A Life Interrupted

The Accident

It was January 2014. Sherown had just completed his master’s degree from Regis University in Denver and was on vacation in San Diego. He was horsing around with some friends when he fell at an awkward angle. “I heard a snap,” he says. “My body went limp from there.”

Sherown was paralyzed from the shoulders down. He was only able to slightly move one hand.

The injury was classified as quadriplegia. His first thought, he says, wasn’t of himself. It was that he didn’t want to become dependent on his wife and family. He feared that he wouldn’t be the father to his children that he had been only a week before – able to hug them, hold them, and tuck them into bed.

Mighty Mouse

Before his accident, Sherown says, he enjoyed challenging his body to excel. His nickname at his local Cross Fit club was “Mighty Mouse,” because, according to the gym’s website, he “may be small but this guy is STRONG!”

That strength propelled him through rehab. Sherown came to Craig Hospital intent on gaining back as much mobility and function as possible.

“After I started getting some movement back,” he says, “then I felt [rehabilitation] was in my hands. I was responsible to push harder to do things.” Tapping into the same fierce determination that drove him as an athlete, Sherown says his happiest time at Craig was when he and his therapists were striving to do more and achieve more.

Rehab at Craig

“The culture here is absolutely amazing,” says Sherown. “They’re always so upbeat in motivating you and pushing you. It helps more than words can really explain. I’ve truly found a deep love for everybody that I’ve worked with and care about them beyond what they would know.”

By the summer of 2014, Sherown was using a forearm walker to walk and play with his children in their yard. They love to be outside and are learning to ride their bicycles, and he is right there with them.