“That is something I would really like to get into.” “Now that I’m injured, there are so many different kinds of therapy and exercise to help gain function back,” he said. Obungen was already planning on the exercise science degree before the accident, but he is even more passionate now about getting into the field. “Seeing familiar faces on campus is awesome. “The school has taken care of everything and that feels really good,” Obungen said. The school is providing him a note taker. He’s currently enrolled in one class at UPS and on his way to getting his exercise science degree. Obungen has already accomplished one of his goals following the injury. I think the wrestler mentality sets me apart.” “I have that notion of always pushing myself. “I think being an athlete helped me,” Obungen said. Obungen was a district qualifier as a long jumper for the Beamer track team and wrestled at the Mat Classic state wrestling championships as a 130-pound senior. He was also named first-team, All-South Puget Sound League South Division by the league’s coaches.īut football wasn’t the only sport he excelled at. He was selected as an All-City defensive back during his senior football season after intercepting four passes for the Titans. Obungen wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill athlete during his time at Beamer. But then I think, ‘I’m still young and I could have died.’ I allow myself only to be mad for 10 minutes or so.” Every now and then I still have some dark days. I went from being completely independent to fully dependent. “I went from being really fit to having no function below my waist. “Being in the hospital and seeing myself in the mirror for the first time was tough,” he said. Immediately following the accident, there were days that Obungen wondered how he would make it through. That’s what keeps me going.”īut that wasn’t always the case. But just being alive is enough to keep him moving forward. Crazier things have happened.”ĭoctors aren’t making any promises, in terms of Obungen’s ability to walk or being totally independent in the future. But they will tell me that every spinal cord injury is different. “The one thing I didn’t like was that doctors don’t tell you much and they are kind of negative. He can now flex his wrist and thumbs, and has movement in his shoulders, biceps and triceps.
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After two months of therapy, doctors moved Obungen to a manual wheelchair. He didn’t have any flection in his wrists and could barely lift his arms. Obungen was initially bound to a power wheelchair, “which is something you never want to be in,” he said. “It’s actually pretty crazy when you think about it,” he said. The surgery, which also included having a cadaver bone inserted to replace his shattered vertebra, was necessary to stabilize his neck. It was pretty intense, but I made it.”Īfter landing at SeaTac, Obungen was taken directly to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, where he spent the next five weeks in rehab doing adaptive therapy for his injuries, which required the fusing of a massive metal cage over four vertebras in his spine. “I was in a neck brace and could hardly move my arms. “I flew on a commercial flight in first class,” Obungen said. Immediately following the accident, he was forced to stay in a Hawaiian hospital for three weeks until doctors deemed him healthy enough to fly back to Seattle. In the three and a half months since the life-changing injury, Obungen has made some progress. I was jumping off the rocks from 20 feet up.” “It was weird because the day before I was jumping off cliffs at a different beach. Luckily, the guys on the team pulled me up before I drowned. “I couldn’t flail my arms and I was just hoping that somebody would pull me up. “When I went down, I felt a big shock,” he said.
He now faced the likely possibility of never being able to walk again. The injuries left Obungen without any movement in his legs and very limited movement in his upper body. “The bottom looked deeper than it was.”ĭuring the dive, Obungen’s head landed perfectly on the bottom of the ocean and the fall broke his neck, shattering his C-5 vertebra and basically severing his spinal cord.
“I hit the bottom kind of awkwardly,” he said.
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