Max
06-01-2003, 11:24 AM
Still building his body of work
Med student is known for kindness; paralysis won't change that
DAVID PERLMUTT
Staff Writer
His friends marvel at the optimism. Merely "a bump in the road," Jesse Lieberman of Charlotte tells them when they give him those pitying looks.
Last Feb. 15, Lieberman was a bodybuilding medical student at Wake Forest who could squat 455 pounds 10 times and had not a trace of fat on his 5-foot-8, 215-pound body.
Now he can't lift a fork without a special brace, or dress or bathe himself.
He lost those simple functions after coming to the aid of a neighbor locked out of her condo, and falling three stories from his condo patio trying to get to hers.
Suddenly, the man his friends called "Hulk" or "the gentle giant" was a quadriplegic with $91,000 in expenses to meet in order to go on with his life and reach his dreams.
Monday, his friends will hold a golf tournament open to anyone at Raintree Country Club in Charlotte to raise money for Lieberman.
On Thursday, Yours Truly Needlepoint in Charlotte will donate proceeds of that day to The Healing Fund For Jesse.
"The nature of the way Jesse got hurt represents him well," said Lane Ostrow, who is spearheading the tournament. "He was helping out a neighbor, trying to do something for someone else and ended up getting himself hurt.
"When I saw him a couple of days after the accident, he told me `I'm glad I wasn't out doing something stupid.' That's Jesse, always wanting to help someone else."
The coolest job there was
He's always been that way. As a boy in Sacramento, Calif., Lieberman had dreams of becoming a doctor and set himself on that path."I thought it was the coolest job there was," said Lieberman, 26 on Sunday. "It had the right balance of mental and physical challenges. And you're helping people every day."
After his family moved to Charlotte when he was 15, he focused on science courses at Providence High School, where he played baseball. "I did much better in physics and chemistry than I did in English or history," he said.
At N.C. State, he got a zoology degree in 1999, then began Wake Forest medical school .
Lieberman was in the midst of his family medicine rotation and preparing for the Mr. North Carolina body-building match in March, when on Feb. 15 he took his and fiancйe Michelle Wilson's poodles, Zoe and Bella, for a walk.
It was about midnight. In the stairwell of their Winston-Salem condo building, he ran into a neighbor who lived a floor below.
She'd locked herself out but said the door to her balcony was unlocked -- and she needed help.
After walking Zoe and Bella, Lieberman hurriedly told Wilson he was going to climb over the patio railing and down to the neighbor's apartment to let her in.
By the time his plan registered with her, he was over the railing and holding on.
"Honey, that's not going to hold," she told him.
The railing cracked and he was gone. Down three stories, onto a concrete sidewalk. His right eye and forehead took the impact.
Wilson, an occupational therapist, grabbed her cell phone and dialed 911 as she raced down three flights. She cradled Lieberman, who at first was knocked out, but regained consciousness and heard her talking to a 911 operator.
"I was bleeding profusely," Lieberman said. "Michelle held my head together as she talked to 911. She was incredibly calm. She told 911 they better bring more than two people, that I definitely had a spinal cord injury."
He was lucid and knew his surroundings. He'd completed his trauma surgery rotation in med school the previous summer and knew all his doctors.
He knew something else too: that he was paralyzed from the neck down. Still his strong body probably saved his life, his doctors told him.
"I knew I couldn't move, but I couldn't feel that I couldn't move," Lieberman said. "I had no awareness of my body. It was like my body was missing."
His skull had three fractures, but his brain was undamaged.
"I am so thankful for that," he said. "The thought of not being able to use my body doesn't trouble me nearly as much as not being able to use my brain. I'd take brain over body any day."
Two weeks in the hospital followed, then eight weeks in rehab. A 2nd lieutenant in the Army Reserves, his hospital and rehabilitation bills were paid by the military. But it won't pay for a conversion van and other technologies that he needs to get to school and live his life.
Lieberman can move his legs some. His arms are functional, his hands aren't.
He has lost 37 pounds of muscle. His mobility is a mechanized wheelchair. He and Michelle moved into a handicap-accessible apartment.
There is no trace of bitterness.
"I don't regret what I did at all; I've done a lot dumber things," he said. "If a neighbor came to me again today, I'd try to help her again. It was just a decision I made and something bad happened."
A new path in medicine
Doctors encouraged him to take off a year before returning to medical school. But three days later, he was back at Wake Forest, determined to finish his medical doctorate -- on a different path.
Before the accident, he was going into anesthesiology. Now he is aggressively studying physical medicine and rehabilitation.
"I want to be able to give back," he said.
He and Michelle plan to marry a week after he becomes a doctor. He is confident he will walk again.
So is she.
"If anyone can do it, he can," Wilson said. "He has drive like you wouldn't believe. He may not be able to walk like he did, but he will walk. If he doesn't walk down the aisle for our wedding, I wouldn't be surprised if he stands when he says his vows."
Want to Play?
The "Play So Jesse Can Win! Tournament" at Raintree Country Club (8600 Raintree Lane) will begin Monday with demonstrations from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. A shotgun start to a round of golf will be at 1 p.m. For more information go to www.thehealing (http://www.thehealing)
fundforjesse.org or call: (704) 332-4653.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach David Perlmutt: (704) 358-5061; dperlmutt@charlotteobserver.com.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/5982625.htm
Med student is known for kindness; paralysis won't change that
DAVID PERLMUTT
Staff Writer
His friends marvel at the optimism. Merely "a bump in the road," Jesse Lieberman of Charlotte tells them when they give him those pitying looks.
Last Feb. 15, Lieberman was a bodybuilding medical student at Wake Forest who could squat 455 pounds 10 times and had not a trace of fat on his 5-foot-8, 215-pound body.
Now he can't lift a fork without a special brace, or dress or bathe himself.
He lost those simple functions after coming to the aid of a neighbor locked out of her condo, and falling three stories from his condo patio trying to get to hers.
Suddenly, the man his friends called "Hulk" or "the gentle giant" was a quadriplegic with $91,000 in expenses to meet in order to go on with his life and reach his dreams.
Monday, his friends will hold a golf tournament open to anyone at Raintree Country Club in Charlotte to raise money for Lieberman.
On Thursday, Yours Truly Needlepoint in Charlotte will donate proceeds of that day to The Healing Fund For Jesse.
"The nature of the way Jesse got hurt represents him well," said Lane Ostrow, who is spearheading the tournament. "He was helping out a neighbor, trying to do something for someone else and ended up getting himself hurt.
"When I saw him a couple of days after the accident, he told me `I'm glad I wasn't out doing something stupid.' That's Jesse, always wanting to help someone else."
The coolest job there was
He's always been that way. As a boy in Sacramento, Calif., Lieberman had dreams of becoming a doctor and set himself on that path."I thought it was the coolest job there was," said Lieberman, 26 on Sunday. "It had the right balance of mental and physical challenges. And you're helping people every day."
After his family moved to Charlotte when he was 15, he focused on science courses at Providence High School, where he played baseball. "I did much better in physics and chemistry than I did in English or history," he said.
At N.C. State, he got a zoology degree in 1999, then began Wake Forest medical school .
Lieberman was in the midst of his family medicine rotation and preparing for the Mr. North Carolina body-building match in March, when on Feb. 15 he took his and fiancйe Michelle Wilson's poodles, Zoe and Bella, for a walk.
It was about midnight. In the stairwell of their Winston-Salem condo building, he ran into a neighbor who lived a floor below.
She'd locked herself out but said the door to her balcony was unlocked -- and she needed help.
After walking Zoe and Bella, Lieberman hurriedly told Wilson he was going to climb over the patio railing and down to the neighbor's apartment to let her in.
By the time his plan registered with her, he was over the railing and holding on.
"Honey, that's not going to hold," she told him.
The railing cracked and he was gone. Down three stories, onto a concrete sidewalk. His right eye and forehead took the impact.
Wilson, an occupational therapist, grabbed her cell phone and dialed 911 as she raced down three flights. She cradled Lieberman, who at first was knocked out, but regained consciousness and heard her talking to a 911 operator.
"I was bleeding profusely," Lieberman said. "Michelle held my head together as she talked to 911. She was incredibly calm. She told 911 they better bring more than two people, that I definitely had a spinal cord injury."
He was lucid and knew his surroundings. He'd completed his trauma surgery rotation in med school the previous summer and knew all his doctors.
He knew something else too: that he was paralyzed from the neck down. Still his strong body probably saved his life, his doctors told him.
"I knew I couldn't move, but I couldn't feel that I couldn't move," Lieberman said. "I had no awareness of my body. It was like my body was missing."
His skull had three fractures, but his brain was undamaged.
"I am so thankful for that," he said. "The thought of not being able to use my body doesn't trouble me nearly as much as not being able to use my brain. I'd take brain over body any day."
Two weeks in the hospital followed, then eight weeks in rehab. A 2nd lieutenant in the Army Reserves, his hospital and rehabilitation bills were paid by the military. But it won't pay for a conversion van and other technologies that he needs to get to school and live his life.
Lieberman can move his legs some. His arms are functional, his hands aren't.
He has lost 37 pounds of muscle. His mobility is a mechanized wheelchair. He and Michelle moved into a handicap-accessible apartment.
There is no trace of bitterness.
"I don't regret what I did at all; I've done a lot dumber things," he said. "If a neighbor came to me again today, I'd try to help her again. It was just a decision I made and something bad happened."
A new path in medicine
Doctors encouraged him to take off a year before returning to medical school. But three days later, he was back at Wake Forest, determined to finish his medical doctorate -- on a different path.
Before the accident, he was going into anesthesiology. Now he is aggressively studying physical medicine and rehabilitation.
"I want to be able to give back," he said.
He and Michelle plan to marry a week after he becomes a doctor. He is confident he will walk again.
So is she.
"If anyone can do it, he can," Wilson said. "He has drive like you wouldn't believe. He may not be able to walk like he did, but he will walk. If he doesn't walk down the aisle for our wedding, I wouldn't be surprised if he stands when he says his vows."
Want to Play?
The "Play So Jesse Can Win! Tournament" at Raintree Country Club (8600 Raintree Lane) will begin Monday with demonstrations from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. A shotgun start to a round of golf will be at 1 p.m. For more information go to www.thehealing (http://www.thehealing)
fundforjesse.org or call: (704) 332-4653.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach David Perlmutt: (704) 358-5061; dperlmutt@charlotteobserver.com.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/5982625.htm