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Ryan Atkins and Stephanie Perry reconnected after Atkins was in a terrible car accident.(Photo: University of Cincinnati)
CINCINNATI --<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Ryan Atkins has always been an overachiever. He attended the University of Cincinnati on a full-ride scholarship. Atkins also was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>active in student government, and a member of a fraternity. Life couldn’t be better for the college junior. But an accident during his junior year would change both his life and his focus.
Atkins was driving four of his fraternity brothers to a retreat in Tennessee when he lost control of his SUV. Three of the five passengers were ejected, but Atkins suffered the worst injury:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a partially severed spinal cord that left him paralyzed below the shoulders. He used a ventilator and feeding tube in the hospital for fourth months to survive. Doctors told him he had a spinal cord injury similar to Christopher Reeve, the Superman actor who later suffered his own paralyzing spinal cord injury.
Ryan Atkins was attending the University of Cincinnati when he got into a car accident in 2009.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Courtesy Ryan Atkins)
Atkins was determined to get back on his feet. He worked hard at physical therapy in order to prove to the doctors he would walk again. One of his doctors called him an overachiever regarding his approach to therapy. Atkins made some progress, moving off a ventilator, but he learned regaining the use of his limbs would be more difficult. "After about the first year or so, I realized this isn’t a battle I could win on my own, and that’s when I turned to the faith that I grew up with,” Atkins said.
Instead of focusing entirely on healing his body, he put his energy into restoring his Christian faith. He began blogging about his spinal cord injury and recovery. Around that time, an old classmate offered to help.
“I was in massage school at the time of Ryan’s accident. I heard about the accident via Facebook,” Stephanie Perry said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"I needed some extra practice, so I asked him if he needed a massage<span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>thought it would be a one-time thing —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>but soon it was three times a week.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>That’s how we developed into a friendship,” Perry said.
Perry and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Atkins had been in the same class in second grade. Atkins admits having<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a crush on Perry all<span style="color: Red;">*</span>those years ago, but at the time, Perry didn’t know he existed. She changed schools after second grade, but a chance re-encounter on Facebook reconnected the two years later.
A snippet from Stephanie Perry's scrapbook from her childhood shows a passage about Ryan.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Courtesy Ryan Atkins)
“Right off the bat I was really struck by the peace that is about Ryan,” she said. "His life was upside down, (but)<span style="color: Red;">*</span>he took it in stride, he was looking ahead."
Their friendship eventually developed into a relationship. Now engaged, the couple plans to get married<span style="color: Red;">*</span>November 19, 2016, one day before the seventh anniversary of Atkins accident. They chose the date to take the focus off of the moment that impaired Atkins' body, concentrating more on the moment the two will begin building a life together.
They know some people may feel sorry for them because of Atkins injury, but the two remain hopeful. Atkins believes he will one day walk again, and he’s quick to say, “We believe the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>best is yet to come."
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