Standing strong — Facing life in a wheelchair, teen regains ability to walk

LANDER — After a terrible car accident delivered a close shave with death in December 2023, 14-year-old Jordan Officer made peace with the possibility that he would never walk again.

Then, his toe began to wiggle.

“For the first few months, it was just one toe,” recalled Jordan’s mother, Joy Officer. “The doctors tempered our expectations and said it could be just a spasm, but that little wiggle gave us hope.”

Now, just over one year post-accident, Jordan is upright, roaming his neighborhood on two feet, supported by a single crutch. In three weeks, he’ll return to classes at Lander Valley High School.

An active and athletic teen, Jordan enjoys hockey, hunting, and riding dirt bikes. Now 15, he recently earned his learner’s driving permit.

Adapting to his current limitations, he’s developed a two-footed driving system: the right foot works the gas pedal and the left foot mans the brake.

“My quads just started firing again about a month ago,” Jordan noted, tapping his right knee encouragingly. “I’m taking it a day at a time, but I see myself running again before too long.”

As Jordan regains strength and coordination through daily gym sessions and physical therapy, his inevitable setbacks are buoyed by a foundation of underlying gratitude. When asked how he’s doing in a general sense, Jordan smiled slightly and patted the head of his pet dog Coho.

“Good,” he said. “And lucky.”

Since the accident, six surgeries and countless hospital visits have kept Jordan and his family in Salt Lake City for the better part of a year.

“Considering his injuries, it’s miraculous that he’s alive,” said Joy.

Immediately after the accident, Jordan was life flighted to Salt Lake City, Utah. Paramedics on the scene assessed the trauma to Jordan’s torso and informed Joy that he likely wouldn’t survive the trip.

“When we got to Salt Lake, there was a team of 30 doctors and surgeons waiting for him – including a chaplain who was there to help us say goodbye,” Joy recalled.

An initial surgery to “put his organs back where they belong” was supposed to take 1.5 hours. Instead, it took closer to six. Jordan’s most pressing threats to life included two punctured lungs, displaced and damaged organs, and internal bleeding. All of his ribs were broken, and his spine had been impacted to the point of visible deformity.

“His spine looked like this,” explained Joy, holding up both hands to form a right angle. “The second surgery realigned the spine and implanted a protective cage around it. No one knows how, but some of the nerves remained intact and attached.”

Suspended in a sea of unknowns, Jordan’s family stood by while he spent the next six days in a coma.

Damage to the stomach made it difficult for doctors to provide Jordan with sufficient nutrition, and he lost weight rapidly. Joy recalls a rollercoaster of optimism, fear, gratitude, and helplessness.

“The outcome was not clear,” she said. “We just stayed close to his side while the doctors worked, dreading when we would have to tell him that he was paralyzed.”

After several months in a hospital bed, Jordan was discharged on February 6. Soon after, a barrage of complications including appendicitis and a ruptured diaphragm sent him back for another round of operations.

“All throughout that time, when we were at our worst, the community really stepped up,” Joy noted. GoFundMe donations rolled in to cover hospital stays and transportation. Without prompting, the Casper-based Orr’s Hope Foundation began sending funds and gift cards directly to Joy.

“There is no way we could have done any of this on our own,” she said.

Through spring and summer, Jordan got back on his feet, beginning with small steps and working toward self-propelled strides. Recurring visits to paralysis rehabilitation specialists Neuroworx facilitated the progression from full-time wheelchair use to crutch-supported walking in a matter of months.

“The improvements have not been symmetrical,” explained Jordan, swinging his lower left leg forward and back like a pendulum. “But the hamstrings are strong and I’m eating a ton of protein.”

Fueled by the promise of skating freely on the ice, Jordan’s current PT regime targets the calf and quad muscles.

Earlier this month, he helped his family harvest a Christmas tree on the Shoshone National Forest, approaching via e-bike and wielded the chainsaw himself. By his own admission, he sometimes pushes his body too far.

“I try not to overdo it,” Jordan laughed. “But I want to get stronger and I can tell that my body does too.”

While his strength and mobility make a heroic comeback, the damage to Jordan’s stomach and digestive system has been slower to heal.

“There have been a lot of setbacks,” said Joy. “Somehow, Jordan keeps pushing past each one.”

Slowly but surely, Jordan’s body has had to relearn how to accept food, and the fickle recalibration comes with unpredictable and life-threatening fluctuations in blood pressure. While eating consistently remains a challenge, he’s working to get his body and brain back on the same page.

Reflecting on a year that has tested their physical and emotional stamina, both Officers are quick to divert the spotlight away from themselves and onto those who have stepped up to help along the way.

“It has kept us going,” Joy said. “We never felt alone.”

Back in the spring, a company called Not A Wheelchair donated an electric off-road rig that enabled Jordan to get outside and join his siblings and friends on summer hangouts and bike rides.

Having already cleared dozens of high hurdles, Jordan is currently juggling the possibility of more surgery, the return to in-person school, and a full-time commitment to physical therapy. It’s a daunting road ahead, but he speaks of the coming challenges with determined calm.

“Going through all of this kind of feels like being reborn,” he said. “It may suck to deal with the discomfort and inconvenience, but every day I’m just glad to be alive.”

This story was published on December 21, 2024.