Overcoming Serious Illness

Man: Are you ready for this?

Dixon: Yeah.

Narrator: This is a day Brian Dixon has waited a year for. A day no one was sure would ever come. You wouldn't know from his smile and easy laugh the former college student had been struggling to relearn the basics in life. Learning how to walk, talk, and even how to swallow all over again.

Dixon: Hard, hard, hard work.

Narrator: Brian was on this mountain bike a year ago when he suffered a severe stroke completely paralyzing the right side of his body.

Woman: A very long road. It's been really hard for him, but he's bound and determined to do it so...

Narrator: Determined along with his doctor, Michael Jaffrey, who promised to ride with Brian.

Jaffrey: When I first had him over at Sharp Hospital, I was really worried that he wasn't going to get any recovery back, but his right lower extremity has gotten a lot better.

Narrator: His mountain bike has been modified since Brian still can't use his right arm.

Dixon: I'm ready.

Narrator: And with this short tide, Brian proved to himself and everyone else not only that he could get back on his bike but also back to his old life.

Woman: Brian is mountain biking.

Man: All right, Brian!

Narrator: But Brian wasn't content with just this victory.

Dixon: Start slow and better, better, better, better.

Narrator: This is only the beginning of the mountain Brian plans to climb.

Dixon: No training wheels. Off!

Narrator: He knows it will be tough, but he's been there already and knows he can make it to the top.

Dixon: Just bring it on.

With photojournalist Richard Klein, Miami Shikawa, Ten News.

2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education
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