How Jimmy Jan Is Embracing Life After Paralysis

We'd like to acknowledge that traditional custodians of the land on which this podcast was produced the Galligall people of the Urination. We pay our respects to Elder's past and present.

It's August twenty twenty one and we're at Perishah in Australia's Snowy Mountains. Twenty one year old medical student Jimmy jan moved down here two months ago when COVID lockdowns caused his university classes to move online. He's planning to spend the semester here, splitting his days between the slopes and his studies. One bell ber morning, he decides to squeeze in a few runs before logging online for the afternoon.

He tries, but no movement follows.

Hours later, X rays will show fratured vertebrae.

I'm Att Middleton and this is head Game Today. Jimmy Jan on.

Embracing life after a spinal cord injury. Jimmy Jan listen, thank you ever so much for coming on my podcast Head Game. Talk about mindset cop pulling through and having to deal with the change that you've dealt with. But first and foremost, Jimmy, how are you, buddy, and how's life treating you?

I am very good. Yeah, thanks for having me at honor to be on your podcast. But yeah, I'm doing good. I'm in my fourth year of medicine at the moment, so that keeps him busy for the most part. Yeah, doing good.

Was that something that comes from the family? Is there doctors and nurses in the family? Where does that sort of medical sort of background come from.

Look, I want to say, like it's you know me, who's you know, decided I want to do this and like gone through it. But I guess there is a bit of a health background in my family. My dad's a dentist, and my mum's an occupational therapist. My sister actually she's a doctor as well.

So I'm not.

Really I don't know if I'm following in the footsteps, but yeah, I guess there's health. Health based family. At the start, I don't know. I guess I just kind of thought it would be cool. And as I've studied it and kept going, like, it's just so much more cool to me and so much more exciting.

I just really love learning. Learning's really fun.

And so I don't know, I think medicine is this really awesome career because like there's just so many different directions you can go, and you can never quite know everything, and so you just can learn forever. And then I just think learning forever is a lot fun.

I love that, mate, you know what. I love that you can learn forever because ultimately, that's what life is all about. That's what we're all about, right, We're always learning, we're always growing, We're always trying to become that better version of who we are through wisdom and knowledge. And I suppose with your accident in two thousand and twenty one, the medical field, has it become more fascinating for you?

I think, oh, like absolutely, Like I've had an insight into you know, healthcare that like a bit on the other side, I guess of like the healthcare you know sector, and so I, you know, for my first couple of years of med school before my accident, you know, just learning about all these things and I don't know, then suddenly I'm like, you know, have the perspective of a patient, and I learned a lot, and yeah, I think I definitely look at like I guess my future career as

Yeah, you can almost put yourself in that patient sort of sector as well, so you're almost studying on yourself. Took me through the day in the life of Jimmy jam before before the accident in twenty twenty one.

Yeah, so before my accident, Yeah, yeah, I was living in a van and I was I was living in Newcastle at the time. I just honestly parked at the beach most mornings and go for a surf in the morning and then go to UNI and yeah, I was just kind of trying to have as much fun as

What a place to be able to sort of park your van up, study online and then go and hit the slopes or the mountains whatever you wanted to do. Is that exactly what you've done?

Yeah, exactly, Like I was living the dream. I was having so much fun. Like you know, I would be up on the chair lift and I got my headphones in listening to you know, a lecture and just you know, hitting the slopes.

It was an absolute blast.

So you were literally living the dreamers as a student who says you don't live the dream of the student. So take me back to that day in twenty twenty one. You know, you wake up in your campra Van. Just talk me through that day and how it transpired.

I had a class i think in the afternoon, and so I was like, I'll just go up and do a couple hours on the mountain and yeah, I just wake up, had my oats like I do every day, drove up the mountain, took the chair lift up, and

Jumps on the way down.

Usually there's just like heaps of people of the train park and I don't really like waiting, but you know, it was all empty, so I was like, I just hit some jumps on the way down, and yeah, I hit the first jump and it was fine, and then hit the second jump and I just kind of, yeah, took off wrong, I guess, and wasn't in the right position where I need to be. I wasn't trying to

Wow.

So this is just a normal day for you, right, You've just been as in normal day, You've got that routine going, you parked your van up, You've been hitting the slopes as normal. Had you hit that jump before?

Yeah, I'd been doing the jumps and on like the skis and the snowboard, and this one just went poorly.

You know. Was it one of those where I suppose, you know, you build up the confidence like on anything, you know, motorbikes, squad bikes, ski slopes. You know, were you getting faster and with the jumps getting higher?

Yeah?

No, it was definitely like I've been hitting them quite a lot that week, and so I was getting more and more confident, and so probably like not paying as attention as much as I maybe should have been, and I guess focusing when I got to the top of the jump, I like I knew like it wasn't going to work out.

Like I remember thinking to myself.

Like, oh, crap, this is gonna hurt because probably, like I don't know, maybe like a month earlier, I had kind of jumped poorly on my snowboard and stacked it and that hurt, and so like when I was at the top of the jump, I was like, yeah, crap, this is actually gonna hurt a lot.

And yeah, that's the last thing I remember thinking about.

I guess because you've studied medicine or you you know, you're studying medicine, and you were probably you know, in the thicker things because of the knowledge that you already had in the medical field. Did you know something was up right away or what? Did it take a bit of time for it to for you to really go, oh, something seriously up.

Yeah, I don't think it was like right away. It was when on the snow like I kind of just I don't know, like i'd just woken up. I didn't

I suppose like we had.

Just done our neuro unit the semester before, so this was all in my second year of medicine, So we had just done our neurology unit in the semester before, so you know, I'd kind of learned about spinal cord injuries and so yeah, I saw the X ray and I was like, yeah, this is serious. And so then they flew me to Sydney on a fun little helicopter ride and and I got some fun surgery. Wow.

How you said you say, obviously when you hit the deck you're unconscious. How long were you actually out cold before you you you came.

To It was about three minutes And like the way the terrain park is like situated on Paris. Rat's like right on the front valley, so it's quite near to I guess skip atroll and like it's actually like right under the the ski lift. So there's a lot of people who got a front ray seat of my nice stack, so lots of people saw, so they were quick on it, onto it to come and collect me.

You know, just being unconscious for thirty seconds a minute, but three minutes wow, you know that you know you've you've taken a big, big fall there. And when you come to as well, you say that they're doing you know, are they doing the the up? You know it's not studied medicine, but I've been a team medic and I you know, I know about the awareness and coming in, you know, securing the heads, making sure was all of that taking place, and you know, wiggle the toes and

No, it happened on the on the mountain. I remember them taking my boots off and asking if I could wiggle my toes. Yeah, And I was like, am I not wiggling my toes. I'm pretty sure I'm whiggling my toes, but I wasn't wiggling my toes. It's really weird to like have control, I guess if your whole body in one second, and then like you know, a few minutes later, you wake up and it's like, oh, half half my body, like the control of half my body is just like gone.

It's it's a weird, weird thing.

Was there ever a moment on the slope, you know, why you were being transported from the slope to the hospital. Was there ever a moment that you thought I could be paralyzed.

Yeah.

When they showed me my x rays, I was in the medical center, I think for maybe like an hour, I think before like they flew me away in the helicopter. Vertebra are not supposed to be over on top of your spinal cord, and so when I saw that, Yeah, I knew I was.

Definitely in it for the long run.

I think, like I knew this wasn't just going to be like a you know, six weeks in hospital and you're back out walking like it's whatever was happening was going to be a big change in my life.

Wow, and when when do you get confirmation then of the news that you are paralyzed from from the waist down and that you know you're going to spend the rest of your life, you know, in a wheelchair. Was there any hope of them saying this could be repaired and you might be able to walk one day or was it just a straight hardcore truth of your paralyzed from the waist down.

So like the morning after my surgery, So after I've been flown to Sydney and had surgery, I think I woke up late that night and after my surgery and then yeah, they were like, you've severed a spine accord, so you're not going to be walking.

You know, your your head must have been absolutely everywhere and anywhere. Right, You've just come out of surgery. You know you're probably groggy from from you know, from the process, and just to be given that news. Can you just put me in that setting? Was the family around you when you receive that news. That's big news, mate, that's.

Big, big news.

Yeah, it's definitely big news to get. But now I was all by I'm a little handsome in hospital it because it was during like that, like COVID so my family is, well, my parents they live in Queensland, so they're in a different state. And then yeah, it wasn't allowed any visitors, and I think wait, while I was in ICU, I I was allowed I think a two hour visit a day, and so my sisters came the next day, so like eventually had some family around me.

You come across as super positive, But how what how did you manage that and how did you process that news by yourself? Because I know you had the nurses and the doctors for support, but to receive that by yourself and to have having to process that as well by yourself, I can't even start to imagine that. That's that's talk about psychological resilience. That's something that I'll be fascinating to hear how you dealt with it.

Yeah, I think at the time I.

Was just kind of like, oh, like yeah, I mean, I guess I broke my back paralyzed in the waist down, like there's nothing I can do about it, And so pretty early on I was kind of just like I had accepted that, and like even like on the first day after the after the team had rounded and then I had my breakfast, I remember thinking oh my gosh, like I'm supposed to be in class today, like I have to email the UNI and tell them why I'm

So I don't know. I didn't.

My head was weird, like that's not really something that should be a major priority, I think in the time, but I was like, oh, I need to tell I need to make sure you know the UNI knows that why I'm missing class.

So your first thought process was I'm missing class. I need to inform the I need.

To inform the UNI that I'm not going to be there.

Yeah, the email I received back was like, oh, this is not really a priority. Thinking about medicine, I was like, can I still do medicine? Like really briefly, But one of the teams that rounded on me really early on was like, oh, have you heard about this doctor? You know, a doctor in a wheelchair, And so then I was like, oh, yeah, medicine is still an option for me.

When did you actually start thinking about yourself? When did you actually start thinking why I've got a hell of a lot of work to do here.

Yeah, so I was in ICU for for five days and so after that, like I was allowed I could actually start doing rehab and stuff. And I started UNI back when I got out of ICU. So one day, I guess I took a week off and I guess that was that was a nice distract action, I guess to keep me going in hospital. And then yeah, I started doing a lot of.

Rehab and.

Yeah, it was probably like yeah, a couple of weeks into it, and then I was like, oh, like this is forever. This is how it is now, like, yeah, this is I don't know, this is going to be an adventure and yeah, a lot of work.

And I suppose I have the same mindset as well, you know, any sort of setbacks, not backs, problems, you know, I sort of look at them as challenges. And you just said it there. I don't know if you said it or burpose, but you said, well, I've got this adventure. Now, how did your rehab look?

Was it?

Was it a lot of psychological that acceptance and dealing with it or taught me through your rehab from day dar like after my surgery, I remember like when they first sat me up, my blood pressure just dropped and I kind of like passed out almost And when I woke up from that, I just sme thinking like, oh my gosh, I can't even sit up without passing out, Like this is this is gonna this is gonna be like I don't know a lot. And each day, like

Go to the bathroom. Like it's just weird.

And so I was just kind of determined to just get back every inch of independence I could, and so I just started working like really hard, and I remember like the first time dressing myself, and I was just so exhausted at the end of it, and like picking up each each one of my legs and you know, sliding my legs through. Like I remember like laying back

Yeah, you feel like you've overcome that challenge, and you know, no matter how small or big it is, it's still it's still a victory, right, still ticking the box where you're like, well I've got that, I've achieved that, you know, onto the next.

There was just so many things that I had to like try and get back for myself, to like get back to my independence. And yeah, there was a lot and there's a lot of hard work. But I mean, I know, you got one experience of life, and I want it to be as fun as it can be for me, So I just kept working hard. I guess.

How was the acceptance of you know, you live in the outdoor adventure life, you know, in your camper van, you've got that free spirit mentality and attitude. How does one, you know, accept that and move and process things to progress, to move on.

I think like at the start, I kind of just was like, I don't know, a bit blase about the whole thing. Like I was like, ah, what are you going to do? Like that's life, you know, just keep going. And then like as time went on and I'm like I said, I was like, oh, wow, this is forever. I like kind of was like able to reflect on it more, I guess, and like because I did have I had such an active life and I literally just used to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, like

You know, I used to do like.

A lot of running and a lot of scuba diving and lots of all that stuff like active you know, use your legs, and I can't do.

A lot of that anymore.

But like, I mean, there's there's more than six activities on offer in life, so I just need to, you know, find the new ones to have fun with.

And did that get you down, Jimmy?

There were definitely, like.

A lot of times, especially like while I was still in rehab, these moments where I definitely had like down moments. They didn't like last They're not like these long periods that like kind of take over my mind. I kind of would just you know, have that moment and like,

That you will continue to experience exactly because exactly like you said, there's still so much fun that could be had.

There's still so much you can do, right.

You're absolutely right, Like this world is so exciting, Like there's so much to do, so much to learn, and like, yeah, you only have one experience on this planet and like just got to soak it, soak up as much as you can.

So that's that's what I'm trying to do.

And there's as a word that I'm going to say this word and you'll probably smile upsy, yeahpsy, Yeah, talk to me about oopsy and how that sort of played a role in your life.

Yeah, So, like after I broke my back, I was laying in the medical center and I had the X rays and got my little I think I had a little collar on and I was just laying in there and I don't know. I had my phone and I just took a selfie and on Snapchat, and I wrote the little caption as UPSI because I had had an upsy and I feel like that was the way to I guess sum up the experience I was having. And yeah, I still like, yeah, when I think about that day,

It must be fascinating that you're in the medical field and you know, like you said, you're you're the patient as well. Has your medical studies become even more interesting now due to your accident?

Yeah, No, definitely, Like a lot of like topics have become much more interesting where I'm like trying to like figure out, you know, I guess the path of physiology of like different things, even like you know, spinal cords,

Yeah, and how is that.

Sort of transpired into the psychology side of things you have? You are you taking that on as well or is it just pure medicine And because the psychology side of what you've been through will surely help people and it will help people in the future.

Yeah.

Biggest part from my experience was just I think I'm probably resilient before my accident happened, and I think I mean, if I had to give advice to someone psychology wise, it would be like, start developing your resilience now, Like, don't wait until something bad happens to try and be resilient, because it's, you know, something you need to practice before you're right.

Resilience is isn't about just being strong and bouncing things off, And resilience is actually going through these hardships, going through these situations and coming out the other side or processing whatever's happened to you or the situation in order to make it work for you. Right, That's what resilience is. It's not there being there and that word is used, you know too often. It's not there bouncing stuff off.

Yeah, bouncing back from an injury like this. It's a lot easier I guess, even in Australia compared like if I was in a different country, like the resources I had access to, you know, like it's easy, easy to bounce back when you have universal healthcare and you know your university is supportive of you continuing your studying and so like, Yeah, I think it's definitely important to have the supports around.

Yeah, good support network.

And also you mentioned before about someone there's a doctor in a wheelchair that you mentioned before. Have you reached out to any doctors in wheelchairs and you know, got a bit of inspirational or knowledge from them?

Yeah, No, there's a there's a doctor in the Gold Coast in Australia, doctor Deniesh Palipana. He's an emergency physician and he's really cool. He messaged me on Instagram and got to chatting and yeah, I've met him a few times and actually I did a keynote speech with him on disability and medicine a couple of years ago, and yeah, he's really cool.

I hope to work with them one day.

How does it help you knowing that there's someone like yourself, obviously not as young as you, but someone like yourself in the same situation. Does that give you a little bit of hope, a little bit of inspiration or you just quite you know, listen, this is life.

I'll deal with it.

Yeah.

No, it's definitely helped, like just being like, all right, it's been done, like if someone can do it, like I'm sure I can do it, you know, So like it's good like to have that for myself, but I actually also think it's good probably for the people around me as well, who are like, oh, like oh being a doctor, like in a wheelchair, like any people who might have reservations when they hear that. But I guess when you know you can just kind of point to someone who's already done it, it's.

Just easier to you know, subdue the haters.

Yeah, exactly. And this question, and excuse my ignorance on this question, but bar the operations, is is there any pain that because you've had your your nerves or did you have to deal with a lot of pain or was it just from post operations and just taught me through through that how that works.

Yeah, so post operatively I was I was like I did have a lot of pain, Like I was being treated by the pain team, but one of the doctors actually on my team, like everyone knew I was a medical student, and so they're kind of like speaking to me as I guess more of like a peace Yeah, yeah, exactly.

So there's like a it's like a band around my.

Waist basically where like where the nerves are all just like modeled up. But I'm calling it pain now, but like I usually I'm like very hesitant to even use the word pain when talking about like the sensations, like even the uncomfortable ones. She should call it like you know, discomfort or whatever, just because like I mean, your brain is so powerful and just like even like calling it pain and like he can you know, really amp it up.

Yeah.

Yeah, like so like I get phantom pain, but I call it phantom sensation because it's not it's not painful, like it's sometimes it's like uncomfortable, but like it's not pain per se.

See That's what I'm really interested about, Jimmy. So it's not it's not pain that it's not pain. Is it more of a is it more of a tingling?

Like right now, like I swear I can feel my feet like they're just like buzzy, Like my feet are just constantly just like they just feel warm and like tingling and like buzzing. But like it's not actually my feet, it's just like my brain. I Well, this is me theorizing it's my brain like so used to having access to all this like input from my lower limbs and then it got suddenly cut off and it's like kind of expecting it still still be there. And yeah, I

But do you have you ever had the sensations where you thought, I can feel my legs. I can probably stand up right now.

I think, like.

After spending so much time in hospital, especially like I was in for a long time, I used to like lay in my bed and be like, no, I can definitely feel them, like okay, like let's start whiggling.

These toads like I'm ready. I'm ready, but.

Yeah, no, like I can still stand, Like the muscles still work, I just can't control them. So like the muscles will like spasm, I just can't control them. So if I like pull myself up, my legs will lock out and the muscles will contract for about I don't know, thirty seconds and I can stand and wave at you, but then they'll stop working and I'll fall over.

Is there ever an obsession to fix yourself? And do you think that that could ever ever happen in the future.

I think about it like in two ways. In one way, like if I spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair, I'm content with that, Like my life is incredible. Like if like if this is what it's like for the rest of my life. Like that's cool. I've yeah accepted that. Yeah, But like on the other side of that, like this, like the scientific innovation and like technology these days is insane and medical research like is just flying

And so.

I'm not like like hoping that, you know, one day I'll be able to walk, but like I feel like it's on the cards, and like if it doesn't happen, that's cool, But like I don't know, I don't I don't want to get ahead.

Of my love that I love that there's hope there in your head and you've got you've got your whole life in front of you and it's great that you've accepted you know that you know you've got going to lead a good life in a wheelchair, which you can. There's so much you can do, but there's that there's that hope, or there's that you know, not hopes as much, but there's that It could you know, I could walk a again one day.

Is that something that keeps you going?

Yeah, no, I'd love to walk again. Walking walking was a lot of fun.

I don't want to say like I took it for granted before, but like probably wasn't something that.

I like thought about.

I probably did take it for granted. I guess most people who walk probably do. But yeah, I'd love to just, you know, trot down, trot down the sound again, because getting down to the ocean in a wheelchair is so much more work than just simply walking across the sand. So I wouldn't mind walking across the sand again.

And do you think that there's enough out there.

For people like yourself who in wheelchairs? And you know, because like you said this, there's a lot of there's a lot of barriers in the way, right And I've you know, went onto your social media and I looked at your I looked at your Instagram and I saw straight away you love to pop a wheelie.

I feel like if you could do it whelly all day, you do it.

Yeah, I see, you know, I get that as well.

But I see you know you've done the bungee jump and they were lifting you up the stairs. Do you think there could be can be more done for people like yourself that are living life in wheelchairs?

Yeah?

I think like for me, like in a manual wheelchair, like mine's light and I can kind of get picked up and carried places where it's you know, not super accessible, but I think like it's a lot harder for people who are in like electric wheelchairs, you know, who don't have I guess as much function as me or you know, have these big, heavy mobility devices. So like, yeah, there's in terms of access, like I don't know, there's a lot of curves, there's a lot more stairs than you

I've got another question. It might be the world's dumbest question. Have you got back on the slopes?

I have?

Yeah, wow, yeah, and in what form? And how did that that feel?

So it's it's called sit skiing.

I I knew I wanted to go skiing, like even when I was in hospital, I was like, it'd be so fun to go skiing again. And I kind of decided that was like, oh, it'd be really fun to go skiing, like on my anniversary of my accident. But then I didn't want to learn how to ski on the anniversary accident because I knew i'd probably like I don't know, not enjoy falling over constantly. So I think it was it was probably ten months after my accident I went down to the snow and started learning to

That's great.

Wow, And your social media as well was absolutely blown up, your TikTok, your Instagram. You know, how do you feel about the love that you received from the world, basically because you've got a huge following and you're always putting positive, inspirational stuff out there to help people.

Yeah, it was really strange at the start, like having videos go viral like it it was really weird. I was super bored in rehab and like it wasn't allowed any visitors, so like it was really fun to post videos and then just have like thousands of people commenting nice things using up my ego.

We all eat it every now and then.

But yeah, no, it was really cool.

And yeah, I don't know, just like i've I've got a perspective about life, and I feel like i've you know, had this for a while and I don't know, a lot of people don't seem to be enjoying their life or just like life sucks for them. And if I can kind of, you know, give someone I don't know, maybe push them into you know, viewing their life from a different perspective, I think that's a great use of my social media. And so if that's what's happening for people. I'm stoked with that.

Brilliant, mate, brilliant. Yeah, it is this powerful, you know, social media.

I know there's a lot of good and bad, but the good thing about social media is, you know, people do look at it and they can gain you know, that glimmer of hope, that ounce of inspiration, you know, that that little method of if. If that they can do it, then so can I. You know, so it is powerful for that reason. Are you still studying, Jimmy, And if so, how long have you got left? And you know, when, what's what's next for you? What's what's the next studies for you? Once you're fully fully cold?

Yes, I am still studying. I actually took last year off and so I've got the rest of this year and then next year. Yeah, I'll be a first year doctor. So I have to find a nice hospital to work in, and yeah, I won't be a student anymore.

She'll be exciting.

And is there anything outside of medicine that really really interests you and that you're going to look at developing? You know, sort of once you fully qualify as a doctor.

At the moment, like medicine takes up most of my time. Like so, I feel at the moment maybe it's just medicine, but after that, I am I'd love to do more skiing, Honestly. I I've skied every year since my accident, and I wouldn't mind, you know, doing a bit of competitive skiing down the line.

Oh really nice? Nice?

Do you know what, Jimmy, I almost see you and I'm throwing this out to you. You know, I'd love to see you do something like robotics. I'd love to see you merge your medical field with robotics, because you know you've got time ahead of you. That field as well, is really really developing at a rapid rate of.

Longs like the medical field is.

So maybe I'm just planting the seed there, mate, you can merge the two together. And listen, I'm going to need an XO skeleton. My body's falling apart. I'm going to need an EXO skeleton in a few years. So hopefully I can come knocking at your door.

Okay, when I've finished making myself my new legs, I'll start making yours.

There you go, Jimmy, there you go.

Mate. Absolutely love chatting to you, mate, Thank you ever so much for coming on the podcast, and for those of you that wants some inspiration and want to to gain some resilience, and certainly check out Jimmy jan and his journey. It's fascinating and Jimmy, it's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you. Thank you so much, Thank you very much, Thanks so much for joining me on Headgame.

I'm Aunt Middleton. Catch you again next time