I'll tell you a true story. This did actually
happen. In trying to figure out what to
say about Ben Meyerhoff, our next
presenter. I sat down at my computer. I
opened up my laptop. I fired up Google
and I typed in the words synonyms for
the word bad ass. Have you ever seen
wheelchair rugby? This is a
remarkable game. Uh, you talk about the
toughness of football players, MMA
fighters. People like that they don't
hold a candle to wheelchair rugby
players. He was showing us videos
backstage prior to the show.
It is an impressive sport and it is
physical and it is just as tough as any
other sport you could possibly imagine.
Ben is an accomplished athlete, both
before and after the cycling accident
that changed his life and he's no
stranger to the kind of mental and
physical toughness required to overcome
serious challenges and compete at an
extremely high level. Please join me in
welcoming from the Class of 1996 Ben
Meyerhoff.
Thank you so much Nick. I was surprised
and delighted to be asked to give this
talk. Let me say I'm deeply honored but
as a word of caution
don't break your neck in order to get
yourself up here. I really don't
recommend that. Since my wife Erin and I
left Rochester and moved to Colorado, I
would describe myself as a mountain
climber. I climb 2214 thousand-foot
mountains and summited fifty-seven of
those summits so lots of repeaters. A
Colorado cyclist, a double black Colorado
skier, avid whitewater rafter from time
to time and father of three young ones,
husband. At work I was a hospital
administrator and a patient advocate. I
advanced through the ranks of clinical management
and I found myself spending more and more time in my
office at work
and less time with my family and less
time for exercise for myself. I decided
to sell my car and I began riding my
bicycle to work very regularly for about
three years.
One day when I was commuting to work, the
same route that I always took, I was in a
blinded accident with a utility van. I
took on the van at about 24 miles an
hour and the van won. I left a little
dent about that big. My bicycle did an
end over and my helmet stopped the end over
and I felt and heard my neck break. It
was a horrific deep crunching sound. I
was conscious throughout. I fell to the
side of the road and I quickly switched
from swearing at myself to praying when
I realized I could not unclip my feet
from my pedals. The ambulance came and
took me the rest of the way to work, this
time as a patient, no longer as an
administrator. The human body is frail.
Wear a helmet.
Later in the downtime between my two
surgeries, my physicians asked my wife
whether or not she thought that they
should remove the sedation that they had
me on. She asked them to keep me out over
the course of the two days because she
said he doesn't want to know what's going on.
Most of my nightmarish half memories
come from those darkened days. Two major
neurosurgeries later I spent thirty days in
ICU re-educating my lungs to breathe,
learning to swallow with a tracheostomy and
trying to sit up in bed.
Yes the human body is frail but the mind
and the human spirit remains strong.
I was very lucky to be alive.
I was also lucky that the Craig hospital
found a bed for me. I transferred there.
It's a specialty hospital in Englewood, Colorado
and they, they treat mostly SCI and TBI
so spinal cord injuries and traumatic
brain injuries exclusively and they're
very good at it. They found a bed for me
and I started beginning climbing a new
mountain, the mountain of recovery. The
first days in Craig I can remember
trying to sit up in bed after being in
the ICU for thirty days and at first I could
only sit up for about two hours in bed
before I'd start to, my blood pressure
would drop and I start to get really
cold and they have to lie me down and
put like heated blankets over me and
stuff. I still had a trach. I had a bunch
of stuff like that but every day I would
sit up for longer and by the end of the
first four or five days I was sitting up for about
ten hours a day and getting back to a
normal routine. They put me in a chair
and I used a joystick for a long time
and I, I sought to get out of that mold,
to get away from the joystick; to get
away from the power chair; to get back to
using my arms as much as I could. So
at Craig they have a bridge and the
bridge is designed to be an upward slope
from the side where you go in when
you're more acute to the side where
you're more advanced and this slope you
wouldn't even notice it if you're a
walking person that it's sloped but when
you're in a chair if you push it, you
absolutely can tell and when your
brand-new you can't do it. You get in a
chair; you try to push the ramp you just
can't do it, somebody has to push you.
By the end of the time at Craig, sixty days,
you'd be pushing that, that slope but
it's very gradual one like a race car
driver. It's not a problem and that's part of
the process. What I can tell you is I'm a
very lucky guy which may sound
somewhat counterintuitive to your first
impression of me but every once in a
while I like to give myself the Friar
Lawrence speech,
the one where the Friar chastises
Romeo for not counting his blessings.
This is a good idea for all of us, I
think. I have a beautiful, intelligent and
resilience and hardworking spouse. Three
amazing kids.
I've got a very strong community of
faith. I survived my injury in the midst
of an exceptional academic care team who
operated on my spine, nursed me and coached
me through rehab meaning Craig UC Health
and Craig. I'm lucky that I'm alive but
more than that I'm fortunate that my
mindset and my faith never allowed me to
be bothered with anger, fear or sadness
about what I lost that day. Coming as
close to death as I was, as I did, was a
tremendous source of renewal for me and
a strong wake-up call. My wife has
suggested to me that my unwillingness to
grieve my loss is unnatural
but I know that its pragmatic. None of us
has any control over the brevity of our
duration on this earth but we do have
control over what we do with the time
that we have. Sir Edmund Hillary
said it's not the mountain we conquer
but ourselves. Since I started climbing
mountains in Colorado I live is
faithfully to this principle as I can.
Losing the use of my legs, hands and abs
doesn't change this except to galvanize
me to it further.
Now I spend much of my time as a dad. I
drive my kids all over Denver for the
abundant activities that they do. We use to
to pay someone to do this but I'm very
fortunate to have this opportunity.
Lots of American dads clock in every
day at jobs that they aren't passionate
about and risk losing years of
connection with their children. In this I
am lucky. I coach my boys' soccer team.
Sometimes that's kind of crazy, don't you
think?
So yeah I can't show them how to kick the
ball but I can I can coach the soccer
team. I use YouTube a lot. I drive them to
choir rehearsals and orchestra
rehearsals and Scouts. I serve on three
volunteer boards for Denver 501C3's. I
mentor new inpatients at Craig and
in general I do the things that I'm
passionate about.
That's a really lucky guy.
Many ask me and I sometimes ask myself
when I will return to work though I know
I'm doing more now than I did when I was
gainfully employed. In my spare time I
play wheelchair rugby for the Denver
Harlequins. Wheelchair rugby is a lot
like wheelchair basketball but it's for
quads only. It's not for para's and it
doesn't get dominated by paraplegics.
These are guys that don't have function
or have some lack of function in all
four limbs as the definition I put up
there. A quote from the Natural, Wilford
Brimley, Pop Warner says to Roy Hobbs, "Son
you don't start a career at your age you
retire". I kind of feel that way sometimes
when I'm pushing against these
twenty something's. Playing rugby means
staying in close touch with the reality
of your body and fine-tuning your
physical ability requires extra
discipline particularly when eighty-five
percent of your muscle mass is permanently
offline. Since my injury I've
lost about seventy useless pounds, a
hundred pounds since I sold my car. This
weight loss has made it possible for me
to compete in the US QRA, United States
Quad Rugby Association and has improved
my day-to-day functioning immensely.
Sometimes things go wrong. When it's
those heavily we push inside parking
garages; when the gloves rip we get new
ones. We ask people to sew them up for
us. When I fall out of my chair I
ask somebody to help me get back up. I
call for help.
Simple, right? Get on with it.
Push through.
Truth be told inspiration is a word that
a lot of people use and they use it in
with a kind of a glib respect.
People are being nice I understand but
it's important to understand that
there's inspiration and there's, you know,
day-to-day life. I submit to all of you
that if you were in the same situation
as me you would find a way to go to the
grocery store. You would find a way to
drive a car again so that you could. You
would find a way to make your own life
better because that's what the human
spirit is all about. This guy, you
get to see his back, when you play
against him you get to see his back a
lot too.
His name is Chuck Aoki. He's a, he's the
most prominent USA player. He's a forward
for the team USA.
I don't play for Team USA. I play for
USQRA. I'm not at that level.
I don't honestly believe that I really
will be but you know I keep trying.
Anyway this guy can push the court in
three seconds, the whole court, and he's
pretty incredible.
He actually coached, a, coached a camp that I
went to and that's where I took the
shot and I took this shot on purpose
because I wanted everyone to see the view that I
got to see. It's my job to try to
slow him down a little bit but
the truth is that when you say inspiration, put
me up against Chuck and you'll see how
quote-unquote inspiring I am. I'll look
pretty silly. When I push myself I always
listen to John Adams chairman's dance,
chairman dances in my head, that raging
inexorable drive to better oneself. Keep
pushing. The human body is frail. These
are some of the shots that I wanted to show you.
Green salad is the best dinner to eat
especially if you're lucky enough to
have tomatoes from the garden and
exercise is the best medicine. Best thing
I can say is Meliora.
Let's hear it for Ben Meyerhoff.