Tabitha Hardy believes her son, Jordan Ayers, will walk again, despite what doctors are telling her.
Ayers, 18, of Arnold suffered a broken neck June 8 while working for an event planning company just a few weeks after he graduated from Fox High School.
Hardy said her son was unloading tables for the company at an event in Pacific and while taking down a table from a stack of eight, one slipped and hit him in the head. After that, he reportedly fell backwards and his neck hit a strap, forcing his C5 vertebral disc up and into his spinal cord.
“He said he couldn’t feel anything (after the accident),” Hardy said. “The doctors are saying he won’t walk again. I told them he will be that miracle.”
Hardy, a single mother with six children, said Ayers was moved to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, on June 27 to begin the rehabilitation process.
“He is getting better,” she said. “He can feel his neck and back. He said he can feel when his legs are jerking. I am hopeful that means he will be able to walk again.”
The owner of the event rental company Ayers was working for said he could not comment about the accident.
Hardy said the company has not reached out to her and has not sent her son his final paycheck.
“They haven’t called,” she said. “My son is paralyzed from the waist down and partially from the neck down.”
Hardy said Ayers had started the enlistment process to join the Navy before the accident.
“He will never go into the Navy now,” she said. “They are not going to take someone with a broken neck.”
Hardy set up a GoFundMe page, called “Help Jordan Ayers walk again,” to help raise money for a wheelchair for Ayers and to make their home wheelchair accessible. As of June 30, the page had raised $6,895.
“I am so grateful for all of the support,” Hardy said. “I wouldn’t be here with him without that. It also makes Jordan happy. He thought he didn’t have friends and nobody liked him. Everyone who is donating is making him feel stronger and so much better.”
Hardy said her son is doing well considering the circumstances.
“Jordan is keeping his head up. I am glad about that,” she said. “I guarantee he will be a miracle. He is a very strong child. God picked him out of our bunch because he can handle it. I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”