Page 26 - Delta Living Magazine_october2012

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“When life hands you changes, you get your
Bionic
on!”
Bionic Man: Jason
ver have one of those pivotal days when your entire life
changes dramatically. Jason Geiser of Discovery Bay had one
– and says it’s a day he can’t remember and a day he’ll never
forget.
Enjoying his day off as an officer of the Antioch Police
Department, Jason rounded the Oakland hills on Grizzly Peak
with his motorcycle on Oct. 14, 2008 at 11:30 a.m. when he and
a car collided head on. That’s all he remembers of that day. He
was told from family and doctors that he was taken to Alameda
County Hospital by ambulance, and that his injuries were severe.
“I was told my spinal cord snapped completely in half, I had
a fractured neck, collapsed right lung, fluid in both lungs and
swelling of the brain,” said Jason, 32, who served as First Class
Petty Officer for the Navy as an electrician and survival instructor
for nearly nine years. “In ICU, I was in a medically-induced coma
for two weeks, and in holding for a week at Oakland Kaiser before
going to Kaiser in Vallejo for a month of rehabilitation.”
From that day forward, Jason was paralyzed from the chest
down.
What he does remember was a dream he had while in his
sedated state. “I remember my girlfriend Karen, now wife, told
me almost verbatim, ‘Hey Baby, it’s me. You were in a bad
motorcycle accident. You were paralyzed and the doctors say
you’ll never walk again. If this isn’t the life you want to live, then
we understand, but if you want to stay and fight, I’ll be here with
you,’” recalls Jason.
The dream was not a dream after all. Karen did say those words
to him at his bedside before his surgery. Today she sits next to
her husband at the dining room table, she’s in a chair while he’s
in a wheelchair – and listens as he recounts his experience of
four years ago. Their daughter Natalie, age 10, gets home from
school and eagerly listens to her dad’s retelling – she was seven
at the time.
“It was as if He (God) gave me instant hope. During the first
week in the hospital, I had some form of acceptance, but I knew
this wasn’t it; the not-walking anymore,” says Jason. “The docs
told my mom they weren’t sure if I was gonna live or die the first
week. I had a feeling God had something big for me, that the
walking seemed not as important at the time. I still have that hope
that I’ll walk again someday.”
He explains how before the accident, he was not a regular
church-goer, and always felt as if being a good person was
good enough. He says when he needed God, he’d pray – but for
everything else, he’d rely on himself. All that changed.
“Now I call on Him for everything!” says Jason, who attends
Cornerstone Christian Center in Antioch off East 18
th
Street with
his family. “After the accident, we decided to find a church home
and make it a God-centered household.”
p a r a l y z e d b u t n o t i m m o b i l i z e d
e
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Daughter Natalie
joins her mom and
dad, Karen and
Jason as they tie the
knot and walk down
the aisle with the help
of Esko Bionics.