Photo: Brendan Town // Gofundme
An Atlanta man has been left paralyzed from the waist down in Hawaii due to a rare condition caused by hyperextension of the back while surfing. Though the injury initially felt like a pulled muscle, he quickly found himself unable to move and was rushed to the hospital. Since then, he has been undergoing physical therapy to prepare for the journey home.
Brendan Town and his wife, Cho Pak, were on a two-week trip for their honeymoon when, two days before their flight home, Brendan went out for a surfing lesson. “I caught the first wave, and I was very excited. I think it was the adrenalin rush,” said Brendan in an interview. “I hear them shouting pop up, pop up, so I pop up and felt a tiny little twinge in my back and was like, oh, might have pulled a muscle or something, nothing major. Rode the wave out, jumped off the board, swam around, had fun.”
However, over the next few hours, his condition quickly deteriorated and he found himself unable to move. “We have pizza, we eat and by the time that we’re ready to pay and to leave, I realize that oh, I can’t move, like this is bizarre to me,” Town continued. “I try to stand up again and I just like, slump right back down into the chair.”
Town was rushed to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with a rare, non-traumatic spinal injury caused by hyperextension of the back called Surfer’s Myelopathy. “Essentially it’s hyperextension of the lower back and a spinal cord injury,” said Brendan. According to a GoFundMe page raising money for Brendan’s recovery, after being diagnosed, he was airlifted to Queen’s Hospital to to begin treatment. There, doctors told him they have seen a range of outcomes from the condition, from walking again in three to four weeks to permanent paralysis.
Since then, Town has begun physical and occupational therapy in order to prepare himself for the flight home from Hawaii. “Working hard every day on the physical therapy and gaining some sensation in the legs! Still not able to wiggle my little piggies yet, but I’m hopeful,” he wrote on September 16th. Town is scheduled to return to Atlanta on Monday, arriving Tuesday morning.
Throughout the ordeal, Town has remained positive, both for himself and the child he and his wife are expecting in February. “I have a baby boy on the way, I can’t let this slow me down.” said Brendan. “I have to fight for him and my wife, and make sure I get back to full health,”
