Miracles do happen. James Piazza of Atlanta (AHS Class of '96) is living proof of that.
And, living is the operative word for Piazza.
Almost seven years ago, on Feb. 18, 1994, Piazza was injured in an accident that has left him partially paralyzed and confined to a wheel chair.
But the 22-year old Atlanta native has turned tragedy into triumph, now working as Youth Minister at New Hope Baptist Church in Bloomburg while he continues to work toward his Master's Degree in Religion/Christian Ministries.
Piazza speaks readily of that cold night when his life was changed forever. "I totally feel like what happened opened doors for me," he said. "I can continuously see God in every part of it."
Piazza frequently travels the road where the accident occurred, but doesn't dwell on the accident. "I don't have nightmares about it. I think about it sometime, but it's not really part of me," he said.
Not that he and his mother, Jill Lummus, don't remember that night. He and some fellow Boy Scouts had been working on James' Eagle Scout project when the pickup truck Piazza was riding in went out of control on a curve and left the roadway.
Piazza's life hung in the balance as emergency personnel feverishly tried to stabilize him.
The dark-haired Piazza recalls the accident vividly.
"We went off the right side of the road, and Brandon (Thompson, driver of the truck), tried to jerk it back on the road and we fishtailed. I felt everyone fall against me and push real hard. On one of the rolls, I was thrown out.
Piazza paused, not relishing the thought of reliving that night again. "The next thing I knew," he continued, "I was on the ground. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't move. I was dizzy and seeing stars."
One of his uncles came on the scene." He looked scared, and that scared me," Piazza said. He also recalls the paramedics working on him, and someone saying, "don't turn him over." He also remembers the helicopter.
"It all happened pretty fast. They kept me talking the whole time. I heard the helicopter. The only thing I really remember is how loud the helicopter was until I was inside."
Piazza's mother, Jill Lummus, rushed to St. Michael's Hospital in Texarkana arriving shortly after the helicopter.
"They let us in to see him," Lummus recalled. "He was as white as a sheet and swollen all over. He felt cold and hard. He was having trouble breathing. He was conscious. They said he had asked for me."
Lummus said the doctor was very blunt.
"What you see is what you get," he told her.
"Is he going to die?" She demanded to know.
"No," the doctor assured her, "but he is paralyzed from the neck down."
The doctor advised her that Piazza had also broken all his ribs and his lungs were filling with fluid. Lummus took her place in the emergency waiting room as Piazza underwent additional tests, including an MRI.
A local doctor, Max Fruge', who was also Piazza's Sunday School teach er, arrived and said he would go in and check on James.
Lummus recalled the horror of the moment when Fruge' emerged.
"He came out and looked funny. He said they were still working on him," she said. "He had died. His lungs had filled with fluid, and he had quit breathing. They were able to get tubes in him and resuscitate him.
"That was our first miracle."
Piazza was transferred to surgical intensive care in serious, but guarded, condition.
Along with his spinal injury came many hardships. He was placed in a special bed that rotated him back and forth. He had tubes in both sides of his chest to drain the fluid. He was on a respirator. He had tubes down his throat. He couldn't talk. He couldn't move anything. "I was conscious," Piazza recalled. "That's about it." Medication numbed his feelings, physical and mental.
And the prognosis was not good. He was told he would not breathe on his own again.
Lummus requested that James be put on their church's prayer list -- not to walk again or to be healed, but to simply breath on his own again.
"At 2 p.m. that Sunday, he started taking some breaths on his own," Lummus said. "That was our second miracle."
But, it was still an uphill struggle for Piazza, who remained on a respirator. After five days at St. Michael's, he was transferred to Baylor Medical Center in Dallas where they "turned him every which way but loose," Lummus said. That's when Piazza began to realize the severity of his injuries. Time at Baylor Medical Center and the Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation provided a change in Piazza's diagnosis. As he healed, the paralysis was upgraded to being from the neck down to the chest down.
One constant for Piazza was Lummus, who stayed by her son's side. One weekend she had to return the two and a half hours to Atlanta.
"You said you wouldn't go," Piazza chided his mother at the time.
"I cried all weekend," Lummus admitted.
Piazza admitted to some tears, too, while in rehab.
"For two weeks I was miserable with pain," Piazza said. "But I was making progress. I started being able to swallow liquids. I was able to sit up without passing out or throwing up. What I really wanted was a Dr. Pepper. I cried because I couldn't have a Dr. Pepper."
The progress continued.
" I started lifting weights, doing mat exercises, stretching. It was painful at first, after that it was just hard," he said.
Lummus laughed as she recalled that the staff at Baylor called Piazza, "Dang," apparently after his favorite phrase.
Piazza still had problems with his extremities, with no finger movement or wrist flexibility. He was right handed before the accident, but he learned to do more with his left hand because the right side was more damaged. Piazza was supposed to leave Baylor on May 1, but the doctors kept him about a month longer.
"I hated to stay longer," Piazza remembered, "because I wanted to get home. But I was glad to hear they thought I was better. I didn't realize I was doing that good."
Piazza was allowed a trial weekend home on May 27, and on June 8 -- almost four months after the accident -- he went home for good.
He recalls the homecoming.
"I was scared," Piazza admits. "I didn't know what everyone would think. When I first got back, there were tons of people at my house waiting for me with balloons and signs."
But it wasn't all just like old times.
"I had to have someone with me all the time. It was just like at the hospital, except at home," Piazza said. He also underwent physical therapy four days a week in Texarkana. He was in need of a specially equipped van for transporting him.
That August members of his church -- the First Baptist Church of Atlanta -- headed by Church Minister of Education Wes Chambers, helped organize the "mother of all garage sales." With help from the local radio station and newspapers, the August fund raiser netted $14,000 toward the cost of the van which Piazza got in January of 1995. "Another miracle," Lummus praised. "And what a blessing this community is."
Lummus also praised Piazza's friends, who helped him in the early stages of returning home. "Josh Chambers, Chris Caver, Jason Edwards -- they were the main ones," Lummus said. "They helped him with everything. They were wonderful."
Chambers recalls his perceptions of Piazza when he returned home. "I think his biggest fear was that he thought people would think of him differently," Chambers said. "But, he's still the same person."
Piazza understands his fears now.
"Before the accident, when I saw someone in a wheelchair, I thought they were different from me somehow. Now I realize that they are people just like me," Piazza said.
Piazza also knew returning to high school would be a challenge. "At first I was scared to death," he admitted. "I was even dreaming about it."
But returning to school was no nightmare. Piazza credits his classmates, and the teachers and staff at Atlanta High School for "understanding" and "going out of their way to help."
In October of 1995, Piazza completed the first of several goals. He obtained the rank of Eagle Scout. For his final service project, he supervised the restoration and conversion of a utility trailer for his church. In an Eagle Court of Honor for Troop 41, Piazza was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout. Scout Master Lee Stanley presided over the Court of Honor.
During the ceremony, former Scout Master Joel Steger praised Piazza "for staying on the trail to Eagle Scout even after his accident."
Steger elaborated on Piazza. "Before his accident, James was a typical teenager with a lot of things going on in his life -- cars, girls, school, athletics, church," Steger said.
"After the accident, even with some of his physical limitations, he could still do Scouting. He had gotten past a lot of the physical aspects of Scouting. Often Scouting takes a back seat as a kid gets older, but for James Scouting became a higher priority.
"I encouraged him to complete his Eagle Scout. It would show that someone with physical limitations can complete it. And he had a lot of support. His friends have stood by that young man. They involved him in almost everything. They encouraged him," Steger said.
That involvement and encouragement often went beyond verbal reinforcement.
Friends and family often help Piazza start his day including assisting with range and motion exercises. They also aid Piazza move to a standing position, shower and dress. Piazza must also be turned over once during the night to help keep the circulation flowing in his body. He has to take about 30 pills a day. The pill regime is carried out four times a day to help prevent spasms and assist in bodily functions.
Despite the changes in his life, Piazza has carried on.
He graduated from high school on time in 1996 in an advanced honors program, and enrolled at nearby Texarkana College.
Piazza has come a long way since that fateful February day in 1994, but he wants more.
"I wish I didn't have to worry about other people helping me all the time," Piazza explained. "Sometimes I wish I could get up and do something".
He admitted to getting that feeling during Scout ceremonies when the audience is asked to stand for the pledge of allegiance, or at a ball game when the national anthem is played.
"Every time they say, 'please stand,' I want to. I tighten up every muscle in my legs. I try to sit as tall as I can."
And Piazza is sitting pretty tall these days after taking another big step in his life three years ago. He continued his college education, away from home for the first time, when he enrolled at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall
Mom had trouble dealing with the move.
"I practically went into mourning for about three months," Lummus said. "I cried nearly every day."
A problem with getting proper home nursing assistance also proved trying. "Some things didn't work out, so I drove back and forth twice a day for two months," Lummus added.
But Piazza did have some help in his efficiency apartment sized dorm room as his two roommates assisted him. The roommates included Jason Edwards, a longtime friend who had already been helping Piazza from time to time. Piazza made friends easily, helped by his senior roommate who "knew everybody."
The transition to college proved more difficult outside the classroom than in it.
"It was different from high school," Piazza explained, "not so much in the classes, but because there were classes all over campus and I had to get to them."
That's when Piazza began using the motorized wheel chair, something that took some getting used to. Most classrooms also did not provide a desk that could accommodate him, so he did a lot of "lap work."
"They have done a good job making some changes," Lummus explained. "Some of it happened when James arrived on campus and I'm sure it's helping a lot of other handicapped students."
Piazza took heavy work loads his last two years with his eyes on a Year 2000 graduation.
"I set a goal," he said. "I knew I could do it. I wanted 2000 on my ring."
Piazza reached another goal while attending ETBU -- he began to drive himself.
Piazza, his stepfather Gary and stepbrother Chris, took the big step in the old Wal-Mart parking lot.
"I was totally confused. I felt like there was no way I could do it," Piazza said.
But he did. And began practicing his driving around campus and in parking lots.
"It took about a month for me to get comfortable," he said. "I took the test and got my license."
"I was too nervous to go that first time," Piazza's mother admits. "He stuck with it, though. He'd get tired from holding his arms up. He has no tricep muscles."
Piazza also recalls a case of nerves in the Lummus household when he drove himself home from Marshall for the first time. "Since then, it's been okay."
His association with the New Hope Baptist Church began toward end of his sophomore year at ETBU. He was offered the position of summer intern.
"I struggled with the decision," Piazza admitted. "But I decided it was a door opening for me and I could do it."
He spent two summers working as an intern. When he graduated in May, Piazza was asked if he wanted to stay with the church as Minister of Youth, joining pastor Dr. David Baxley. Piazza teaches Sunday School, Wednesday night Bible study, and Sunday night discipleship training.
"We started with eight or 10 kids who were active in Bible Study," Piazza said. "Now we average about 25 or 30. I challenged them once to get 50 here and I'd shave my head. Forty-seven showed up."
After the first of the year Piazza expects to be ordained and expand his title to Youth Minister and Associate Pastor.
And while he works with the youth of New Hope Baptist Church, Piazza continues to improve himself. During his senior year at ETBU, the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary began offering classes in Marshall toward a Master's Degree.
He currently takes classes one day a week The third year of the program, he will have to matriculate in Fort Worth to finish his degree.
"The job at New Hope, the Master's classes being offered at ETBU -- doors opening for me," Piazza proclaimed. And those opening doors continue to fortify his decision to go into the ministry, and according to his mother, so many people have helped him, he felt it was his turn to help others.
The elder Chambers -- James' Minister of Education -- was excited about Piazza's career choice.
"James is a special young man," he said. "He will take this accident and turn it into something positive. He has a unique opportunity to do a lot of good."
And Piazza continues to do good -- for his church, his family, his friends and for himself.
Piazza laughingly recalled answering a question on an application which asked respondents to list their "Employer."
"God," was Piazza's answer, a philosophy he takes to heart.
"I know that I'm doing what God's calling for me to do."
Yet another miracle.
East Texas News