Page 36 - KCRPCA Sept Oct 2019

KCRPCA DRIVE 36 SEP / OCT 2019 JIM RAND courageous young man and how he found himself at that moment in time. Let’s go back, six years back. Lifewasgood,mostwouldsaygreat. A nineteen-year-old testosterone filled college freshman who, from the age of four, had always reveled in things that went zoom. Go-karts, snow mobiles, wet bikes, cars when of age, four wheelers and dirt bikes. Darn dirt bikes, but more about that later. Growing up near the river community of Parkville, Blake Foster, now 25, had over 40 acres to transform in to his boyhood playground. Here he cut trails through the woods and brush for his four wheelers and dirt bikes. When midwestern summers strangled the town with swamp like air, Blake and his family took off to their refreshing home at Lake of the Ozark. Cooled and refreshed by those waters, Blake found speed in boats, and on tubes, personal water craft, water skis and wake boards. Not letting the winter months curtail their outdoor activities, the Fosters often motored west to Colorado’s snow capped mountains. Snow skis, snow boards and snow mobiles kept Blake’s adrenaline addiction flowing, his antifreeze to subfreezing temps. But it was back in Parkville, six years ago on the family’s wooded acreage that Blake’s life was altered forever. While those brief nano seconds Blake curled his body in to a ball, but that did not stop what happened next. Rocketing in to the ground, Blake’s shoulder, neck and helmeted head absorbed extreme punishment. As the dirt and rocks settled on his body, Blake, who never lost conscience, began collecting his thoughts. He didn’t like what he discovered as his lower torso was unresponsive. Blake’s riding companion rushed for aid, initiating a speedy trip by ambulance to the KU Medical center. Once there, doctors were quick to assess the urgency of the situation. Blake had sustained a compressed T4 vertebra and a burst T5, leaving him with no feeling or control of his body from the sternum down. Lifesaving surgery was performed immediately but unfortunately movement and control of Blake’s lower body could not be restored. The spinal cord is a twisted maze of nerves, similar to a land line phone cord, but with much smaller wiring and many, many more wires. Finding the defective nerve or nerves and restoring their function is a task doctors continue to struggle with. Blake is a fighter. I could see that in his eyes and hear determination from deep within him when he spoke during the interview. After eight days in KU’s ICU, Blake was air lifted to Englewood Colorado, where he would reside, off and on, for the next two years. The Craig Hospital with its incredible staff would Photos by Jim Rand KCRPCA Drivers Education ELQUAL OPPORTUNITY et’s apply the brakes for a moment, dirt biking with a friend, Blake’s front as I am getting ahead of myself wheel fish tailed violently, sending him in trying to paint a picture of a cartwheeling over the handle bars. In