Max
12-29-2002, 10:20 AM
Paralyzed bull rider keeps busy
By Pat Kimbrough, STAFF WRITER December 29, 2002
Jerome Davis has been asked the question many times before: What does it take to endure the topsy-turvy ride that an enraged bull doles out for eight punishing seconds?
"The biggest thing - you got to have a big heart. You got to want it," he said. "I think that may be what was the main thing behind my success. I loved to ride bulls, right up to the day I got hurt."
Davis hopes the same drive that took him to the pinnacle of the sport of bull riding a few years ago will now help him in a different kind of challenge, one that doesn't involve a thrashing, 2,000-pound bull that would like nothing better than to pulverize the cowboy with the temerity to try to stay atop it.
Paralyzed from the chest down since a 1998 bull riding accident, there's a lot that the 30-year-old from Archdale has accomplished since then that would be the envy of many who weren't confined to a wheelchair. But the one thing that he thinks could heal the fractured vertebrae in his neck and cure his disability has tested him more than the meanest bull he ever rode.
"The stem cell research is the thing that's going to make it happen, I think," Davis said on a recent morning in the kitchen of his Cedar Square Road home. "There's a lot of controversy over it, which makes it tough for a guy like me, who suffers everyday from being in this chair. ... The cure could be happening. There's a lot of politics holding it up."
Like many afflicted with spinal cord injuries or crippling diseases, Davis says he's frustrated that more isn't being done to push research into embryonic stem cells, which many scientists belive can be used to treat illnesses. Some abortion opponents and others oppose the research and, last year, President Bush limited the number of stem cell lines eligible for federally-funded research.
Davis says he hasn't let the pace of scientific progress get him down, though.
"I don't sit and wait," he said. "I try to get on with my life and make things happen. As long as I stay occupied, I do pretty good."
Bull riding has consumed him as long as he can remember, Davis said. A champion rider at the state level by the time he was 17, he made it to the professional level shortly thereafter, joining the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). In 1995, when he was 22, he became the PRCA World Champion. He remains the only person east of the Mississippi to hold this title.
During a March 14, 1998, competition in Fort Worth, Texas, Davis, while riding a bull named Knock 'Em Out John, was knocked unconscious and thrown to the ground, landing on his head. The impact shattered his backbone, paralyzing him instantly.
In the years since his accident, Davis' ties to the world of bull riding haven't frayed.
He now works as a stock contractor, raising bulls on the 80-acre Davis Ranch, which he operates. On many days, he can be found riding around the property on a customized golf cart, sometimes scattering hay around the pasture for the bulls to eat. The ranch supplies several animals to events affiliated with Professional Bull Riders Inc. (PBR), the bull riders' circuit that tours the country annually. Some of Davis' bulls qualified for the PBR World Finals last year, an accomplishment for which he says he's especially proud. He often joins his wife, Tiffany, on trips around the country, delivering the animals to competitions.
He remains one of the sport's luminaries, as evidenced by the fact that two PBR events bear his name: The Jerome Davis PBR Invitational, held each August at the Davis Ranch Arena, and next month's annual Jerome Davis Challenge at the Greensboro Coliseum.
But it's the part of his life far from the sport's spotlight that Davis says is his greatest challenge.
Though his daily routine involves a workout for his upper body and the use of a bicycle that sends electric shock waves through his legs to keep his muscles from atrophying, he feels that he's exhausted current medical treatments and that it will take a breakthrough in stem cell research before he's able to make true progress toward his ultimate goal.
"I feel like right now, if they come up with a cure, my body would be able to kick back in and make it work," he said.
Scientists believe stem cells could be used to rejuvenate, restore and repair ailing hearts, livers, brains and other organs. Davis says opponents of the research are misinformed.
"You see the people that are protesting the research to get these people out of these chairs and it makes me want to wring their necks," he said.
So far, Davis hasn't engaged in the kind of efforts to publicize the search for a cure for paralysis that well-known injury victims like Christopher Reeve have.
"I stay on top of it as much as possible, to see what research is being done," he said. "But, as far as speaking, or anything like that, on behalf of spinal cord research, I've never done any of that. ... There's a lot to being able to make all that happen and, I don't know, I just ain't never done it."
He says he's heard of promising research advances in other countries and thinks that his best chance for recovery will probably come from overseas. In the meantime, he says he's thankful for what the accident didn't take from him.
"I ain't gonna complain," he said. "When you think you've got it bad, there's always folks out there that have got it a lot worse than you do, and I always think of that."
Pat Kimbrough can be contacted
at 888-3531 or pkimbrough@hpe.com
©High Point Enterprise 2002
By Pat Kimbrough, STAFF WRITER December 29, 2002
Jerome Davis has been asked the question many times before: What does it take to endure the topsy-turvy ride that an enraged bull doles out for eight punishing seconds?
"The biggest thing - you got to have a big heart. You got to want it," he said. "I think that may be what was the main thing behind my success. I loved to ride bulls, right up to the day I got hurt."
Davis hopes the same drive that took him to the pinnacle of the sport of bull riding a few years ago will now help him in a different kind of challenge, one that doesn't involve a thrashing, 2,000-pound bull that would like nothing better than to pulverize the cowboy with the temerity to try to stay atop it.
Paralyzed from the chest down since a 1998 bull riding accident, there's a lot that the 30-year-old from Archdale has accomplished since then that would be the envy of many who weren't confined to a wheelchair. But the one thing that he thinks could heal the fractured vertebrae in his neck and cure his disability has tested him more than the meanest bull he ever rode.
"The stem cell research is the thing that's going to make it happen, I think," Davis said on a recent morning in the kitchen of his Cedar Square Road home. "There's a lot of controversy over it, which makes it tough for a guy like me, who suffers everyday from being in this chair. ... The cure could be happening. There's a lot of politics holding it up."
Like many afflicted with spinal cord injuries or crippling diseases, Davis says he's frustrated that more isn't being done to push research into embryonic stem cells, which many scientists belive can be used to treat illnesses. Some abortion opponents and others oppose the research and, last year, President Bush limited the number of stem cell lines eligible for federally-funded research.
Davis says he hasn't let the pace of scientific progress get him down, though.
"I don't sit and wait," he said. "I try to get on with my life and make things happen. As long as I stay occupied, I do pretty good."
Bull riding has consumed him as long as he can remember, Davis said. A champion rider at the state level by the time he was 17, he made it to the professional level shortly thereafter, joining the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). In 1995, when he was 22, he became the PRCA World Champion. He remains the only person east of the Mississippi to hold this title.
During a March 14, 1998, competition in Fort Worth, Texas, Davis, while riding a bull named Knock 'Em Out John, was knocked unconscious and thrown to the ground, landing on his head. The impact shattered his backbone, paralyzing him instantly.
In the years since his accident, Davis' ties to the world of bull riding haven't frayed.
He now works as a stock contractor, raising bulls on the 80-acre Davis Ranch, which he operates. On many days, he can be found riding around the property on a customized golf cart, sometimes scattering hay around the pasture for the bulls to eat. The ranch supplies several animals to events affiliated with Professional Bull Riders Inc. (PBR), the bull riders' circuit that tours the country annually. Some of Davis' bulls qualified for the PBR World Finals last year, an accomplishment for which he says he's especially proud. He often joins his wife, Tiffany, on trips around the country, delivering the animals to competitions.
He remains one of the sport's luminaries, as evidenced by the fact that two PBR events bear his name: The Jerome Davis PBR Invitational, held each August at the Davis Ranch Arena, and next month's annual Jerome Davis Challenge at the Greensboro Coliseum.
But it's the part of his life far from the sport's spotlight that Davis says is his greatest challenge.
Though his daily routine involves a workout for his upper body and the use of a bicycle that sends electric shock waves through his legs to keep his muscles from atrophying, he feels that he's exhausted current medical treatments and that it will take a breakthrough in stem cell research before he's able to make true progress toward his ultimate goal.
"I feel like right now, if they come up with a cure, my body would be able to kick back in and make it work," he said.
Scientists believe stem cells could be used to rejuvenate, restore and repair ailing hearts, livers, brains and other organs. Davis says opponents of the research are misinformed.
"You see the people that are protesting the research to get these people out of these chairs and it makes me want to wring their necks," he said.
So far, Davis hasn't engaged in the kind of efforts to publicize the search for a cure for paralysis that well-known injury victims like Christopher Reeve have.
"I stay on top of it as much as possible, to see what research is being done," he said. "But, as far as speaking, or anything like that, on behalf of spinal cord research, I've never done any of that. ... There's a lot to being able to make all that happen and, I don't know, I just ain't never done it."
He says he's heard of promising research advances in other countries and thinks that his best chance for recovery will probably come from overseas. In the meantime, he says he's thankful for what the accident didn't take from him.
"I ain't gonna complain," he said. "When you think you've got it bad, there's always folks out there that have got it a lot worse than you do, and I always think of that."
Pat Kimbrough can be contacted
at 888-3531 or pkimbrough@hpe.com
©High Point Enterprise 2002