Powell's Asher to share inspiring recovery from 2019 accident

Five years ago, Ethan Asher was a senior at Powell High School who got into a car accident on his way to school. As a result he sustained countless injuries, the most devastating being a severed spine and a severe brain injury; his doctors gave him a slim chance of survival, and an even slimmer chance of returning to himself if he were to live.

Something Asher's doctors never could have predicted is that five years later he would be on a stage telling the story of his recovery.

Now an ambassador for Gottsche Rehab and Therapy, Asher is set to be the guest speaker at the second annual Boots and Bling fundraiser event on Saturday, Sept. 7 at the Fair Building in Thermopolis. The event is held by Gottsche and proceeds will go toward the care of those recovering from traumatic injuries, and facilitating the equipment that helps them recover.

THE ACCIDENT

On Aug. 27, 2019, Asher was headed to Powell High School during the first week of his senior school year. An accomplished student athlete slated to be the school's starting varsity quarterback, he was by all accounts an average teenager with a bright future. One thing about the average teenager, though; they like to think that they are invincible.

Living several miles outside of Powell, Asher grew to be impatient with the long drive and he often drove faster than he should have to get there. He said, "I lived out of town, and I got in a bad habit of speeding, to the point that I was doing it all the time. I think speed definitely had a factor in the whole thing. I was going 90 mph."

While travelling at a dangerous speed and not wearing a seatbelt, Asher drove off the highway, overcorrected in his attempt to right the vehicle, and then it rolled three whole times before coming to rest upright in a field. He was ejected in the incident, found in critical condition a distance away from the vehicle when paramedics arrived.

Asher's firsthand account of the accident and what follows ends there; he said, "We don't totally know the details, because I don't remember my accident at all." He entered a coma that many expected him not to wake up from.

The aftermath

"I was in pretty rough shape. I was life flighted from Powell to Billings, Montana. The injuries I sustained, I had lots of broken bones and other things, but the big injuries were my heart, my spinal cord and my brain injury," recalls Asher.

The first emergency surgery that he underwent in Billings was repair two tears in his heart's aorta, which went successfully. At this time they also surgically placed plugs in his head that would allow excess fluid to drain from his cranial cavity, which was swelling dangerously.

The next priority was to attempt to repair Asher's spine; initial scans following the accident showed that it had been completely severed, with spinal fluid draining from both sides. People around Asher knew that this surgery was a serious hurdle, and its outcome was likely to shape the rest of his life.

He said, "The town of Powell had a prayer vigil for me the night before the surgery where the doctor would go in to tie off the spinal cord, and I went into surgery and the doctor saw that my spinal cord was whole."

Unbelievably, Asher's spine had begun to heal itself just days after being severed in two. "There were still dislocated bones, and my spinal cord was pinched, but it was whole," he said.

Now out of the woods regarding his heart and spine injuries, the last major hurdle for Asher was his brain injury that still rendered him in a coma. He recalls what he was told about its severity, saying, "They rate brain injuries on a scale from one to four, with four being an injury that you can't come back from. Mine was rated at three plus."

THE COMEBACK

Despite this grim prognosis, one month after his accident Asher woke up; an incredible milestone in his journey, but still only the beginning. Now, Asher had to navigate life as a paraplegic - at first only with a limited-functioning right arm - with a bad case of amnesia, due to the severity of the head injury and how hard his brain was working to repair itself.

He said, "I honestly can't remember a lot from that time. Even when I came home from the hospital and went back to school. With a lot of the things I was doing then, I think I did a lot of pretending."

In the early stages of his recovery, Asher had to completely retrain his motor functions and get accustomed to his new life. "It was like every day I woke up was a new challenge, it felt like a bad dream. It was like that for a while until I was able to make sense of my situation," he said.

Pretending or not, he was able to return from the hospital and graduate with his class in 2020. "The whole town of Powell and the school did an awesome job of helping me out my whole senior year," said Asher.

He spent just over a year with his brain in this state; it would be his love of football that provided the focal point for his memory to return to him. He recalls, "The first memory after the accident that I have in my head - that when I tell the story I see it through my own eyes - was October of 2020, during the last game when I was assistant coaching with the Powell High School football team. I think helping out with football helped open up a lot of the memories from before, and it played a big part in regaining that ability."

NOT HIS FIRST MIRACLE

Asher has a unique source of motivation to continue on in his recovery; he believes that there's something bigger in his plans that he still needs to be around for, and this accident is just more evidence to him.

"As a family, we kind of always knew something big was going to happen in my life. When I was born I had cancer, and when doctors got me into surgery to remove the tumor, it was gone," he said.

Having lived through a miracle at the beginning of his life, as Christians Asher and his family had the understanding that God had a plan for him. After the second miracle of his spine repairing itself and his incredible journey to recovery, it's going to be hard to convince him otherwise. He said, "Remembering that miracle helped keep me motivated, knowing that God had a plan for my life. This was the next step in his plan, and I had to keep chugging along."

LIFE TODAY

Since the early days of his recovery, Asher has taken some time off from school to stay in Powell and focus on his physical rehabilitation. His mental faculties have mostly returned to him, and he anticipates that his memory will continue to improve with time, but to regain his mobility and independence he has been working hard.

He said, "My family has done a really good job of helping me along the way, but helping me in a way that I'm not becoming dependent on them. In the start that's kind of how it had to be, but they've done a good job of allowing me to gain independence. Lately I've been scheduling all my own therapies."

Three years ago he started regularly working with Gottsche, with the goal of rehabilitating not only his arm and torso muscles, but his legs too. He has made considerable improvement on his first two goals, and can get around proficiently with a manual wheelchair today. His wheels are fitted with power assist motors, and he says, "When that's on it's almost as if someone is pushing me; it makes it a little easier on my shoulders so I have something left to get myself up out of the chair when I'm done."

That's how Asher gets around the Northwest College Campus, having started college last month. He said, "I'm excited for it, but there's a lot of unknowns. I'm still not sure exactly how much help I will need. The counselors at the school have told me that I have access to all of the accommodations that the college offers. So I'm still figuring out how much of that I need and what I'm comfortable with doing on my own."

He's taking a small course load of psychology and biology for this semester, saying, "Currently I'm non-degree seeking. I'm really just testing it out to see if my brain is ready for school, trying to gauge my ability to receive and retain new information."

On the physical therapy side, nowadays Asher works toward the amazing goal of walking again by focusing on leg movements and core strength. "Shoot for the stars, right," he said.

He continued, "I've been working out with a guy in town named Tyler England; he comes to my therapy and asks what muscles I should be strengthening, then I'll work out with him once or twice a week usually." He does lots of pool exercises, where he's begun to find that he has a small amount of control of his legs.

GOTTSCHE

Not every milestone feels like a breakthrough to Asher, but his new family at Gottsche continues to celebrate his recovery and keep him striving toward his goals. "They help to keep me motivated and encouraged with every small improvement I have. Sometimes my therapists will be more excited than I am about my progress, and it rubs off on me. If they're that jacked up about it then I figure I should be too ... Now that I've gone to Gottsche for a while now, I feel like I've gained another family to depend on," he said.

Asher continued, "For me they work like they're God's hands and feet, helping me to take His plans into action. They help me reach my goals, and then to set new goals, always making sure I'm headed in the right direction."

Asked of the importance of the fundraiser he will speak at on Sept. 7, he said, "I can't really imagine there being a time when Gottsche Therapy wasn't an option, because in the area we are in this is one of the only options to do what I do at therapy. This fundraiser is important to keeping the doors open and keeping that equipment available to me."

FUNDRAISER

Doors for Boots and Bling will open at 5:15 p.m. at the Fair Building in Thermopolis at 627 Springview Street. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. There will be games, raffles, live music, and the highlight of the night will be a speech given by Asher.

This event marks the first time Asher will be speaking so publicly about his journey. He said, "It's just like with school - I'm excited for the unknown; I'm not really sure what to expect, or what God expects from me, but I think this is the next step in his plans for me. I'm just going to tell my story and see how it goes."