Return From The Dead Handicapped By Severe Stroke, Messerly Regains Self-Esteem Through Athletics

The official hospital records read, “Transfer to autopsy.”

Robert Messerly lay in a hospital bed, unable to move or talk and on life support after suffering a stroke. Worse, pneumonia had set in and doctors felt the end was near.

“I’m an organ donor and I remember (in the hospital) hearing the doctors telling each other where they were going to send my parts,” Messerly said.

Today, more than seven years later, Robert Messerly, 39, is still partially paralyzed on his left side and has some respiratory problems, but is able to walk with a cane and drive a car.

He is also an accomplished paralympic athlete who credits his turnaround to an article in Sports Illustrated about the Paralympics.

On Jan. 26, 1988, Messerly rolled his Ford Bronco on the ice in Colorado Springs, Colo. He was able to walk away from the accident, but did unknown damage to an artery in his neck near his brain stem.

Later that year, on Nov. 1, Messerly went to a hospital in Santa Fe, N.M., complaining of slurred speech and dizziness. While undergoing a spinal tap procedure, he went into convulsions and was rushed to the intensive care unit. Messerly suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed and near death.

“Up to that point, I just thought it was a pulled muscle (from the accident),” explained Messerly. “If I wouldn’t have been in the hospital, I would have died.”

Doctors couldn’t operate because the artery was too close to his brain stem, so they in effect wrote him off. He spent about two weeks in New Mexico before he was flown to Davenport, Iowa, to be near his mother during his final days.

“For most of that month (following the stroke), they were just waiting for me to die,” recalls Messerly. “I had pneumonia, I couldn’t move and I was breathing through a tube in my neck, but I really didn’t think I was going to die. I don’t know why, I just had a feeling I would live.”

A month after the stroke, he had his first significant movement in his limbs and was transferred to a rehabilitation unit. He stayed for 18 months and steadily improved.

“I joke with people that I walked into the hospital and they wheeled me out,” said Messerly.

His wife, Donna, found a job in Spokane as a registered nurse at Deaconess Hospital, so the family moved here to raise their daughter, Sierra, now 7.

Unfortunately, his troubles were far from over. He watched a lot of TV, rested his legs and gained weight. Prior to the accident, Messerly was active in jogging, scuba diving, biking and hiking.

“It was really depressing because I didn’t have a goal,” said Messerly. “When you’re in rehab, you have a goal, but when you get out, there’s nothing.”

It wasn’t until the fall of 1994, when he read the magazine article about paralympics, that his life took a dramatic turn.

He knew he needed to begin working out to build his strength, and getting in good enough shape to compete in a paralympic event would be a logical goal.

Messerly began training at Fitness Unlimited and was barely able to bench-press 80 pounds. He kept working hard and has increased his bench to more than 200 pounds in a little more than a year.

All the hard work paid off earlier this month in Phoenix, where Messerly accomplished his goal by competing in the Mesa Sports for the Disabled Challenge.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Messerly said. “I got there and there were all these teams with uniforms from California and Arizona and I just came by myself with a grocery bag.”

The intimidation didn’t last long as Messerly dominated in his events, winning the bench-press competition and the shot put, and finishing second in the javelin and discus against people with similar disabilities.

More amazing, Messerly had never seen a javelin. Instead he used a broomstick that he had taped and modified to meet weight requirements. He also didn’t have a shot, instead using a rock that weighed the same.

“Nobody had ever heard of me,” Messerly said. “I’m so green, I don’t know if how I did is good or bad, but it helped my self-esteem.”

Because of the athletic experience, his life has had a complete overhaul.

Because he did so well in Phoenix, Messerly plans to travel to San Diego from April 18-21 to compete in the San Diego Regional Multi-Sport Games.

He is entertaining the option of going to the Paralympic Track and Field trials to earn a spot in the Paralympics this summer. The Paralympics will be held in Atlanta the week after the Summer Olympics.

“It depends on how I do, but I would like to give (the Paralympic trials) a try,” Messerly said. “I just consider myself lucky.”

Others might say heart and determination have nothing to do with luck.

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