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By Anita L. Sherman
Rappahannock News StaffWriter
John Ford greets visitors with a warm smile. His wife Marijke shows the way to an enchanting backyard where a white pergola umbrellas an inviting table setting. A small vase holds a splash of vivid pink flowers and there is plate of salmon hors d’ oeuvres and another of assorted soft cheeses and crackers. And then there is Jan.
He rises, his blue eyes alert and focused, a broad smile and a firm handshake. “The flies are ubiquitous,” he says gently waving a few away.
Being in the presence of this young man, it is hard to imagine that there was ever a time when he wasn’t charming, engaging and an easy conversationalist. It is also hard to imagine that a few years ago, his prognosis was so dire that his parents were told that he wouldn’t move beyond a vegetative state. They were advised to place him in an institution.
The story of Jan is a triumphant one.
It Was February of 1996, when he was 17, that a skiing accident left him with a severe brain shear injury, basal skull fracture, a broken arm and a broken iliac spur. This is a bone on the pelvis. He lay in a coma - unreachable through modem medicine - his mind, soul and body in a suspended state of reality.
It was on Father’s Day over four months later that moans could be heard coming from Jan. Moans at first and then a quivering tongue attempting to form sounds that would allow his moans to become recognizable sounds of speech. He was coming out of the coma but returning to a world filled with pain as his now contorted arms and legs would need to be straightened and strengthened.
Told that he would never walk, Jan returned home in a wheelchair in December of 1996. While his long term memory was still intact, his short term memory was almost non-existent.
“He basically had to learn everything all over again,” smiled his mother Marijke.
“Yes, I was a six-foot baby” laughed Jan who has an often dry sense of humor that thankfully returned. “The doctors have told me . that having a good sense of humor helps in the healing process,” chimed in John Ford.
From the walker, Jan practiced taking one step at a time. It Was a slow frustrating process for both parents and child.
See JAN, Page A8
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