Jordan Ayers of Missouri recently graduated from high school and was three weeks into a new job at an event company when his life was suddenly changed forever.
The 19-year-old was inside a box truck grabbing for a folding table on top of a pile when the unthinkable happened: The stack of tables, which weighed 800 pounds, came crashing down upon him. The cascade caused him to hit his head and be thrown back into a piece of metal striking his neck as a result.
“They all just fell,” Ayers said in a recent interview with KMOV. ” I couldn’t stop it. It slammed me into a piece of metal inside the truck, which left me instantly paralyzed.”
Ayers’ mother, Tabitha Hardy, said to the local news station that her son told her that he was unable to move his body immediately after the accident and was only able to communicate by mouthing words. The accident pushed his C5 disc up into his spinal cord.
The community in Jefferson County, where Ayers’ and his family live, have rallied around the teen to assist, with volunteers building a wheelchair ramp at his house with materials that were donated by a local Lowes, along with a shed for storage of his supplies and a nearly 14,000 has been donated to a GoFundMe page set up by his mother.
Jordan has regained some motion after surgery. He has “uncontrolled mobility” of his arms, can wiggle his fingers, and shrug his shoulders, according to Hardy. The teen and his family hope a second procedure will help to get him back to life before the accident.
“You have to be positive being like this, but everyone helps me so much. They brighten my day every day,” he said to KMOV.
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