Kirk Williams Update

Kirk Williams has moved from his room at Denver’s Craig Hospital, the world’s leading facility dealing with the kind of spinal injury Kirk suffered last November. Moving into a Denver apartment with his brother Clayton, who is helping care for him, his progress has been so good as to impress even the doctors. As always, Kirk’s optimism and enthusiasm defines his rehabilitation — and the rest of his life.

But is a wheelchair life and he is learning to do over simple things, like zipping his jacket up. He and his brother have created an amazing (and well produced) web site, www.aspokenlife.com, a Kirk Williams Chronicle, in which Kirk writes each day about what happened and his progress. He tried out various wheelchairs before settling on one — and looked at how a monopod could be attached so he can continue his photography.

Kirk attended the Adventure Photograph Workshop in Jackson Hole in September. An active outdoor athlete, he was riding his bicycle on a mountain trail when as he moved over to allow an oncoming cyclist the right of way, his bicycle struck a rock and he was thrown to the ground. And in the accident, lay motionless with a serious spinal injury that instantly paralyzed him. Thus began a series of events that leaves Kirk saying how lucky he is. Lucky in that the oncoming cyclist was an orthopedic surgeon who instantly recognized the seriousness of the injury and who cared for him until the medical helicopter arrived. Lucky in that on his arrival at the Denver Health Hospital, two top surgeons were there and began the operation to fuze and replace severely-fractured cervical vertebra. From there it was to the Craig Hospital to begin the rehabilitation where doctors were unable to say how much movement he would ever have in his arms and hands, much less the rest of his body.

But the progress has been amazing and though he may never walk again, much of his movement has come back — enough to talk optimistically of the rest of his life and a changed normalcy. If you want to keep up to date on his progress — and to share in a big dose of optimism, visit his daily blog. www.aspokenlife.com