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The Power of Determination |
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By Burt Dubin |
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Contributed by |
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Dr. Ramesh Ardhanari,
Consultant Laparoscopic Surgeon,
Meenakshi Mission Hospital, Madurai
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The little country schoolhouse was heated by an old-fashioned, pot-bellied coal stove. A little boy and his elder brother had the job of coming to school early each day to start the fire and warm the room before their teacher and classmates arrived.
One morning, the teachers arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in flames. They dragged the unconscious little boy out of the flaming building more dead than alive. He had major burns over the lower half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital and his brother had died on the spot.
From his bed the dreadfully burnt, semi-conscious little boy faintly heard the doctor talking to his mother. The doctor told his mother that her son would surely die—which was for the best, really—for the terrible fire had devastated the lower half of his body.
But the brave boy didn’t want to die. He made up his mind that he would survive. Somehow, to the amazement of the physician, he did survive.
When the mortal danger was past, he again heard the doctor and his mother speaking quietly. The mother was told that since the fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body, it would almost be better if he had died, since he was doomed to be a lifetime cripple with no use at all of his lower limbs. |
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Ultimately he was discharged from the hospital. Every day, his mother would massage his little legs, but there was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination that he would walk was as strong as ever. But he endured the incredible pain and horrible scars and month after month exercised until he could stand on his own.
When he wasn’t in bed, he was confined to a wheelchair. One sunny day, his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some fresh air. This day, instead of sitting there, he threw himself from the chair. He pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him.
He worked his way to the white picket fence bordering their lot. With great effort, he raised himself up on the fence. Then, stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence, resolved that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a smooth path all around the yard beside the fence. There was nothing he wanted more than to develop life in those legs. Ultimately through his daily massages, his iron persistence and his resolute determination, he did develop the ability to stand up, then to walk haltingly, then to walk by himself—and then—to run. “It hurt like thunder to walk, but it didn’t hurt at all when I ran. So for five or six years, about all I did was run.” |
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| He began to walk to school, then to run to school, to run for the sheer joy of running. Later in college, he made the track team. He went on to become one of the greatest track stars of all time. He received the coveted Sullivan Award in 1933 as the country’s top amateur athlete, finished fourth in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics at 1,500 meters and won the silver medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. “The Kansas Flyer” set world records in the mile run (4:06.8) in 1934 and 800 meters (1:49.7) in 1936. In 1938, when Dr. Glenn Cunningham ran his fastest mile in 4:04.4, he owned 12 of the 31 fastest mile times on record. In 1978, Cunningham was named the outstanding track performer in the 100-year history of Madison Square Garden. He was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, 1979. After spending two years in the Navy, Cunningham and his wife opened the Glenn Cunningham Youth Ranch in Kansas, where they helped to raise about 10,000 underprivileged children. A lay preacher, Cunningham periodically went on lecture tours to raise money for the ranch. |
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