Paraplegia has not kept 20-year-old Jeff Snell from being an intramural basketball player, a mini-marathon winner and an award-winning bodybuilder. A car accident two years ago left Snell's legs paralyzed, but he is as physically and mentally strong as ever. A Ball State University sophomore exercise science and chemistry major, Snell plans to attend medical school and become a radiologist.
The accident
"I really don't want to die like this." - Jeff Snell
On May 21, 2005, Snell left his friend's house in order to meet his midnight curfew. His friend lived near the Northwest YMCA in Muncie, and he had 10 minutes to get back to his parents' Selma home. As he did on most nights, he drove in the middle of the narrow back roads. As Snell reached the peak of a hill, he saw another car coming from the opposite direction.
"I swerved off the road to the right and then tried to correct to get back on the road, but I over-corrected and it sent my car over off to the other side into some trees," he said.
After his car came to a stop, Snell reached for his cell phone, which had fallen to the passenger-side floor, but realized he couldn't move his legs. He then used his arms to crawl to the passenger seat and called his parents.
"I thought Jeff was just calling to say he would be a couple minutes late," Snell's mother, Mary Snell, said.
Snell's father, Steve Snell, told him to call 911, but Snell said he didn't have the strength to dial another phone number.
Snell waited in the car for his parents, who called 911 shortly after they arrived at the accident.
"I just kept praying, 'Let him live,' so I knew he wouldn't die," his mother said. "I just knew God wasn't going to take him that night."
It took paramedics 45 minutes to extract Snell from the vehicle. Once removed, he was taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, where doctors operated on his broken vertabrae.
Mary Snell said she knew her son was paralyzed when he told her he couldn't move his legs, and her suspicions were confirmed by the MRIs taken at the hospital.
"I kept thinking, 'My son won't be walking again,'" she said.
Recovery
"What am I going to do for the rest of my life?" - Jeff Snell
After spending five weeks at Methodist Hospital, Snell returned home in a state of despair, knowing that his plans to attend the Air Force Academy were ruined. But with the encouragement of his friends, he resolved to not let his automobile accident leave him bedridden.
Cameron Youngblood, hiss former workout partner, said he tried to remain positive even when he reached an emotional low.
"We tried to help him out and push him to not let it get to him," Youngblood said.
Snell's positive attitude was an inspiration to the Selma community, Youngblood said.
"I [didn't] want to be one of those sickly looking pale people," Snell said.
Snell began a physical therapy program in order to become a functional paraplegic while his father did Internet research on other medical options for him.
Steve Snell received an e-mail from a professor at Northwestern University who had found a clinic in Russia that conducted research on stem cell therapy. The clinic was looking for human subjects, and although Snell's parents were worried about potential risks of the therapy, they decided to go ahead with the treatment.
"I was all for it," Snell said. "I didn't expect it to be perfect or be [the] cure."
In February 2006, Snell and his family flew to Russia for a three-week visit. Snell underwent treatment in which Neupogen, an amino acid that stimulates red blood cell growth, was injected into his blood stream. After five days, the blood was harvested and put into a machine that separates stem cells from the blood. The stem cells were then injected into his spinal cord.
"It's just so unfortunate in the United States there is such ... negativity towards stem cells," Steve Snell said.
After the stem cell injections, Snell began to regain feeling in his lower abs and his hips. He also noticed perspiration on his legs, whereas immediately after the accident, he only sweated from his upper body.
In the past year, Snell and his mother have made four trips to Moscow. The combined cost of the treatment, medicine and therapy is about $70,000 per year, Mary Snell said. Some of the costs are covered by Snell's parents' health insurance, but the family has taken out loans to cover the rest of the costs.
Though the effects of stem cell therapy are still undetermined, the Snell family and the doctors conducting the stem cell therapy believe the stem cell injections helped Jeff Snell's brain reestablish connection to his lower body.
Mr. USA
"I'm as lucky as anyone in a wheelchair can be." - Jeff Snell
Despite being wheelchair bound, Jeff Snell is as independent as ever. He has also remained physically active by lifting weights at Studio 22 Private Fitness in Muncie and working out on a specialized cardiovascular exercise machine at home. After receiving stem cell injections, he regained some mobility in his lower abs, making it easier for him to exercise.
Because he was picked on for being thin in middle school, Snell asked his parents for a weightlifting bench for Christmas when he was in seventh grade, he said. Even after the accident, he maintained a consistent workout schedule.
"He likes to be able to [function] on his own, and when he can't, it bothers him," Zach Goldenberg, an assistant personal trainer at Studio 22, said.
Studio 22 owner Brad Warner noticed Snell's muscular build and strong work ethic and encouraged him to enter in an October 2006 bodybuilding competition, where he won the overall title of Mr. USA Wheelchair Division Champion.
On March 10, he won second place at the Wheelchair Nationals in the heavyweight wheelchair division. Had he won first place, he would have been able to compete professionally.
Snell's commitment to bodybuilding has not kept him from achieving success in academics as well. He earned a Presidential scholarship based on his academic performance at Wapahani High School in Selma, where he earned a 3.95 grade point average.
Through it all, Jeff Snell tries to live life as normally as possible. When he is at home or with his friends he enjoys riding four wheelers, watching the Discovery Channel show "Mythbusters" and reading articles on off-road vehicles. He used to recall the night of the accident and replay the events, trying to determine if he could have prevented the accident, but now he wouldn't change a thing, he said. Since the accident, he has made new friends, worked to make buildings on the Ball State campus more handicap accessible and met his girlfriend, Kristina Kennedy. He will also be a guest poser at the Mr. and Ms. Ball State Bodybuilding Competition on April 19.
Snell said he wants people to treat him as they would a person with full physical capabilities and doesn't mind when his friends jokingly antagonize him for moving slowly.
"I do think I am going to walk again," Snell said. 'I don't know if it's going to be a year from now or ten years from now, but I will walk again."
Louis Jones contributed to this report.
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