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'I'm shocked that he survived'; Michigan man exceeds expectations in his recovery after motorcycle accident

Sean Campbell of Norton Shores is back at work after a devastating motorcycle crash less than a year ago.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Muskegon County man is back at work after a devastating motorcycle crash less than a year ago.

In Michigan, motorcycle-involved crashes are up about 20 percent in 2021 from the year before. Fatalities have increased about nine percent as well. 

Sean Campbell only has one memory of his new motorcycle. 

"What I remember of it, I was real happy," he says.

He picked it up with his wife Amanda on May 14, 2022.

"We were only on I-94 for about 10, 15 minutes, when the accident happened," Amanda says. "I look over to him and I see him he's got this grip, and you can tell that he's fighting with the bike. And all of a sudden we hit the grassy median, and then the cement median is just right there on my side. We hit the cement median." 

Sean was thrown from the bike, and Amanda was trapped under the sidecar. Their helmets saved the Norton Shores couple's lives, but Sean was rushed to a local hospital in Ypsilanti with multiple broken bones and fractures. 

"We're just grateful that he had the doctors there that are available to help them," Amanda says. 

There, he had two surgeries and he was placed in a medically-induced coma for about a week. After a few weeks at the hospital, he went to Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in a wheelchair. 

"That's a feeling that I never understood before, the dependency that I'd have to have on everyone around me," Sean says. 

He was working on getting his mobility back, and after he was discharged from rehab after a few weeks, he knew he still had more work to do. 

So, Sean got in touch with a chiropractic physician at Mary Free Bed. 

"When I started seeing Dr. (Thomas) Fowler that really changed, I think, the course of my whole recovery, I think I started walking better," he says. 

"(Sean) was having neck pain, shoulder blade pain on the right side, significant rib pain, anterior pelvic pain, and buttocks pain on both sides," Dr. Fowler says. 

He says Sean has exceeded expectations since they started working together a few months ago. 

"He started work in eight and a half months after that injury, and he's back at work. That's amazing. That's just really amazing," Dr. Fowler says.

Sean went back to work part-time at Consumer's Energy this month, and since his recovery, he also got back on a motorcycle. 

"They're not scary or anything. My dad had a motorcycle at the house. A month or so ago. I rode it around the block just to see if I could do it. And I could do it," he says. 

He's also back to the things that matter most to him, like his dog and his family. 

"That's pretty exciting, that I can be active," he says. 

Now, Sean is up to six miles a day on his stationary bike at home, and he hopes to get up to 15 miles a day soon. In the next two or three weeks, Dr. Fowler expects to give Sean the all-clear to stop their sessions. 

Check out photos from his recovery here:

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