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FLUSHING, Mich. (WNEM) — A Mid-Michigan extreme athlete is on the long road to recovery after a devastating crash nearly killed him.
Parker Norris was seriously injured when he crashed his motorbike during a race in June.
Now, every step he takes during his recovery is a battle both physically and mentally.
“You couldn’t even tell it was him half the time. So many tubes,” said Cherri Norris, Parker’s mom.
Cherri is breathing easy after a scary few months.
“It was hard,” Cherri said.
Parker, a Flushing native, crashed his bike and was then run over by another racer. The crash caused serious injuries to his lungs, chest and ribs.
Parker grew up riding. He went pro at just 16 years old.
He said he knows accidents are a risk when racing, but he never imagined it could be this bad.
He also said he doesn’t remember much from the day it happened.
“I remember driving there that morning, sitting at the stadium waiting to go in, but everything after that, I don’t remember,” he said.
His family witnesses the aftermath of the crash.
They said the doctors told them several times that Parker would not make it, but he kept pushing through, along with help from a surgeon who just wouldn’t give up.
“She said “I’m gonna try something, it’s not guaranteed.’ They highly doubted he would even make the flight to the hospital but that was their only choice. She fought to get him the ECMO machine. Normally they’re not for teens or trauma. We got the last one in Indianapolis in the trauma hospital, so that kept him alive,” Cherri said.
Surgery after surgery, Parker was still not out of the woods.
But his family, and even some of the doctors, started to get the sense that maybe he would be OK after all.
“The surgeon who saved him four times through all this stopped coming in and telling us ‘It’s bad were gonna have to wait and see.’ He would just pat him on the shoulder and was like ‘I’m just walking out because he proves me wrong every time I tell you it’s bad,’” Cherri said.
Parker made it through.
He’s currently undergoing physical therapy several times a week. He said he’s taking his time but knows one day he will get back on a bike.
“I will get back on one, but I’m not too eager for it,” he said.
Parker will soon be switching to a type of physical therapy that is not covered by insurance.
His family is holding a fundraiser on Sept. 22 at Racey’s Harley Davison in Lapeer. They also have a GoFundMe page for donations.
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