In a recovery nothing short of miraculous, longtime surf photographer Nathan “Nate” Adams of Melbourne Beach has been cleared by his doctors to go back in the water and resume his life, within limits, less than six months after suffering a broken neck in a freak accident in Jamaica.
The positive outcome was in no way assured early on. On Dec. 28, Adams was setting up his camera and 500mm lens when he was hit by the metal framework of a 20-by-20 tent which had become airborne behind him in a gust of wind. The impact knocked him unconscious, causing a gash on his head and the compression of three vertebra (C-6, C-7 and T-1).
His first surgery to stabilize the neck Jan. 1 in Kingston, Jamaica, involved using pieces of his hip to fill where fragments had to be removed, and a metal bar and screws were implanted. The surgery was generally successful, but Adams had weakness in one of his arms, loss of motion and pain. There was also the added, very real drama of an original screw backing out, which could have caused serious complications.
Much more successful was the extensive follow-up surgery Feb. 27 at Orlando Regional Medical Center and the seven-hour procedure where, as Adams described, “they really threw the kitchen sink at this.”
Coming in this time from the back, the surgery fused a total of seven vertebra using high-tech medicine including robotic-assisted drilling and real-time interventional radiology.
In the weeks leading up to the second surgery, still in pain and knowing paralysis was possibly in play, Adams admitted to dipping in the ocean and riding a bike.
”I was doing things I thought I would never do again. It was heavy. I knew I was obviously putting myself in serious risk but what’s the risk if I then never feel what grass or sand feels like between my toes.”
Stronger in mind and body every day, Adams was just given clearance to push, pull or lift not more than 50 pounds, a consideration in his art endeavor in which he creates woodwork crafts.
Physical therapy is about to start, which will add to Adams’ growing list of alternative healing processes, including audio and visual stimulation and acupuncture.
“I couldn’t be any more stoked. I used the words grateful, humble, blessed, lucky. Whatever your faith may be. I say blessed. I’m not even scared to use the word miracle. I’m standing here, I’m sitting here, I’m not in a wheelchair, I’m not paralyzed, I’m not dead – all of the things that could have happened to me,” he said.
Keeping a productive mindset was nearly impossible at times, but Adams said he would always pivot toward the positive, taking the reality as a given, to not lose hope.
“Face it and embrace it. It is what it is. I can’t take it back; what’s happened has happened. I didn’t know what was going to happen but I don’t quit at anything. I try to do anything I possibly can to not give up hope. I still get messages about how I’m inspiring people as the guy who never gives up, he doesn’t quit. It’s humbling,’’ he said.
