WOU

Dallas High School, April 10, 2008: Parker Stewart was still riding high from throwing a personal-best of 144 feet, two inches, at practice the day before. After a routine practice throw Stewart retrieved his disk, but what happened next changed his life forever. As he returned from the out of bounds area, his teammate let fly an errant disk, striking Stewart on the left side of his head, shattering half of his skull. In a state of shock, Stewart tried to stand up and shrug it off, but quickly collapsed. The trainer quickly sprinted to him and held a towel to the wound until the ambulance arrived. Despite the devastating blow, Stewart can still remember the pain, the blood and the faces of his teammates staring down at him urging him to keep his eyes open.

When the paramedics arrived they rushed him to Salem Hospital. In Stewart’s words he was ‘blessed’ that the neurosurgeon was on the floor that day, because he would not have survived a transport to Portland. He was rushed into surgery, where the doctors removed a portion of his brain containing the fractured pieces of his skull. Stewart was then put into a medically induced coma for more than two weeks. Although his life had been spared, his parents were told he would be paralyzed from the neck down and would likely lose all memories of his life.

During the next two weeks, he came so close to dying and losing all brain functions that no talking and no lights were allowed in his room. He lay unconscious, bandages covering his shattered skull, with multiple machines, tubes and fluids keeping him alive. On several occasions, due to lack of brain activity, his family was asked to consider pulling him from life support.

Stewart had other intentions: he fought for life and emerged from the medically-induced coma, only to be faced with the prospect of being kept alive by machines. The tubes down his throat prevented him from speaking, and he had also lost 45 pounds and was so weak that he lacked the strength to even communicate through writing. Eventually he regained some of his strength and began to reeducate himself in the seemingly simple activities we all take for granted.

The first lesson learned anew was how to swallow, then to walk again, and even regaining his ability to remember. Fortunately, Stewart regained movement over all his extremities and his memory returned, including all the details of his horrific accident. Against overwhelming odds he was able to fight his way back – and his achievements stunned the medical staff so much that in 2008 he was named Salem Hospital’s Miracle Patient-of-the-Year.

After a month, the swelling still persisted and he needed to wear a helmet for protection daily. He was also not permitted to do any activities which put strain on his brain. Eventually, he was cleared for surgery and a plastic alloy plate replaced that portion of his shattered skull. Ten days later, Stewart was cleared by both the physical therapist and a memory counselor to resume physical activities.

The journey then began for Stewart to regain his strength and get back out and join his teammates. He worked out nearly six hours a day and ate all the times when he wasn’t just to regain the weight he had lost in the hospital. However, it was not just training which he had to catch up on. He also had to make up two months of schoolwork if he wanted to graduate the following June with all of his classmates. So the summer before his senior year at Dallas High School consisted of rehabbing and homework.

Stewart’s work paid off though, as he was able to break the school record in the discus with a toss of 170 feet, two inches, to earn the No. 1 ranking in the state of Oregon, and advance to the state championships. He was also able to graduate on time. “I just wanted to prove that I was not afraid of the discus which had been such a large part of my life prior to the accident,” said Stewart “I even surpassed my own expectations.”

His marks also caught the attention of the Western Oregon track & field coaches. One day, he received a call from Wolves’ assistant coach Isaac Frederick recruiting him to be a part of the team. He jumped at the chance and enrolled at Western Oregon University. Stewart is now continuing his discus career at WOU as he truly proves it is not how many times or how hard you fall, what matters is how determined you are to pick yourself back up.