GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Walking into James Maier's room at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, you immediately notice confidence and positivity in the way he carries himself. It's an attitude that can be hard to come by considering what James has been through over the past month.
"I love to work with my hands, so it was just had a busy day. It was one of the last nice, warm days. And there are a few trees behind my garage that I kind of wanted to get down," he said.
"I was feeling pretty comfortable with it. I had everything set. I made sure that the ladder was solid on concrete foundation. It was really snug on this tree."
But as James was working, one of the branches he was trying to clear knocked him off his ladder.
"When the feet hit the ground, it was a slippery cover and basically they just slipped straight out and I landed right on my butt. So, it was about a 15 foot cannonball basically," he said.
James underwent a five-hour surgery for a spinal cord injury at Corewell Health Butterworth Hospital. He was told if the fall had gone just a little differently, he could have been paralyzed from the waist down.
James made sure to give himself time to "feel the feels," as he put it, but shortly after that, he got to work, knowing that he was going to be welcoming his first child into the world in March.
"That was a really big motivator right off the bat. You can't sit in this too long. You can't wait in this too long. You can feel the feels, but you've got to get up. And I'm really glad that I had that there to push me to keep on going forward," he said.
On day one of his stay at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, his mobility was severely limited.
"We did try a little bit of walking and he had a walker with a wheelchair right behind him. We had two people helping, walking very slowly. I want to say we did maybe 40 feet at a time," said physical therapist Carly Harvey.
But through it all, James kept his spirits up.
"Every day he looks at the positives of it. He's able to see his little progression, even if it's a small thing of the day. He was finally able to move his toes up like this much," Carly said, gesturing with her index finger and thumb.
"He was like screaming through the halls, which as a physical therapist, I'm like, that's huge to see."
James says as weird as it sounds, he fell in love with the process of seeing everyday improvements.
"I walk further. I have more endurance. I have better balance. I haven't plateaued yet, which makes me wonder what's next. What's at the end of next week, or two weeks, or next month, or in a year?" he said.
While he was at Mary Free Bed, James kept a Polaroid camera with him to document his journey, and everyone who helped him along the way - including doctors, physical therapists, cleaning crew members, friends and family.
"If I could get a photo with them, I put them up on here (on the wall) just to remember this time in my life, and remember all those who are surrounding me and cheering me on and praying for me and there for me," he said as he gestured to around 200 photos on the wall of his sixth-floor room.
Thursday was the big day. Graduation day. With staff members lining the halls cheering him on, James walked out of Mary Free Bed with the help of his crutches, dressed in a Christmas-themed onesie. The joy on his face was palpable.
"I know that there's a ton of life for me to live. And honestly, as I've found in my life, the toughest spots in life are usually where I grow the most as a person," he said.
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