Chesterfield Resident's Book Details Comeback from Paralyzing Crash

Chesterfield resident Patrick Rummerfield has a story to tell and he's got a new book out to prove it.

Rummerfield has recently released a memoir—“Green Bananas – The Patrick Rummerfield Story,”—about how he has become a fully functional quadriplegic even though 85 percent of his spinal cord had been severed. 

According to an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Rummerfield got the title from the book after a talk with his adoptive father. When discussing a friend who was dying for a terminal disease, Rummerfield's father advised his son to not buy any green bananas. 

When Rummerfield was involved in with a crash that changed his life, he father told him he didn't have much time left to live. Rummerfield joked, “Don’t buy any green bananas.”

Rummerfield was injured in a car crash in September 1974 when he was 21. He was passenger in a speeding car that crashed and Rummerfield couldn't move his head or body. 

He was quadriplegic, however, he didn't let that hold him back. According to the Post-Dispatch Rummerfield walked in November 1977. He then was able to us his hands and arms under his own power—becoming the first quadriplegic to get as far as he did. 

"I made a promise to God that if he gives me a second chance to walk and use my hands, I'd help others less fortunate than myself" Rummerfield said on his website.

His story tells of the power of will and Never Giving Up or Giving In. 

Rummerfield  went on to get degrees in engineering, electronics and physical therapy from the University of California system. After that, he took up sports. 

He swam, walked, ran and started biking In 1992, he competed in an Ironman triathlon. 

He also married and has two daughters.

His book, available for sale on his website, tells his story of never giving up. He experienced the fear that he would never move any part of his body again, but turned the fear into a challenge.