle of mobility.
There was no mistaking the joy and amazement that was present as Michael Dennedy walked and jogged through the lobby of Westchester Medical Center.
"He did miraculously compared to the vast majority of spinal cord injury patients," said Dr. John Wainwright of Westchester Medical Center.
Last Christmas, Dennedy lost his balance while clearing a gutter on his father's roof in Orange County. Rather than fall, he jumped some 15 feet onto frozen ground.
The impact shattered his L-2 vertebra. Doctors gave him just a 3% chance of walking again. The odds were long, but Dennedy was determined to beat them.
"People just give up, and I think they use other people to validate, like 'oh, that this is what happened to Joe,' well I'm not Joe," Dennedy said.
Doctors fused Dennedy's spine with two rods and eight screws. Being airlifted to Westchester Medical Center and getting into the operating room quickly were crucial. The saying among neurosurgeons: "time is spine," was especially true in this case.
"The longer you wait to get the spinal cord decompressed, the more cells and neurons in the spinal cord are dying from being compressed," Wainwright said.
"I made a promise to myself, and I told them, I'm not going to walk out of here, but I'm going to walk out of the next place I'm going, and I did," Dennedy said.
Dennedy pushed himself during in-patient and out-patient rehabilitation. By his 41st birthday in April, he was walking unassisted, never once using the ramp and chair lift installed in his home.
"I kind of deliberately didn't want to, because I didn't want to change that mindset into saying, 'ok this is easier,' so I wanted the harder route to just keep pushing," Dennedy said.
"He tells me about his workouts, we have to debate what he's allowed to do all the time when he comes to see me, he always wants to do more, I tell him to tone it down a little bit, do a little less, but he's doing fantastic," Wainwright said.
Dennedy is ready to celebrate a merrier Christmas than last.
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