The Comeback Kid

After seven months in a coma, 17-year-old Brant Theurer finally smiled.

It was his first sign of consciousness since the car wreck two years ago on his way home from a summer football tournament.

Beginning the day he smiled, in February 1996 Brant began the long process of relearning everything, from speaking to moving his thumb. His mother, Mary Theurer, said his progress has been remarkable, especially since emergency room physicians had given him only hours to live.

The teenager is not the only one learning, his mother said.

“A lot of times, parents don’t even know their kids until they have a major catastrophe come up,” she said. “I didn’t know what he was made of. He has really pulled himself up by the bootstraps. He is determined to do everything he possibly can.”

Mary Theurer said the same determination that earned him top grades and the position of captain of the Paraclete High School football team now serves him in learning to regain his independence.

“Once we went to Wal-Mart and I parked in the handicapped spot and put the placard on the dashboard,” she said, “He started shaking his fist and pounding on his knee.”

Pointing to the letters on a laminated alphabet chart he carries with him, Brant spelled out: “I’m not handicapped, Mom.”

“He’s got this determination inside of him,” Mary said. “His goal is to be able to give his wheelchair away and to finish college. He wants to be a doctor.”

Apart from his physical challenges, Brant has changed in other ways as well.

One day after returning to school last month, he sat outside the classroom door and wouldn’t budge. When his teacher asked him why, Brant told her--one letter at a time--that he wanted to greet each of his classmates as they arrived.

Brant waited for the last student before entering the classroom.

“Before his accident, he was a teenager. He was on the football team and these kids would walk around and they were tough,” said his mother. “He’s still tough, but he’s more tender now. He’s sensitive and so much more aware of other people’s disappointments and pain because he’s been in so much pain.”