0:24 there's a little bit of anxiety that
0:26 comes with returning
0:30 here of having a headline that might
0:34 read paraglider pilot that survives
0:36 accident returns to place to have another
0:41 one I couldn't help but to look
0:45 around at the fog and the clouds and
0:50 think this is so similar am I tempting [Music]
0:57 [Music]
1:00 fate so I took off had a nice buttery smooth
1:01 smooth [Music]
1:04 [Music]
1:07 launch and we flew for about an hour and
1:09 then the winds were suddenly
1:12 accelerating and I saw myself going back
1:15 behind this Ridge and my whole canopy
1:17 got caught in what we call rotor and it
1:20 just balled up 80 to 100 ft up and I
1:22 began a free fall [Music]
1:48 [Music]
2:14 I didn't know what his quality of life
2:16 was going to be like if he would have
2:18 that joy in having Adventures being able
2:20 to walk being able to talk and think we
2:22 didn't think he would survive and if he
2:25 did survive what state would he be in I
2:30 sat by his bed in ICU all day long
2:33 his hand closed over my fingers and we
2:35 knew that he was still fighting in there
2:39 I landed with my right foot first which
2:42 provided enough energy to drive my femur
2:45 into the pelvic ring until it snapped
2:48 the pelvis off of the spine and was
2:51 pushed up toward my abdomen a rock came
2:54 in through my helmet fractured my right
2:56 eye orbit and then I had a double
3:00 compound open fracture of my right
3:07 joint there's one thing I did a lot when
3:09 I was in the hospital and that was
3:12 visualizing and over and over again I
3:14 was just visualizing getting back to
3:17 Flying and that's part of what motivated
3:22 again less than a year after that
3:44 I just got rid of my cane a few months
3:46 ago in October at the same time I got
3:48 this brace it's pretty much the
3:51 highlight of my life it's called the
3:53 Ideo device it's designed to capitalize
3:56 on the areas I do have control over and
3:59 help the other ones function like they
4:04 too I still have the job title smoke
4:07 jumper I'm just on light duty and I
4:10 don't think smoke jumping and taking on
4:13 the impact is something that this body
4:16 would be up for at this
4:19 point this fire season might be my last with
4:26 them if I pass the pack test then I'll
4:29 be red carded and that means I can go
4:31 back out on wildfires and I can use some
4:34 of my other qualifications to help out
4:37 the fire Community there's only one set
4:39 of parameters that's 45 minutes to to
4:49 back the closest I've gotten to is
4:53 5140 if I don't get red carded this year
4:55 it's going to be hard to justify
5:11 year so most my right leg is paralyzed
5:13 the only real muscle group I have much
5:17 control over is my quad so when I lift
5:19 my left foot forward it's pretty much a
5:50 every step I take I I drive my knee into
6:23 [Music]
6:25 minutes go
6:34 let go got to make up now 20 seconds we
6:44 that it's time now got to be FAS got to
6:50 come one minute let's go come on come on
7:00 go that's it ah W
7:03 W
7:33 I missed it by about a minute and 22
7:36 seconds so I never got qualified for arduous
7:39 arduous
7:42 Duty I'm going to have to resign my
7:44 position at the jump base I'll
7:47 additionally be done with the for
7:50 service and now I've really had to come
7:53 to terms with the fact that my nerves
7:55 throughout my right leg just might not regenerate
8:24 even though my accident has majorly
8:27 changed my life I'm not really able to
8:29 jump and all these other things I once
8:33 took for granted but I can do one thing
8:46 fly when I'm up there
8:50 flying I can turn left I can turn
9:13 I'm just trying to think of when the
9:15 skin was Disturbed to open the door for
9:18 an infection the only time I'm familiar
9:26 street my first flight back at the side
9:28 I wrecked that nicely done can hear
9:34 laying in the back H hell yeah yeah we
9:36 didn't actually meet till after both of our
9:37 our
9:39 accidents and uh we just kind of
9:43 connected and started talking about our
9:45 experience with the spinal cord injury
9:48 and there's not many people that could
9:51 even begin describe what you're talking
9:52 about what you're feeling with nerve
9:56 pain and this Hardware in your spine I
9:57 left the
10:00 hospital after about about 2 months and
10:02 I wasn't moving my
10:05 legs with a incomplete spinal cord
10:07 injury like that um every's body responds
10:09 responds
10:12 differently the physical part of
10:15 it it's just something you got to deal
10:18 with but but the hardest part is just
10:26 stuff sure I could have kept taking
10:30 the opiates and pain pills whatever
10:32 they're giving me and just sitting in my
10:35 chair but I knew in my heart that like
10:38 that kind of Life wasn't for [Music]
10:54 me you have that amount of passion for
10:57 something nothing will stop you from
11:28 I have this part-time job called getting well
11:29 well
11:32 which is very time
11:35 consuming have to do this three times a
11:38 day it's an
11:41 antibiotic and this has
11:45 certainly forced me to travel into an
11:49 area I had never planned on visiting the
11:53 world of the ill the world of the
11:54 impaired the world of the injured the
11:57 world of surviving it's a pretty
12:00 daunting world
12:02 there are so many different fronts to
12:07 this recovery and honestly
12:10 surviving surviving just might have been
12:25 [Music]
12:28 part I have bad days thinking about his
12:31 life in the way it has changed I mean he
12:33 was on the fast track
12:37 to retire as a smoke [Music]
12:38 [Music]
12:41 jumper as his mother I don't really want
12:42 him flying
12:50 [Music]
12:53 choice it was very important to him that
12:57 I fly with him that day even though I
13:07 w [Music]
13:38 I guess I've always heard that it was
13:40 like one of those Daredevil type things
13:42 and a lot more peaceful [Music]
13:43 [Music]
13:47 and emotional than just the thrill you
13:50 know just the adrenaline it's not just about
13:51 about
13:53 adrenaline it's about the beauty of the
13:55 experience in the sunless setting and
14:37 when I consider the fact that it's been
14:40 6 years I get a little self-conscious
14:42 and um reflect in this way that says
14:45 well what do you have to show really
14:47 I've just been trying to survive the
14:53 years what I'm doing right now is I
14:55 create fire training videos that are
14:58 required training for all Wildland
15:00 firefighters to get get red carded every
15:02 year and then I work as a paragliding
15:04 instructor most of the
15:07 year you know I'm paraliz below the
15:10 right knee so I'll get these cuts and
15:13 not know it and they'll get infected so
15:16 I had one major wound on the top of my
15:20 foot that took 6 months to heal and when
15:22 you have to go to the hospital three
15:29 you I haven't
15:44 2018 this year a lot of it's going to
15:54 leg I think there's been a a solid case
15:56 that's been built for considering an amputation
16:18 [Music]
16:20 a bka as they're calling it a below the knee
16:26 amputation the big thing with the bka is
16:28 whether or not he can make a socket for
16:31 me so that's essentially turning my
16:34 severed limb into a nice [Music]
16:59 stub I want to get this done so I can
17:02 move on so I can make a new plan with my [Music]
17:10 life it's definitely pulsing through
17:13 here I don't know if you'd be able to
17:32 [Music] [Applause]
17:43 today I had to air on the side of
17:45 playing at conservative when I wanted to fly
18:46 [Music]
18:47 I've been substitute teaching this
18:50 winner I'd say about twice a week on a
18:51 day like today I probably should have
18:53 said no I can't sub cuz I have a
18:56 doctor's appointment inste I'm try to do both
18:57 both [Music]
19:15 I hear of stories people get a below the
19:17 knee amputation then they get new
19:19 infections and then before they know it
19:22 they're cutting above the knee [Music]
19:33 [Music]
19:35 the quality of life could be more
19:37 challenging I could find myself worst
19:40 case scenario you know in a
19:43 wheelchair and so October 18th at the
19:47 Seattle VA we're getting it done
19:49 there I am moving I'm going to be a
19:52 full-time resident of horese Ben flight
19:55 Park going to be living uh in a tiny
19:58 house right there in the landing Zone
20:02 so it feels really awesome to be able to
20:45 [Music]
20:48 hey girl
20:50 um it's me [Music]
20:53 [Music]
21:04 I'm so sorry and I wish I could be there
21:07 to hug you
21:16 um I I still can't believe it and I'm
21:23 um I'm
21:26 just wanting to let you know that I'm
21:29 here for you [Music]
21:56 I'm not one to cry easily but since his
21:59 passed every single day day for the past
22:22 rough this is the impact site from his
22:26 fall I was in EMT mode kept ey out at
22:28 chest compressions for about 20 minutes
22:31 and then the flight nurse put her hand
22:33 on my shoulder and said you can stop
22:35 chest compressions [Music]
22:45 now yeah that's what it says right Aira
22:47 yeah it's the aera and it's it's the
22:49 small and and I got the small medium and
22:53 I know Justin got the neck size
22:55 down this was just a wing that I've been
22:57 desperately looking
23:00 for to me it would mean a lot for Lane
23:02 to fly just because they gone through a
23:04 lot together and not to mention that he
23:07 was the last person to try to help
23:09 Justin you know
23:12 so being under this Wing if I were to be
23:14 in the air with it there's no doubt like
23:23 [Music]
23:26 Justin he was so much to me he was my
23:29 boss he was my buddy
23:33 I've never had a friend that [Music]
23:35 [Music]
23:39 close it's like now what [Music]
24:01 [Music]
24:04 let's see that's West that's North so
24:11 between the flight Park's been shut down
24:14 and that's my primary source of income
24:16 I'll be right
24:19 down what am I going to do vocationally
24:21 what's going to happen with my lower right
24:46 Justin's death was traumatic for a lot of
24:55 us so Justin had a parachute and he was
24:57 bailing out of his paraglider and
24:59 throwing a parachute kind of like base
25:01 jumping off of the bridge or or these
25:04 Cliffs something wasn't connected so
25:05 when he went out of the
25:08 paraglider nothing opened
25:12 overhead I looked over in time to see
25:14 the part of his bounce when he came back
25:24 time I had that rare opportunity to damn
25:27 near put my family through that grieving process
25:40 it it's my first time back since
25:42 Justin's passing I feel it was more
25:44 exciting than the first time I ever flew
25:46 for some
25:50 reason oh my God ever since he passed I
25:52 don't think I could bring myself to fly
25:55 anytime soon really just because there's
25:57 like this emptiness you know like
26:40 I just had to remind myself that my
26:43 decisions affect others and looking at
26:44 this image this may well be like one of
26:47 the first images ever taken of me has my
26:50 mom she's probably 19 years old and my
26:53 twin brother and I also fly with Justin's
26:55 Justin's
26:58 ashes you know just to keep them with me [Music]
27:04 every time you launch you're flying out
27:06 into the unknown you don't know if
27:07 there's going to be a thermal out there
27:09 or not and same thing with this
27:12 amputation I just don't know what's on
27:17 the other side but I'm going for it [Music]
27:44 [Music]
27:46 all right so for the blood draw I'm
27:50 picking at the right arm sure beautiful
27:53 things I get my aerobic exercise through
28:00 you're you're still paragliding oh yeah
28:04 that was my motive to walk again just to
28:07 fly I don't feel any disability when I'm
28:11 air sense of Freedom while you're up
28:46 [Music] he'll
28:47 he'll
28:49 come I'll figure out how to fly whatever
28:52 it takes as long as I'm conscious and
28:54 can control any part of my body I will
28:56 get back in the
29:01 air his focuses on lifestyle
29:03 mobility and yet for us we tried to keep
29:06 that tissue Al it just seems destructive
29:09 for what we work so hard to save you'd
29:10 call and you'd say Mom I found a scar
29:12 here what's that from what's that one
29:15 from and this was a a deep old scrape
29:17 that they didn't even worry about cuz
29:19 the rest of it was their bigger priorities
29:20 priorities [Music]
29:34 [Music]
30:00 [Music]
30:02 so we're told about 4
30:05 hours hopefully anytime
30:07 soon it's going to be interesting to
30:09 walk in and see his leg though missing isn't
30:10 isn't it
30:21 wow yeah [Music]
30:28 so as soon as I had the strength I'm
30:30 like oh it's 3:30 I went under
30:32 anesthesia around 1 and I toss the
30:35 covers off I'm
30:42 gone oh
30:45 Lane hey we support whatever you do we
30:48 have to trust you thanks Mom yeah got to trust
30:50 trust
30:52 you I hope it gives them that Mobility
30:54 that he's hoping for and that release
31:24 is now that I have my right leg
31:35 disabled I think it just makes other
31:39 people uncomfortable cuz I think it
31:41 smacks people in in the face with the
32:04 this fo yourself
32:26 forward so no changes yesterday before
32:28 and after wearing it beond the blister I
32:30 feel as though the bone was bruised by
32:32 just all those reps I was doing with leg
32:35 extensions so it's super tender the only
32:36 place we found redness you can see it
32:38 right now I don't know what bone head that
32:51 is we found the cause of the pain I
32:52 thought I had this bony prominence that
32:54 was just really rubbing hardcore on the
32:58 socket and it hurt they pulled up my
33:02 x-rays and saw that I had some Hardware
33:04 Hardware I didn't even know I have what
33:09 I thought was a bone is a tip of a
33:12 screw so the screw is still in there but I'm
33:22 walking this is the longest I've gone in
33:25 the last 5 years without flying [Music]
34:14 it's like nothing's changed Sky's still
34:16 there but more than anything it just
34:19 felt great to leave the ground to just
34:22 feel my weight get transferred into this
35:03 Justin's Wing is is the wing for
35:06 today when I saw Lan pulling it out I
35:08 just saw Justin so it brought some
35:12 happiness back but yeah so now Lane is
35:14 flying it and it's a perfect size for
35:17 him he'd be so thrilled to know
35:21 that that I'm using his wing and I'm and
35:23 I'm doing better because of it because
35:25 it's it's a better fit for me and then
35:28 also in this personal meaning
35:31 of just having my
35:33 bro lift [Music]
35:36 [Music] [Applause]
35:52 me yeah think about Justin a lot he
35:54 laughed and smiled more than anyone I've
35:57 ever met so I'm determined to do more of
35:59 that with my
36:02 life I do find Comfort being around all
36:05 these Pilots hearing about him it's like
36:07 knowing that people hasn't
36:10 forgotten it's still been
36:12 tough and it's going to be for a while
36:14 I'm not sure for how long [Music]
36:15 [Music]
36:39 this virus they're calling
36:43 covid-19 has forced some of the greatest
36:46 um lockdown measures because removing
36:47 the hardware from my knees not a
36:51 lifethreatening sort of thing my uh
36:53 surgery's been
36:55 cancelled and I don't know when it's
36:56 going to happen again [Music]
37:09 there's something about coming back here
37:12 that makes me
37:36 deciding to amputate was one of the best
37:39 decisions I've ever made if you stay
37:41 within your comfort zone you're going to
38:11 [Music]
38:15 I fly for the sensation and the freedom
38:18 and the endless boundless opportunities
38:20 that are out
38:22 there it's a big world when you're up high
38:24 high [Music]
38:28 [Music]
38:31 I am so grateful that I have the
38:34 opportunity to have a second life [Music]
