By Shannon Collins
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
VENTURA, Calif., June 18, 2015 – A retired Coast Guard
marine safety officer who has had a long journey of recovery with many tests of
willpower along the way said he couldn’t have made it through without the
support of his wife, family and friends.
Lt. Sancho Johnson joined the Coast Guard in college, where
he was studying biology. He was the first in his family to join the armed
forces, he said. In February 2009, he was injured in a traffic accident while
visiting the island of Dominica. The open-air bus he was riding in overturned
as it was coming down a hill and he was thrown about 200 feet.
“I guess I passed out, because when I woke up, I couldn’t
breathe,” he said. “I looked down at my leg, and my femur bone was sticking
out, and I couldn’t move.”
He was flown from a local hospital to Miami, where he
learned all but one of his ribs were broken and blood had been filling his
lungs, causing his breathing difficulties. He also had a broken right shoulder
and nerve damage in his right hand.
Johnson’s L-2 lumbar disk had slipped behind the L-1 disk.
Doctors had to fuse the L-1 to the L-3. “Once they began to piece me back
together, it was about a month, the doctor came in and told me I probably would
never walk again,” Sancho said. “I was in shock.”
Family On Hand
Johnson said his mother and sister were with him from his
hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, but he wanted his father there to help him
process the news. His dad flew in the next day. Together, he said, the family
met with his doctors, who tried to prepare him for what he would face as he
recovered. The doctors offered him the choice to continue his rehabilitation in
Veterans Affairs hospitals or in a hospital near his home.
“I felt like I needed my family and friends, so I went
home,” he said.
Early Days of Recovery
The early days of recovery were difficult and embarrassing,
Johnson said. “It was very emotional for me, but my family just showed me love,
and that’s what got me through,” he said.
Learning to drive again marked a turning point, Johnson
said.
“It was a sense of release and relief,” he said. “I could
just go out, get in the van and go. It was my first surge of independence since
the accident.”
A New Beginning
Shundra and Sancho Johnson met in a church ministry singles
leadership group, the couple said. “She looked past the [wheelchair] and just
saw me,” he said.
As they got to know each other, Shundra Johnson said, she
felt in her heart that he was the one. She made a promise to God, she added:
“If you would allow him to love me unconditionally and accept me and my
children, I will meet his needs.”
Some service members lose their families after they are
injured, Sancho Johnson said, but he is grateful to have gained one in his
wife’s children, Quintin, 9, and daughter, Morgan, 8.
“They’re my world; they’re my future,” he said.
“The kids don’t like doing anything if he’s not a part of
it,” his wife said.
Warrior Games
Johnson learned about the Warrior Games through Navy Safe
Harbor in 2010, when he wasn’t yet strong enough to use a manual wheelchair. His
throw in the shot put landed at his feet, he said.
“Everybody was cheering and clapping, and I was like, ‘That
didn’t go anywhere,’” he said. “I realized it wasn’t about how far I threw. It
was the fact I was throwing.”
He said he started doing more research on adaptive sports.
He started pushing himself more around in his wheelchair and built up his
strength. He was strong enough to get around on his own by the time the next
Warrior Games came around, and his teammates noticed the changes in him.
“That was encouraging, being encouraged by people I can
identify with as far as injuries,” he said. “It became more than just adaptive
sports. It became like a family.”
In 2013, now married, he earned a bronze medal in the seated
shot put.
A Proud Moment
“It was a proud moment to have [my wife] there by side,
cheering and yelling and clapping,” Johnson said. “I was just proud, trying to
hold it all in. I can’t believe I went from just throwing it by my feet to
being able to throw it … for a medal.”
This year, he will compete with the Navy team in the seated
shot put, discus and hand cycling in the 2015 DoD Warrior Games at Marine Corps
Base Quantico, Virginia, June 19-28.
Throughout the games, wounded, ill and injured service
members and veterans from the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy and Coast
Guard will compete in track and field, shooting, swimming, cycling, archery,
wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball.
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