'He Used to Be in a Coma, I Used to Be a Fat Guy.'
It started with a deal.
“He used to be in a coma, I used to be a fat guy,” Rick Delashmit wrote on a photo he posted to Imgur of him and his son this week. “If he’s standing, I’m running.” That photo has since earned more than 2.5 million views.
My son is recovering from a brain injury. We have a deal now…if he's standing, I'm running. He's up to 90 minutes and I'm down 70 lbs.
The Delashmit family was in a car accident in 2008, leaving everyone virtually unharmed, except for the oldest son Reece. The then 4-year-old was airlifted from the scene, fell into a coma and spent almost four months in the intensive care unit.
Reece, now 12, has made great strides since the accident. Although he’s still unable to speak, he’s now able to eat and drink normally. Reece uses a wheelchair, but he can walk a few dozen yards with the help of a gait trainer.
“He’s come so far from being tube-fed, bed-ridden, unresponsive to stimulus when he came home from the hospital after our accident back in ’08,” Delashmit told The Mighty in an email. “He’s in school, he’s learning, he’s communicating, he’s a chick magnet, he’s smiling and laughing all the time.”
Last year, Delashmit realized that his weight was tipping the scales at 215 pounds, heavy for his 5-foot-2 stature. He decided to make a deal with Reece that’s resulted in great progress for both of them. When Reece practices standing up, Delashmit runs on the treadmill.
To date, Delashmit has lost 70 pounds, and his son can now stand for 90 minutes. Before the pact, Reece couldn’t stand for more than a half hour, and Delashmit couldn’t run 1.5 miles without stopping. Now, Delashmit can run 6 miles in about 50 minutes.
The Delashmit home has been completely accessible since early 2014, and their home gym/therapy room has enough space for all of Reece’s equipment, as well as a treadmill and weight machine.
“It just occurred to me that I’ve got the most amazing motivation for hard work and perseverance right in front of me,” Delashmit told The Mighty. “Once we could be in the same room working at the same time, there really was no excuse any more not to keep up with his pace.”
The pact has brought the Delashmit family even closer, and Delashmit often captures Reece’s determination, as well as his other family moments, and posts photos and videos to Imgur, Reddit, YouTube and Facebook.
My oldest hasn't been able to speak since suffering a brain injury in 2008, but that doesn't stop him from comforting his little brother when he's not feeling well.
h/t Runner’s World
Margaret is excited to join The Mighty team for the summer as an editorial intern. She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. A California native, Margaret loves going to the beach. She studied abroad in London for the spring semester and has caught the travel bug. In her free time, Margaret enjoys working out, baking and spending time with her family.
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