The Sirens

An early morning in July, I was sneaking in past curfew when I had heard sirens near by. Whenever I hear sirens I always make the sign of the cross and say a quick prayer for who ever is in need of help. It is something my mom shared with my sister and I were younger and I have been doing it ever since. But I didn’t know that when I was saying my short prayer, on that early Sunday morning that it was going to be for one of my dearest friends.

I live right by Geist Reservoir and I have a lot of friends that have a house right on the water. One of these friends is Grant and my closest guy friends had been at his house all night. They were out chilling on the dock when the valedictorian of my class and one of my best friends, Jay, decided to dive of the dock, into the water. Jay was the captain of the swim team and loved being in the water, so none of the boy’s thought of anything when he dove in. However when he surfaced with his back up and head down my friend Nick knew something was wrong.

Nick jumped in after Jay and carried him to the dock. Jay was screaming in agony. He couldn’t feel anything. The boys called 911 and they paramedics rushed Jay to Methodist Hospital in downtown Indianapolis. There, Jay was in a seven hour surgery to fix what the doctors could of his spinal chord and vertebras. He completely obliterated his C5 and suffered a huge fracture to his C6 vertebras in his neck.

Today, Jay is in Atlanta, Georgia at the Shepard Center fighting through his physical therapy. He has movement in his right arm but he is working on getting movement throughout his whole body. He gets to return home for Christmas and then he will be attending another rehab center in Kentucky. He is my biggest inspiration and I cannot contain my excitement to see Jay!