In a brutal flash, several lives were forever changed.
And now Lamont Walker, a quadriplegic whose life was saved at what was then University Medical Center 16 years ago, has made it a mission at UF Health Jacksonville to save others spiritually.
Walker was a 15-year-old with athletic potential when he suffered a life-threatening injury Sept. 6, 1997, colliding helmet-to-helmet with a friend while playing football in his Sweetwater neighborhood.
Rushed to the Trauma Center with major fractures in his vertebrae, he was given a slim chance to survive. Even after regaining consciousness, he was unable to move and relied on a ventilator to breathe.
Jennifer Pierson, a bedside nurse at the time, helped Walker through the critical first stage of his recovery, and it was not long before she developed a special regard for the patient. An attending physician warned her not to get too attached because Walker might not live another six months, but it didn’t matter. The bond had been established.
Walker remarkably regained his ability to breathe and talk, but he faced the devastating reality of being a quadriplegic the rest of his life. Pierson knew that, even after he was discharged, she would assist him and his mother, Barbara, in any way she could.
“I remember thinking that somebody had to stay involved or he would get lost in the system,” Pierson said.
Over the grueling months that followed, Walker endured rehabilitation and the numerous challenges of adapting to his new life. Pierson, meanwhile, helped the Walkers navigate the complicated and often frustrating world of health care.
“To this day, she’s my angel on Earth,” Walker said.
When the bureaucracy became too much even for her, Pierson enlisted the help of Penny Thompson, vice president of Government Affairs, who pulled a few strings to get the Walkers’ home more handicap accessible. Like Pierson, Thompson said she immediately felt a great affection for Walker, and she has also remained involved in his life – and his mother’s – ever since.
“I look at Jennifer and Penny like I do my own blood sisters,” said Barbara Walker.
“We’ve really just become a family, the four of us, there’s no other way to put it,” said Pierson, who now works on the Wound Care Team. And with such help and encouragement, Walker began to view his life in an entirely new light.
As a youth who was beginning to get into trouble, Walker admits he could easily have headed down the wrong moral path. Now he has found a purpose for living in Christian ministry.
Walker was reborn in faith and decided he wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. He went back to school and earned his GED in 2002, followed by an associate degree in 2010 at Florida State College at Jacksonville.
His goal is to eventually become an ordained minister, and in the meantime he has returned to the hospital where it all began to volunteer his time with other seriously injured patients and partake in a mentorship program through the Pastoral Care department. He hopes to enroll in a clinical pastoral education program through a satellite offering the hospital wants to establish next year.
The way Walker now sees it, his accident was a gift from God.
“His allowing this to happen saved two lives,” he said, referring to himself and his mother Barbara, who previously suffered from deep depression. She “turned around almost immediately” when her son began to emerge from the accident, Pierson said.
Walker’s influence with patients is profound. Members of UF Health Jacksonville’s Pastoral Care department praise him for his natural ability to offer comfort and spiritual guidance. But Walker said the most powerful impression he makes is when he first rolls into the room in his wheelchair.
“Mine is a position of empathy,” said Walker. “I can relate to people on a different level. I believe God has me here to encourage and inspire people to see that they don’t have it as bad as they might think. Gratitude sets the attitude; I help people see the good in their lives.”
Walker’s disposition is so captivating, it has even affected Pastoral Care staff.
“We’ve been taught a lot by Lamont, too,” said Saundra Waldrop, a supervisor for patient services in the Pastoral Care department. “You realize, listening to him, that it’s not necessarily the physical handicap itself but the emotional and psychological handicaps that hinder many people’s improvement.”
Walker admits he still has difficult days when he wrestles with the idea of simply giving up on life. But fulfilling what he considers his calling keeps him going.
“I’m grateful for this second chance in life,” he said. “To me it is a blessing. I’m not just living for me anymore, it’s for other people. This is a gift that keeps on giving.”