This Father Reversed His Son’s Paralysis with Scuba Therapy
Now he is helping other people with disabilities to regain motor skills.
Scuba Diving is one of the most popular types of recreational diving. Carrying their own air supply gives people the freedom to explore the stunning beauty of sea life without being tethered to airlines.
So, when David Lawrence Sr. – an avid scuba diver – needed an alternative form of therapy for his son when a disaster struck, he used his scuba knowledge to help him. He made the impossible possible.
When Lawrence’s son David Jr. was just 11 years old, he had to undergo brain surgery to remove a life-threatening growth according to The Good News Network. After the surgery, doctors told the family that the pre-teen that he’d never walk again.
Lawrence cheered on David as he underwent months of intense rehabilitation, all the while looking for alternative therapies his son could try. That’s when he found Hyperbaric Oxygen treatment, which entails exposing the body to 100 percent oxygen at pressures well over normal amounts; a lot like scuba diving.
Lawrence told the Good New Network that began taking David to their local pool for an underwater workout that he created specifically for his son. While the exercises were challenging and painful for his son, he gently nudged him to keep working and pushing forward. And it worked.
The workouts helped to rewire David's nervous system and bring sensation back to his paralyzed body. That's because in an anti-gravity water environment, the restrictions of land-based rehab don't apply.
Now, 10 years later, David is walking, running, and working as a scuba instructor for The Scuba Gym in Clermont, Florida, the family-run rehabilitation business that they opened to help others with similar conditions. David is also in the process of earning his PhD.
The Lawrence’s miraculous story even inspired one woman to bring Scuba Therapy to Australia. Lyndi Leggett, told Good News Network that she was especially drawn to how powerful the concept was and how it managed to help people completely change their lives for the better.
Besides helping people reduce muscle spasms, improve muscle tone, stand up, walk with a cane, and even walk on their own, The Scuba Gym in Australia has given people with disabilities the chance to get jobs and live completely independently, none of which was possible before the treatment.
Scuba Gym challenges the idea that those in severe pain or living with paralysis will never again be able to take part in sports or stick to an exercise regime. All it takes is the will to show up and work hard, and with the help of these qualified and supportive instructors, those recovering from all sorts of physical ailments or disabilities can accomplish amazing things.
Even though the devastating diagnosis this could have spelt tragedy for David and his family, his father saw a chance to explore various to give his son a new beginning and now they have a mission to help others in need
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