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Article published May 21, 2009 After accident, quadriplegic turns role model, advocate
By Melanie Tucker of The Daily Times Staff
It will be five years in November since an accident on a golf course left Justin Cochran, now 26, a quadriplegic. The adventure-seeker who backpacked across Australia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Turkey, and skydiver who longed to become a pilot, saw his dreams fall away when he broke his neck in two places while attempting a standing back hand-spring the day after Thanksgiving of 2004.
Cochran, a native of Knoxville, is paralyzed from the neck down and requires a ventilator to breathe for him. He spent 12 agonizing days in intensive care at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville as doctors puzzled over how he survived the accident that crushed his C1 and C2 vertebrae. After being released from the hospital, Cochran lived near Atlanta for a few years but is now home in Knoxville with his mother, Shari Gorman.
The annual Justin Cochran Spinal Cord Injury Foundation Golf Tournament is set for June 16 at Egwani Farms in Rockford, an event whose proceeds will go to help people like Cochran. Now that he is home, Cochran said he is going to do all he can to help spinal cord injury patients get the help they need to live independent lives.That might include taking them on skydiving adventures, hang-gliding or even hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains. Cochran has jumped from planes since his accident and taken a group of disabled individuals to Lookout Mountain to hang-glide. He said he is out to prove to others there is more than one way to fulfill your dreams. You might have to take Route B instead of Route A, but that's OK.
Setting an example
"I am just trying to help people understand that life isn't over simply because you can't move your arms or legs," he said. "You just have to go at life in a different way. When I ask a group if they want to go skydiving it helps show them they really don't have limitations."
Cochran has been taking this approach since right after his accident. He served as peer support at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, for spinal cord injury patients, and he also testified before committees of the Georgia State Legislature on getting more services for people with catastrophic injuries. He said he plans to do the same in his home state.
His father, Mike Cochran, said Justin has the right attitude and perseverance needed to make a difference. Mike is a Blount County native and graduated from Maryville High School. His parents, the late Bill and Shirley Cochran, moved to Blount County in 1960 so Bill could work at ALCOA.
Justin's mom, Shari Gorman, said she knows her son has had an impact on other accident victims. The hang-gliding outing was something many of them will never forget.
"It was a thrill for them," Gorman said. "Justin has done some pretty neat things for others like him."
Justin has only been back here in Knoxville since January so he is still getting medical services lined up and getting to know advocacy groups in the area. He isn't prepared to slow down yet.
"When you have a spinal cord injury it can either destroy you and you sit in the corner and cry -- or it reinforces the person that you were, even more. For me, it brought out qualities that I had before only much more."