Cameron Sevy

Hello, Cameron Sevy here. May 13, 2007 I turned 52 years of age.

February 3rd of this year I was sledding with my son, Jacob, at a small
park in southeast Provo, UT. We were having a good time until I lay on
my back in the little sled and took off down the hill headfirst. I
pointed the sled in the proper direction away from the lone tree at the
bottom, but the hill had other ideas and it turned me enough that the
ride ended rather abruptly and painfully. I woke up on my side with a
terrible pain in my back between the shoulder blades. When I reached to
find out why my legs wouldn't respond to my command, I discovered that
while my hand could feel my legs, my legs did not feel my hand. I knew
I was in serious trouble at that point. My lovely wife, Sharon, got on
the Internet and started a prayer tree going. Soon hundreds of
petitions were shooting heavenward in my behalf.

In the spine, C-6 and C-7 had minor fractures but T-5 had shattered
badly and T-6 had dislocated, reducing the spinal cord channel by about
70% percent and causing serious damage to the spinal cord although not
severing it completely. A couple of my ribs had fractured and muscles
were severely damaged all along the chest and back. Other than that, I
was in pretty good shape. After 6 hours of surgery (Utah Valley
Regional Medical Center) to insert 9 screws, 2 titanium rods and a
stabilizer in my spine, I was released to the ICU. They reported to
Sharon to expect me to be in ICU for 30 days and in rehab for another
60-90 days. She reported this to our praying friends.

I told Sharon my goal was to be dancing with her by this Christmas.
When I tried to sit up the first time after 3 days, I discovered my
spine had as much strength as a dishrag! That was a shock and it told
me I had a long way to go and a lot of work to do. So I started
immediately figuring prayer and work should get the job done.

I talked with the dietician and requested loads of fresh fruit and
vegetables instead of the normal institutional menu, and the food
improved 1000% immediately. It was great. The people at the hospital
were wonderful and I was out of ICU in 10 days, getting into Rehab Feb.
13th, 2007. After three weeks, Rehab would have sent me home if our
house'd had a ramp up to the front door, but it didn't so they kept me
another week sending me home March 15, 2007.

Every time I asked the Rehab therapists what to do to get my legs back
the answer was, "Now, that's the million dollar question, isn't it. We
don't know, so strengthen your arms so you can use your wheelchair and
live efficiently with that." Not good enough so we started asking and
praying for the answers. Very shortly we received a letter from a
friend, Stephen Wright, now in New Jersey, who is a past Weber Warrior.
He recommended the Sit Tall Stand Tall program saying he received much
benefit from Leighton's expertise and training. We checked it out and
discovered Becky Reeve is a Warrior.

Becky is the daughter of my first Mission President, and I first met
her Oct.1976. She was definitely quadriplegic, had been in a wheelchair
14 years to that point, and still was totally upbeat and positive. Her
watchword was "The difficult you can do immediately. The impossible
just takes a little time!" Now here she is, 31 years later sitting tall
and standing tall. Wow! I met her (again after 31 years) and several
other Warriors, talked frankly with them, and they all said to me I
should be on my feet by October 2007 before I told them of my goal to
be dancing by Christmas. That was good enough for me. I joined the
group May 21, 2007.

These past weeks we have been working on core strength and I've seen
progress. Things are looking good. Get ready to strike up the band!
We'll keep you posted.

Cameron Sevy