WRESTLING WITH ADVERSITY: "When they pulled Kelly from the water, his eyes were open, but he was not breathing and he had no pulse," Tammy Ward (left) said of her husband, Kelly (right), following a body surfing accident that left him temporarily paralyzed. "Quite frankly, by this time last week, I had exited the planet earth," Kelly Ward said on Saturday, July 26, a full week after the incident. "I'm just glad to be back here on planet earth."
SIGH OF RELIEF: Alex Ward (left) and his mother, Tammy, were still in their Ocean City condominium when Ben (right) was on the beach, where he witnessed the near drowning of his father, Kelly. Ben's call to 911 contributed to his dad's being alive today.
by Lem Satterfield
E-mail: lsatterfield@digitalsports.com
(See video interviews below)
As a former high school and NCAA champion wrestler, Kelly Ward rarely was found on his back. And as a veteran of the secret service, Ward's training included extensive experience in water rescue.
But on Saturday, July 19, while body surfing in Ocean city, Ward nearly lost his life to mother nature -- specifically, a massive wave that capsized him.
Ward, 51, had been vacationing with his wife, Tammy, and his two sons, Alex, a Mount St. Joseph graduate and now a sophomore wrestler at the University of Nebraska, and Ben, a rising junior at South River High, when he "caught a wave that took him about six feet up in the air and dropped him on his head," said Tammy Ward.
"Kelly said he wanted to stand up, but he realized that he was paralyzed," Tammy said of Kelly Ward, who not only lost conciousness, but had stopped breathing and had no pulse.
"I was dead," Ward told DigitalSports this past Saturday, July 26, as he lay in a bed with Tammy at his side at Kernan Hospital in Catonsville.
Ward spent four days in Maryland Shock Trauma, where a two and a half hour surgery relieved pressure on his spinal cord and fused bones to stabilize his neck.
"Quite frankly, by this time last week, I had exited the planet earth," Ward said. "I'm just glad to be back here on planet earth."
On Monday, Ward, whose family lives in Anne Arundel County, was upbeat to the point that he joked about the irony of his circumstances.
"I'm a former secret service agent with extensive water rescue training, and I nearly drowned," said Ward, an agent with the Federal Reserve Board who, as a 24-year member of the secret service, once served as a body guard for vice president Dick Cheney.
"Some of the things I'm having to do, the things I'm having to relearn, it's almost like being a baby," said Ward, an assistant wrestling coach at South River. "But in my mind, I'm way ahead of the game."
On Sunday, Ward walked on his own for the first time -- "perhaps about a hundred yards" with Ben and Alex on either side of him, he said. And on Monday, Ward played wheelchair basketball.
A former high school and collegiate All-American as well as a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, Ward never lost to a high school opponent over the course of 90 bouts.
That run comprises two Maryland state championships as a wrestler at Kennedy High in Montgomery County, and one each in New Jersey and National Preps crowns as a wrestler at Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J.
At Iowa State University, Ward reached the NCAA finals three times, winning a national title as a senior to complete his remarkable collegiate career with a record of 126-10-2.
But where Ward's poise on the mat couldn't help him in Ocean City, that of others did -- in the forms of surf rescue technicians, Jonathan Clouser, Rick Cawthern and Dan Pogonowski, as well as another man, Dr. Kevin Hackett of Hagerstown.
"When they pulled Kelly from the water, his eyes were open, but he was not breathing and he had no pulse. That was where we're so grateful to the [emergency medical technicians,] the lifeguards. They knew exactly what to do," Tammy Ward said. "They started CPR and mouth-to-mouth, and they did it without causing more injury, so we're eternally grateful to them."
Tammy Ward said that Al Freeman, a former NCAA runner-up whom Ward coached at Nebraska, had been near Ward in the water and "was there on the beach with his family along with our son, Ben." Ben called 911, Tammy said, "and Al Freeman's wife, Nancy Freeman, spoke to them."
"When I arrived, Kelly was breathing and he had a pulse," said Tammy Ward. "I understand, from Al Freeman, that when he was revived, a cheer went up from all of the people around."
But by the time he was ready to be transported to Maryland Shock Trauma, Kelly Ward still had not moved any of his body parts and "still was paralyzed," said Tammy Ward. "The boys and I gathered our things and we drove to Maryland Shock Trauma. It was kind of a long ride, knowing that he still was paralyzed."
Unknown to Tammy Ward, her husband began to regain feeling in his lower extremities during the helicopter ride to Maryland Shock Trauma.
"I understand that from the time that they pulled me out of the water, to the time they got me to Shock Trauma, it took only about 43 minutes, which is unbelievable," said Kelly Ward, a former assistant wrestling coach at Mount St. Joseph. "When I think about the fact that I almost died, it's incredible. Somebody was on their 'A' game."
When the Ward family had arrived in the emergency room, "Kelly already was moving his feet and legs," said Tammy Ward.
"Our dear friend, Lou Ruland, was there and provided great strength and support to us," said Tammy Ward, referring to an Anne Arundel County-based orthopedic surgeon whose son, by the same name, wrestled for St. Mary's and was coached by Ward in junior leagues.
That Sunday, July 20, Ward endured a surgery which removed the disc between his vertebrae -- which had been pressuring his spinal cord -- and also fused bone to stabilize his neck.
Kelly Ward was transported from Shock Trauma to Kernan on Wednesday night, a ride during which Ward said that his spirits were lifted by a conversation with the ambulance driver, Josh Pearson.
"That was kind of interesting when he came to transport me. The kid walks in and I said to myself, 'Oh my God, look at this guy. Man, this kid is jacked!'" Ward said of the muscular Pearson, whom he later discovered to be a former Catonsville High wrestler and current mixed martial artitst.
"When he came back in and moved me, he mentioned my name and seemed to recognize me," Ward said. "We discussed half-nelsons for about 45 minutes, and it felt like a two-minute ride. Bottom line, that felt like it was the shortest trip of my whole journey -- including from the ocean to Shock Trauma."
This past Saturday, Ward received a visit from Sherwood wrestling coach, Scott Beattie and former University of Maryland wrestler Kevin Colabucci, an ACC champion.
Tammy Ward was both surprised and delighted when she arrived on Saturday to see Beattie and Colabucci assisting Ward on the Kernan Hospital grounds during what had been his longest walk to that point.
Ward said he is thankful to longtime friend, Duke Beattie, Montgomery County's coordinator of public school athletics, "for showing up at Shock Trauma."
Ward also was grateful to Wayne Hicks, who, with Tammy, their sons, and others, helped to complete last week's four-day Kelly Ward Wrestling Camp at The McLean School in Potomac of Montgomery County.
"It's like I'm in the early rounds of a tournaament. I still have a long way to go, but I'm blessed," said Kelly Ward. "I'm very much in appreciatation of the [well-wishing] calls, cards and e-mails from everybody. God bless everybody. And thank you."