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THEVISTA University of Central Oklahoma
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Women’s volleyball heads to Texas for their season opener August 31 • Page 7
THURSDAY • August 30, 2012
UCO student once proclaimed dead walks and dreams again “They just threw me in the ambulance and saw that I was barely alive, and then they started working on me.”
Prophecy Fulfilled The doctors doubted Tracy’s survival and asked his parents to say their goodbyes. “They told me stuff and my mom whispered in my ear that I will walk out of this alive.” At his third hospital a few months after the accident, Tracy was released to see a prophecy fulfilled. “I remember right as we were leaving, that I had to leave in a gurney even if I was walking just fine. But one of the nurses looked around everywhere for one that wasn’t being used but they couldn’t find it. So the nurse walked me out to the elevator and I looked to my mom and smiled and said, “well mom, you said that I’d be walking out of here.” Tracy claims not to have any idea how he remembered that. “I remember I had a dream and my mom had told me that in my dream, and I remember looking at her and saying, ‘I know,’ thinking that it was really weird because I thought I was just fine. I thought she had told me that in real life. I found out way later that the only time she told me was when I was near death and in a coma.”
Living Life After Death Tracy and his mother now volunteer to speak to first-time DUI (driving under influence of alcohol or drugs) offenders who are ordered by the court to attend. “Basically I’m speaking for a bunch of people who killed me. I’m trying to get people to stop doing this and potentially killing someone because I don’t think dying and Boston Tracy loves soccer and wears an official US soccer team jersey at the inter- coming back to life like I did happens very view at NUC, Aug 21, 2012. Tracy survived a nearly fatal collision with a drunk driver often.” Tracy was also recently honored at the in 2011. Photo by Cyn Sheng Ling, The Vista. Redhawks baseball game for perseverance driver drove over a slight hill without her Mervyn Chua and never giving up during his recovery headlights on. Tracy was told that he had process. He received a Redhawks jersey with seen the car a split second before the attack his name printed and asked to run bases in Staff Writer and pushed his two friends out of the way a homerun. Unfortunately, never playing before taking the hit. “I can officially say that I died already and baseball before, Tracy relates this blooper. Tracy laid in a physical coma for three it sucks dude, don’t even try it. I tried it and “I’m used to soccer where I kick the ball weeks and mental coma for about two and it sucked, and I had my feel of it.” and the closest person. And I run wherever a half months. He suffers from memory loss A year and a half has passed since the acI need to, and in baseball, you’ve got to run due to traumatic brain injury. cident, and 21-year-old sophomore Boston “I remember February 15 and two and a the bases and hit home. I was running the Tracy resumes pursuing his degree in autohalf months after the accident. So I have a bases and high-fiving the team and I finished motive design engineering at UCO. two-month gap in my memory. I didn’t even high-fiving the team and I didn’t go to home. It all began at 11 p.m. on Feb. 25, 2011. know that it had happened. I just woke up I got into the final stretch and then was just Tracy and some friends were crossing in the hospital and looked around, asked my walking off and then realized, “oh yeah, I’ve the street in Oklahoma City towards an got to touch home.” mom where we were and what happened.” under-18 club where his friends from high Tracy says that his father gives him a hard The medics pronounced Tracy DOA (dead school were performing. They crossed the time about the mistake, but Tracy, in turn, on arrival) and never worked on him until street halfway to let a car go by. Right as they often reminds his father about the accidental after they brought him to the hospital. started to walk the rest of the way, a drunk
ripping of Tracy’s feeding tube during a bathroom incident. “Because I was in a coma, they didn’t want to see that they had worked on me and had me starve to death and die anyway. So they cut my stomach open and put a tube in and inflated it. Of course I had to have help going to the bathroom. I was wearing my warm-up pants and a pair of my soccer shorts. They had the tube taped to my stomach but the tape had come undone and snagged between my pants and my shorts, and so when dad helped pull my pants down, it ripped the tube out and it was really easy to go to the bathroom then. There wasn’t a lot of blood, surprisingly, just a few drops, but I don’t care. I love giving my dad a hard time about that. It’s so much fun.”
Future Dreams Beside messing with his father, Tracy’s passion also lies in cars and art. Tracy already completed 40 fully designed car bodies. Being still in recovery, Tracy cannot participate in activities, which he explains, “shakes or jiggles my brain around,” like ride roller coasters or play contact sports, like soccer, for five years. However, Tracy is adamant about driving his BMW convertible B-3. “If I couldn’t drive, I’d give the doctor a gun and say, ‘shoot me.’ Technically I’m not supposed to ride or drive convertibles because I’m 6’3” and I’m taller than the car, but I don’t care. I say “’screw it;’ if I’m going to die, it’s my time to go.” He also dreams of visiting Vatican City to see first-hand the art entitled “Hand of God.” “Even if it kills me, I want to go to the Sistine Chapel someday to see that. I’ve always wanted to and I don’t care what it takes, I’m going to do it.”
Leading ‘By Example’ Tracy notices a change in his life since the accident because of his growth in God. “I woke up a lot closer to God and a lot more humble. I went through a lot of humility because at the hospital I had to have help chewing and going to the bathroom. Basically, what you did when you were 2-3 years old, I had to do all over again at the ripe old age of 19.” However, Tracy would not retract his actions even if given a chance because his personal philosophy is to “always do the right thing even when it hurts.” “I like to lead by example, even in doing something that sucks to help other people and hope that they will say, ‘Oh wait, let me come too.’ The reason I put my life on the line for the innocent is because I think everyone should do that. The only people I exclude from that is parents with kids under 18. And I hold myself to that.”
Campus News
Varying faith groups unite to help prevent suicide Mervyn Chua
Staff Writer UCO is partnering with the Edmond First United Methodist Church to provide suicide intervention training for faith leaders on Aug. 30-31. The united Methodist church will host the training from 8:30 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. The attendees will make up 20 participants representing eight different faith traditions, which include Baptist, United Methodist, Baha’i, First Unitarian Church, Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, and the Church of Christ. “We sent out invitations to 70 different places of worship and we took the first 20 that responded,” Ken Elliott, the coordinator of the training, said. The training admission was cut off after 20 participants, because the model used for the program suggests no more than a 10:1 ratio to attain maximum benefit for participants. The model mentioned refers to the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), a researched-based model originally from Canada that has been utilized for over 25 years but adjusted over time to meet the needs accordingly. Elliott is the director of the Violence Pre-
“No matter what your faith is, or even individuals of no faith have a genuine respect and appreciation for faith leaders, Christians and non-Christians alike. It is a common denominator to believing that they are working at a higher level and are on a mission and available to help those in need.” The suicide rate has been escalating and approximately 30,000 Americans kill themselves each year. Research studies in Canada and the United States show one-in-nine individuals has seriously considered suicide. In Dr. Charles Lillard, 33-year UCO campus minister (left), and Ken Elliot, coordinator of the United States, suicide is the third leadthe intervention training (right), pose at the Edmond First United Methodist Church ing cause of death in youth ages 10-24. Here August 29, 2012. Photo by Michael McMillian, The Vista in Oklahoma, suicide is the second leading vention Project and coordinator of Test“We spend a lot of time looking at those, cause of death for youth ages 10-24. ing Services at UCO. He is a Certified K-12 because looking at our own hopes and issues, The program sheet for the training prints School Counselor, Clinically Certified Do- fears and attitudes can either help or get in that anyone can be at risk -- men, women, mestic Violence Counselor, Licensed Marital the way of the person who is contemplating and youth of all ages, of all occupations, all & Family Therapist (LMFT), and LMFT Su- suicide. Even if we mean well, it can get in socioeconomic groups, and all faiths are at pervisor. Elliott will co-lead the training with the way,” Elliott said. risk. Dr. Charles Lillard, a Master of Divinity and The program also promotes networking Elliott also claims that the power is not in Doctor of Ministry degree holder and a re- and provides the ASIST model for the par- Dr. Lillard or himself. cipient of crisis and counseling training in a ticipants to fall back on during their counsel“This training is not about us. It’s about host of programs. ing duties. listening and being approachable and being The program has several components and This training is targeted towards faith lead- available to connect with somebody who covers the aspect of understanding: under- ers, because they are perceived by the general feels like nobody really cares. UCO has also standing the person at risk and their needs public to have the skills and compassion to been very supportive in this. I believe that as well as exploring of the participants’ own help individuals who are “at the end of the will be more programs such as these in the attitudes and understanding about suicide. road.” future.”