ProRodeo Sports News - May 31, 2019

normally do for a typical brain injury. I feel like that was our game-changer physically besides our prayers.” Powers-Hadley said there were numerous complications Shane dealt with, including three tracheostomy surgeries and three surgeries on the feeding tube. Shane, who is 6 feet tall, was 205 pounds when he was injured. “He didn’t eat for 21 days,” Powers-Hadley said. “He was battling to stay alive until he had his last feeding tube surgery. He lost 62 pounds. He weighed 143 pounds. I know because he was in such phenomenal shape that he could sustain such a traumatic deal to his system.” Hadley was moved to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas on June 30, where a surgeon figured out the feeding situation, Powers-Hadley said. “We finally got enough activity from Shane to get him to Baylor because he had to be able to do a few things before they would take him,” Powers-Hadley said. “It was going to be six intensive hours of physical therapy. When he first got there, he couldn’t even hold his head up. We rain-dropped him with essential oils every day, they did six hours of therapy and we got him in a wheelchair.” From that point, Hadley was transferred to the Centre for Neuro Skills in Dallas. “He wasn’t even using his right side very much, and from there we just took off,” Powers- Hadley said. “Brad Smith (1978 PRCA Tie-down World Champion) and his wife rode with Shane on the weekends, and I feel like the hippotherapy helped. We got him on horseback every weekend, and every time we would take him back, he would have a new movement. Whether he raised his arm more or whatever. We had quite a village helping him. The latest thing we have been doing with our plethora of outside help is electromagnetic pulse therapy. We are incorporating a lot of things with this therapy, but as we do, we got him out of the wheelchair and out of the walker, and he’s walking on his own. We still have some stability issues. He knows everything and remembers everything except for about two weeks before and two months after, which makes sense. “The progress he has made has just been miraculous, and it has been a huge village of our rodeo family to make it happen. Everybody who has an expertise that I just described as far as the extra steps we incorporated came from a rodeo family member. They circled the wagons and said have you thought of this and we have had good results with this. I equate that to the reason that a year later, he’s gained his weight back, and he’s walking and talking and playing with his nephews.” On Jan. 15, Shane, his mother and father, Jim, a former tie-down roper in the Mountain States Circuit, returned home. ADVERSITY ON TOP OF ADVERSITY Before Shane was injured, he and his parents bought a home in Stephenville, Texas. Shane chose not to rodeo full time because in 2015 Trina was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and his father was battling Parkinson’s disease. “He was helping us get back on our feet after we got knocked down,” said Powers-Hadley, who is cancer-free. “My husband is also doing well.” Jim and Trina also have a daughter, Shiloh Knapp, 28, who is married and lives in Mississippi. Powers-Hadley believes her family’s faith helped them get through the trying times. “Jesus is truly our savior, and I believe that, and I believe what the Bible says, and it has never come back void,” Powers-Hadley said. “I never wanted to go through this, but I never blame God. I just know I must be helping his kingdom out a lot if the enemy is going to attack us that much. You just take it on the chin and be a warrior. I will not give in. I have lost friends to cancer, and I know that sometimes our healing is in heaven. But when we are given this time to stay here, it is to God’s glory and his glory alone.” EMOTIONAL REUNION A year removed from his wreck, Shane walked into the Palo Pinto County Livestock arena during the Mineral Wells PRCA Rodeo, May 9. “It was very healing to be back there,” Shane said. Powers-Hadley agreed. “It was emotional, and there was a lot more healing than I realized it would be,” she said. “That whole community has reached out through Facebook and told me about their prayers.” As far as Shane has come, and he’s still doing physical therapy rehab six hours a day, four days a week, Powers-Hadley knows the journey is far from complete. “Do we have more work to do? Absolutely,” she said. “But how far we have come in a year’s time is amazing. If there’s a glass ceiling, we are going to break through it. He’s not supposed to be doing anything he’s doing, so we are hoping we can get him all the way back. He’s riding and he is roping. I’m always hope-filled because there’s always a goal we are pushing to.”

Photos courtesy Trina Powers-Hadley TOP: Shane Hadley is pictured after he lost 62 pounds and was beginning his road to recovery. MIDDLE: Firefighter Chris Brooks, left, poses with Hadley after the cowboy returned to the Mineral Wells (Texas) PRCA Rodeo a year after he suffered a severe head injury during a run at the 2018 rodeo. Brooks made a quick decision to get Hadley flight-lifted to a Fort Worth hospital, which helped save Hadley’s life. BOTTOM: Hadley, right, shares a moment with his father, Jim, and mother, Trina Powers-Hadley. His family has been with him every step of his recovery.

ProRodeo Sports News 5/31/2019

ProRodeo.com

35