- When I lost control of my body,
the hardest thing I had to learn
was letting go of control.
- From the moment he was born,
Drew Clayborn was strong and sturdy.
Now at 22, he's still strong and sturdy,
even though he's paralyzed from the neck down.
Give Me This Day: The Triumph of Faith and Will.
This week on Mi Healthy Mind.
Let's talk about it.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Welcome to Mi Healthy Mind.
I'm Michael Hunter.
Today's story will have you all over the emotional map.
It is a story of faith and will,
of triumph over extreme adversity,
of family love,
of friendship,
of unshakable inner strength.
It begins with a child who was
naturally optimistic and outgoing,
intelligent and active.
Drew Clayborn was into everything good,
sports, theater, music and life.
Until one day, at age 15,
he broke his neck doing a random backflip.
Settle in, while my colleague Elizabeth Atkins
talks with Drew Clayborn.
- Drew and LeDon welcome to Mi Healthy Mind.
- Thanks for having us.
- Yeah.
- Pleasure to be here.
- So Drew, you lived a very full,
very good life before your accident.
Can you tell us about it?
- Yeah, so, before my accident,
I was pretty active in school and stuff.
And I played a lot of different activities,
and I was in marching band,
and I played football and basketball.
And then whenever I'd find time,
I was always trying to just find something to do.
And so I was pretty active in school and at church,
everywhere, yeah.
- His name is Drew.
Picked it out of a name book because of what it meant.
It stood for strong and sturdy.
He truly is very strong and sturdy.
- And then you broke your neck.
Can you tell us what happened?
- Yeah, so sophomore year in high school.
I was 15, and in between a couple sports and stuff
there was a musical at school
and they were just bringing people in,
asking if anybody had any special abilities.
And I was like, "Well, if you want me to,
"I can do a backflip."
And so I started learning
how to do a backflip.
And I was going to a dance studio
and taking tumbling lessons.
And one day in the hallway at school,
me and some friends were just joking around
and we started doing backflips.
And when I went to go do a backflip,
I landed on my neck
and just landed wrong.
Woke up in the hospital.
- So when you regained conscientiousness,
were you aware of what happened?
- Uh, no.
When I regained conscientiousness it was kind of in and out.
It was probably like a week after
the accident had actually happened
where I really regained conscientiousness.
'Cause initially family members and friends and stuff
were coming to see me,
and I kept waking up
and asking what happened.
They would tell me,
and then I would fall back asleep.
And then wake up and do it again.
So once I came to, it was kind of the same thing.
Just asked what happened,
and they told me.
And my initial thought was just,
I got an extension on my homework.
(laughing)
That was my-- - Oh my goodness.
- That was my initial thought.
- Wow, that's a true student.
(laughing)
Thinking about their homework...
- That's a true procrastinator at that.
(laughing)
- So when did you realize the gravity of your situation?
- His first week there,
like he said, he don't remember much,
but that was induced.
- Oh, okay.
- They gave him medication so he'd have amnesia,
so to speak.
- Oh.
- 'Cause they didn't want him to, you know,
wake up, freak out.
'Cause his neck was still broken,
hadn't been set yet,
and things like that.
So that was intentional.
And then by the time he came through,
one of the things we kind of intentionally did
is we had already been planning.
And a lot of his friends, and teachers,
and everybody from our community wanted to come
and show their support.
So, I decided to let 'em.
And so, by the time he started remembering things,
each day he was probably havin' 50 or 100 people
come to his room to visit him
in the ICU. - Wow.
- And so they used to have a rule
where they'd only let 'em in two at a time,
but there was so many they was like,
"Okay, we'll make an exception."
And so they'd pile in there.
Some of his music friends would bring their guitars,
and they'd jump in the bed, take selfies with him,
and talk about the same stuff they would've talked about
before he got hurt.
So, he was always optimistic,
and we were always optimistic,
and still are.
So, we immediately went into
what it's gonna take to get him fixed
versus accepting this as your new way of life.
You know, that wasn't even a thought.
I've always raised them to be optimistic.
You know, we weren't the richest family in the world,
and we always had challenges,
and they had to be raised with divorced parents,
and the last thing I wanted to see happen to them
is that they lose faith,
or belief in the things they could do with their life,
and lose the reality of how wonderful life is.
- So at some point the doctors must have said,
"You're paralyzed.
"You can't walk."
- [LeDon] Yes.
- Okay.
- After they did the surgery to set his neck,
they gave him a super dose of steroids.
I guess, that's like a normal thing they do,
and sometimes it breaks down and it works.
It kind of shocks the nerve system or something.
But usually they know within about 72 hours.
So it was a waiting game.
Everyday we was waitin',
they would come in and do a little test
to see if he was responding.
And then finally when it reached the point
where they came and sat me down in the ICU,
and your mom was with me,
and they kind of told us that at this point
that he was gonna be a quadriplegic.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Stress, depression
and severe mental illness can happen to anyone.
Team Mental Health Services
has been helping those struggling
with these conditions in Southeastern Michigan.
Within 24 hours of reaching out to our team,
members receive psychiatric evaluations,
and begin the necessary treatment for recovery.
Team Mental Health Services,
because we care, and you can.
(upbeat instrumental music)
(piano music)
- When a person experiences a traumatic event,
a number of things can happen.
First and foremost there's a sense of,
of feeling overwhelmed.
A sense of feeling a loss of control.
And those two things are experiences
that a person has to find a way to process
within your own mind.
Put into the context of their own life,
they may develop either a grief response,
a depressive response,
or a post-traumatic stress response.
Depending on their own personal makeup
and their particular experience of the event.
- Welcome back to Mi Healthy Mind.
Almost all people who suffer the kinds of catastrophic,
life-changing injury that Drew has experienced
encounter some type of mental health issue.
Severe depression, anxiety,
even thoughts of suicide.
Many do not have the internal fortitude
or the external support system that Drew has.
Often professional help is required.
- Physically, tell us what you were feeling.
- Physically, nothing.
It's one of those things
that when the accident first happens,
that's really where your sensation is lowered a lot.
And then since that point,
I've able to regain a lot of sensation.
It was all about rehabbing to try to regain some movement.
And seeing where I was at,
and what was possible
and what was gonna come after that.
'Cause I still have the idea
that I'm gonna walk again one day.
- Absolutely.
- In between, I know, I forget who said it,
but they said, "God or science, I'm gonna walk again."
So, I don't care which.
- Drew, what plans were mapped out
for your treatment and your future?
- Initially when I was in the hospital,
the huge game plan was geared towards
first getting me home and getting me stable.
But then there was a huge push
to get me back into the marching band.
And all my friends and everything,
everybody kept coming with ideas
of how to get me back into the marching band.
Because before my accident I played tuba.
And yeah, so after my accident
they were trying their ideas of playing the harmonica.
There was ideas of a bunch of different stuff,
and we ended up coming up,
someone came up with idea of playing a MIDI controller.
- That was Dave Rogers.
- Yeah.
- What's a MIDI controller?
- So it's kind of like a synthesizer.
A keyboard that plays different sound effects,
and so that was the big mission after my accident.
But, which also helped was a lot of my rehab.
'Cause it was a lot of neck movement.
Marching band helped with that.
And then it was also a big push of,
of being able to stay healthy after being in the hospital.
- A lot of people who experience a traumatic situation
like you have,
go through a natural grieving process.
Can you relate to that?
- I didn't really have any time to grieve.
There was no, I never really got down.
- So you had said something pretty clever,
and basically you had said
that with all the support
and all these people caring about you,
It was really shocking for you,
and you felt like you couldn't let anybody down.
So I had thought from that point,
that that was a strong motivation for him.
Is that he didn't wanna let anyone down
who was showing him support.
And I think that fueled you quite a bit for awhile.
- Yeah, 'cause it's one of those things,
you have all these people showing you all this support.
And everybody being there for you, it's like,
how can you be down?
Like, how can you be sad
with all these great things you're able to do?
- And one thing that contributes
to you being strong and sturdy is your faith.
Can you describe your faith to us please?
- Yeah, my faith has taken, especially,
well since my accident,
there's been so many examples.
But, whenever there's any type of situation
where I have any type of doubt,
I just, it always works out.
So I'm at the point now where my faith is more so.
It's not, if something is gonna work out.
I know it's gonna work out.
That's just where I'm at with it.
- So, where does that faith and that knowing,
where does it come from?
- We've done a lot of incredible things
from my accident to now.
And each time we don't think things are gonna work out,
they do.
And it's one of those things,
something our Pastor mentions.
He likes to talk about the Lord's Prayer.
And the one line is, "Give me this day."
And honestly that's all we've gotten.
And that's all we really keep getting.
That we always just keep getting this day.
Like as soon as we lose something,
we get it right back in another way.
There was a lot of things to worry about.
But it just seems like,
I don't know how or why things are gonna work out,
but I always know they will.
(piano music)
- [Michael Voiceover] Welcome to Mi Healthy Mind.
- The show that dares to talk about mental health matters
that touch nearly every family.
Each week you'll meet guests who share their stories,
hear from local experts
and learn about resources that may help.
- And so I was in a committee meeting
at the House of Representatives,
when I realized that my daughter had autism.
- We need to take the stigma away
from mental health issues.
- No topics about health and wellness are off-limits
on our show.
- Let's talk about it
on Mi Healthy Mind.
(instrumental music)
- There's a lot of good, sound advice
for those who have gone through an incapacitating event.
As well as some truly groundbreaking procedures
and programs available.
As for inspiration?
Elizabeth Atkins continues with Drew Clayborn.
- So Drew, everybody took on a role to help you.
Tell us about each person's role.
- Early on it was really my brother and my mom,
and came back from Chicago.
And my brother was able to take,
and do a lot of care for me,
and being with me in that way.
The same with my sister.
She was doing a lot of care for me,
especially my first year after my accident.
We were both still in high school.
So there would be days I would be in school,
and she would have to come with me.
And either I would go to her classes
or she would go to mine.
And we would just,
figure out a way to take care of each other.
And then my dad has been a huge role of the fundraising
and helping with our non-profit,
and building our non-profit,
and doing all the fundraising.
And really gearing that forward.
And my mom still takes care of me.
And she helps with filling in shifts
when the nurses aren't available.
And, yeah, we all just take a role.
And my dad's always filling in if nurses call off.
He's always the, what is it?
- The on-call?
- The on-call.
- [Elizabeth] Call him "on-call?"
- [LeDon] Yeah, I'm on-call.
- Right, he's the last one.
The last anchor if there's nobody else.
He has to drop whatever and come be with me.
- Once you were released from the hospital,
tell us what it was like getting back into normal life.
What you had to do to prepare.
- So, being able to keep my body healthy.
We had to figure out a way to live a normal life.
While still doing rehab and things like that.
So in the hospital, I was on the rehab floor,
and we were doing physical therapy three days a week.
And sometimes more,
so when I got home,
I started going to a rehab facility
three days a week
either before school
or after school.
And that was takin' a big toll on me,
and we saw that we just weren't
getting the results we needed.
So in order for me to go to school for full-time,
and keep my body healthy while still doing therapy,
we had to figure out something else.
- Yeah, well then I got invited to
something like a seminar nursing for case workers.
And they have a gathering
and they share best practices and so forth,
and I got invited.
And one of the guest speakers
was a man by the name of Phil Muccio,
and he owns a company called Axiobionics,
and he did a presentation of his wearable therapy.
And he explained that he had used the same therapy
for Christopher Reeves,
and all these different things.
And as soon I saw it, I go, "That's what he needs."
- Yeah, my body responded really well to the therapy.
It's a wearable suit with electric stem pads
that stimulate my muscles.
And I can wear it,
and it allows me to do therapy at night
while I'm asleep
and still stay healthy.
It helps with blood flow,
I don't have any muscle atrophy.
- [LeDon] No bone density lost.
- [Drew] Yeah.
No pressure sores.
- [LeDon] No heart issues, pressure sores, none of that.
- It helps with cardio and keepin' my heart healthy.
So yeah, it's been a huge,
and that was the big kicker that allowed me to live a life
while still being healthy,
and not having to worry about my health.
- But we did it,
and it worked.
It worked better than we ever could have imagined.
Not only did his body stay healthy,
but he got bigger,
and bigger and stronger.
To the point now where we do send the therapy
so he doesn't get any bigger.
(laughing)
Yeah.
- Tryin' to lose weight so the nurses aren't
breakin' their backs trying to pick me up.
(laughing)
- And the inventor, the guy who invented the stuff,
he's marveled.
Like he uses Drew as his pitch guy now
to sell this product.
'Cause he'd come out to the door with his measuring tape
and measure his thighs and his arms,
and they were like all over 100% increase, 115, 125%.
I mean arms went from this to this,
and you know legs went from this to that.
You know, I mean you can see how thick his thighs are.
He's stronger than me
even though he can't move it on his own.
He's definitely ready to be lifted up out of that chair.
Absolutely.
- So once all these resources and this infrastructure
was established for you,
what was it like to step back into the world
and go to school, and socialize?
- That part's easy.
Ever since forever, school's been easy.
Socializing, that's just fun.
That's me living.
That's me doing what I would be doing anyway.
And that's why everybody should have the opportunity
to be themselves, to do what they would be doing otherwise.
This isn't the end.
This is not a limitation.
There's nothing you can't do.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- [Narrator] Stress, depression
and severe mental illness can happen to anyone.
Team Mental Health Services
has been helping those struggling
with these conditions in Southeastern Michigan.
Within 24 hours of reaching out to our team,
members receive psychiatric evaluations,
and begin the necessary treatment for recovery.
Team Mental Health Services,
because we care, and you can.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Most people come through traumas fairly well
with the support of their family and friends
and their own inner resources.
People who haven't been traumatized in the past,
people with high levels of functioning,
people with good support systems
who were able to experience themselves
as capable of coping
at the moment of the loss,
do much better.
In the case of recovery from a major bodily loss,
requires a sense of hopefulness,
a sense of ability to cope,
ability to get through things
and that may come from any number of different things.
It may come from religious faith.
It may come from all sorts of things.
So family support is very helpful.
Religious support is very helpful.
All of those things help people to get through these things
much better than somebody else might.
- Today we are talking with Drew Clayborn.
A 22 year old quadriplegic about faith and will,
and his triumph over catastrophe.
Elizabeth Atkins continues.
- Special equipment,
24 hour care,
how do you manage that financially?
- God, He provides. (laughing)
Well we started a non-profit
that we raised money to help others
with brain and spinal cord injury.
But it also still serves Drew.
We have two specific events for him every year,
there's a golf outing and a run.
Our golf outing does great.
Our 5k, 10k is still building.
And so, we also have some angel supporters
who don't wanna be mentioned,
don't wanna be talked about.
But they actually send money to his trusts
on a monthly basis to help pay for his nurses
or pay for expenses,
or his transportation or whatever.
And, again, it was all miracles.
I mean, I meet someone, tell 'em the story.
They like the story,
they fall in love with Drew,
they wanna help.
The fact that he was in college
after everything that happened to him,
they all know somebody who would've just gave up,
has inspired a lot of people
to want to be part of his story.
- Drew, how has this effected you?
- With all this support
that I've gotten since my accident,
and seeing how other people are living
in similar situations as mine,
I always wanna give back.
And for me, for the non-profit,
it's a huge goal to have it be largely for other people
and not me.
I'd much rather do anything,
any type of fundraisers for other people.
And to give them, to pay it forward,
and show along this support that we've gotten,
and to help others as well.
- Can you share with us some of the technological tools
that you use?
For example, college students write papers.
How do you write a paper?
- My phone is a big part of it
'cause a lot of the time when everybody else,
when they pass out papers to read,
when they hand out pamphlets that you need to look at,
I always have to make sure they have electronic copy,
and I'll pull it up on my phone,
and read it on there.
And then, my chair is pretty heavy duty. (laughing)
'Cause it has to endure a lot.
I will say this, once I'm in my chair,
I'm much more stable,
and much more independent,
because between--
- Oh, extremely independent.
- Yeah, between my chair and my phone,
I can do almost anything.
Especially in my room,
'cause I'll have it set up
to where I can use my phone
to control the TV, the lights, the thermostat
and that's everything at home.
On campus, I can just control my computer from my phone.
- His music.
- And so, right? Music.
And it's a big part of my mentality
because it gives me a lot of freedom,
a lot of independence,
and so when I'm up in my chair,
really my mannerisms are still the same
as before my accident.
And really gives me a lot of control and independence.
And allows me to do the things I do comfortably
and not have to think about it.
- So Drew, what are your plans for the future?
- I wanna cure a major illness,
or at least work in somewhere,
in a field that's working on
Cancer, muscular dystrophy or stem cells or anything.
The cure for paralysis is already in the works somewhere,
and if they need my help, I'd be willing.
I'd be happy to go help with that.
That's where I'm excited,
and just for personal reasons.
It's definitely somethin' close to me,
and something I'm interested in,
and that's what I'd like to work on.
- So what message would you like to leave the viewers
of Mi Healthy Mind today?
- Every single person has a story.
And each of us can learn something
from each other's stories.
So, I would encourage everybody to just go out
and learn other people's stories.
Go sit with people, talk with people,
and just see what you can learn
from someone else's story.
- Drew and LeDon, you are two remarkable people.
We're so grateful for you
to share your story here today.
I'm certain you'll inspire many people.
- Well thanks for having us.
It was a pleasure to be here.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
(piano music)
- [Narrator] Stress, depression
and severe mental illness can happen to anyone.
Team Mental Health Services
has been helping those struggling
with these conditions in Southeastern Michigan.
Within 24 hours of reaching out to our team,
members receive psychiatric evaluations,
and begin the necessary treatment for recovery.
Team Mental Health Services,
because we care, and you can.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Elizabeth, I don't think I've ever met anyone
who's been such an inspiration.
Never blaming, no whining, no "woe is me."
I'm really humbled by this guy.
- I agree Michael.
I feel privileged to meet him,
and very grateful that he's sharing his story on our show.
- Between the mental and the spiritual inspiration,
and medical advances that are becoming more accessible,
there's real hope for people who have suffered
a catastrophic injury.
- And so much that's positive,
and so many resources.
To help you in your quest for mental wellness,
we've put information and resources on our website,
mihealthymind.com
Please take a look.
Visiting mihealthymind.com could be an excellent first step
toward dealing with catastrophic events in your life.
- And we'd like to hear from you
about topics you'd like us to discuss
on Mi Healthy Mind.
I mean the tough topics,
that are so important to talk about openly,
so that we can help others on the path to well-being.
So reach out to us on our website at mihealthymind.com,
or on Twitter @myhealthymind,
or on Facebook.
- Thank you for watching.
We'll see you next week
for another edition of Mi Healthy Mind.
Let's talk about it.
(upbeat instrumental music)
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