Man's Miracle Recovery: From Paralyzed to Helping Others - East Idaho News

Man’s Miracle Recovery: From Paralyzed to Helping Others

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ht janne and susan jef 120329 wg?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1333114576314Cory Johnson/Kremer Johnson Photography(HERMOSA BEACH, Calif.) — Janne Kouri was told he would never walk again.  Paralyzed from the neck down after a freak accident in the ocean five years ago, Kouri’s entire world was completely turned upside down.  But rather than give up, Kouri pushed through with the support of his wife and family, and turned his tragedy into a life’s work.

Now, five years after he was told there was no hope for recovery, the 36-year-old can stand up on his own without a walker.

On August 5, 2006, Kouri, of Hermosa Beach, Calif., was playing beach volleyball with some friends when he ran down to the ocean to cool off in between games.  He dove into the waves, crashed his head into a hidden sand-bar, and was instantly paralyzed from the neck down.

“I knew something really bad had happened because I couldn’t move anything,” said Kouri, who was 31 at the time of the accident.  “There definitely was — a moment there where I was thinking that that could be my last breath.”

Fortunately, an off-duty EMT pulled him ashore and rushed him to the hospital.  Kouri was alive, but a doctor delivered devastating news to his then-girlfriend, Susan.

“[The doctor] looked me right in the eye and said, ‘You need to be prepared for him never to walk again,'” Susan, 36, recalled.  “I will never forget that.”

Before the accident, Kouri had worked as a director of an online social network and was a force of nature.  At 6′ 4″ and 285 pounds, he was the star defensive tackle on the Georgetown University football field with NFL prospects and was called “the general” by his friends because of his take-charge attitude.

With his spinal cord fractured in two places, Kouri spent two months in intensive care, developed pneumonia and nearly died twice.

As his health returned, the reality of his paralysis was grim and treatment options were bleak.

Finally, the couple found their ray of hope.  In their research and after months of Susan traveling around the country visiting rehab centers, they discovered Dr. Susan Harkema at the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute in Louisville, Ky.

Harkema helped develop a cutting-edge therapy known as “loco-motor training,” which teaches the spinal cord how to control motor functions like walking, through repetitive motion.  The late actor Christopher Reeve was among her first test subjects to utilize the training; the therapy has now helped hundreds of spinal cord injury victims.

After two to three months of training, Kouri had his first milestone — a little toe wiggle.

Full of hope, Kouri wanted to return to California and continue loco-motor training near his home, but it wasn’t available.

That sparked a big idea.  With the help of family, friends, Harkema and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, in 2007, they raised the funds to start NextStep Fitness, a non-profit rehab center in Los Angeles where not only Kouri, but anyone in the community could get loco-motor training at an affordable cost.

The nonprofit wing of their organization has blossomed as well, launching the Wheelchair for a Day Challenge in a nationwide effort to raise awareness about the daily challenges associated with paralysis, and to raise funding to help build additional rehab centers across the country.

Between rounds of rehab, Kouri and Susan turned their tragedy into a future together and got married.

In May 2009, Kouri took his first steps in three years with the assistance of a walker.  And just this past February, Kouri achieved his most recent milestone: standing for the first time, on his own, without his walker.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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