Imagine yourself at age twenty-one in the peak of physical shape. Since your high school football career, you have spent countless hours in the gym and the relentless pursuit of a healthy diet and fitness lifestyle. Your strength now puts you in an elite class of athlete. At 5’11 and 240 pounds of solid muscle, you are bench pressing over 400 pounds and squatting over 600 pounds.
Such was the condition of Eric Hess as a young man. At this elite level, the human body is sculpted to nearly superhero dimensions. Thighs that measure thirty inches. Biceps that exceed 20 inches. Years of sculpting create an individual with enormous strength and power.
And finally, with the years of strength training behind you, you are now ready to enter your first competition. But, with only a few days before your first, formal competition, adversity stuck.
In fact, you could say it ran right over Eric.
Danger on the Job Site
Most bodybuilders can’t rely on their sport alone to make a living. Eric was no different. He had joined a construction company that at this particular time was installing a new septic line in Bainbridge, Pennsylvania.
Eric loved his job. He was outdoors. It was good physical work and he had the satisfaction of watching his contributions create critical infrastructure for the community.
These jobs entail moving thousands of yards of dirt to make way for the large concrete pipes that installed below the roads. Things are moving quickly on these jobs. Large trenches are begin dug, dump trucks are circling to pick up the waste and remove it. More trucks are returning after installing to back fill the holes. It’s a delicate “dance” of massive earth-moving equipment coming in and out, filling and emptying. Seemingly in an endless fashion.
The equipment is massive. The dump trucks are the true workhorses in the team weigh nearly 60,000 pounds fully loaded. Most require a step stool to board and stand 10 – 11 feet high. The tires alone are almost four feet high and 20 inches wide.
They are a powerful machine that has been designed to tame the land.
A Critical Oversight and a Life Changed
It was on March 15, 1994, that a busy Eric bent down in front of the stopped dump truck that was being loaded to clear some debris. The truck suddenly shifted into gear and lurched forward. Eric was struck by the massive tire and it began to pull his body under…much like a conveyor belt that couldn’t be stopped. Eric spun around and was now facing up, he could see the large tire crawling up his legs and onto his pelvis.
“I really thought I was going to die” Eric recalls. Everything was happening in slow motion. It only took 3-5 seconds but by that time the truck tire had reached my midsection. My lungs were beginning to compress. There was absolutely nothing I could do.”
The job site was now animated. Workers were yelling and screaming for the driver to stop. With his limited visibility sitting up so high from the ground, the driver can’t really judge his location very well.
But stop he did. And then began to back up.
Eric lay motionless.
Fractured Like a Plate Glass Window
Eric was rushed to the hospital while an entire team of specialist prepared for him to arrive. They had never had such trauma in their hospital before. These injuries were familiar to war medics on the front lines, but not this local hospital. After 8 1/2 hours of surgery by three orthopedic doctors working on him, they felt confident that Eric was going to live…but he was never going to be like he was.
Although well-meaning, most of his medical team told him to expect the worst. “You may never walk again,” said one. “You’ll may face an amputation and need prosthetics, “said another. Virtually all of them painted a dark and gloomy future for Eric. At 21 with his promising body building and power lifting career now in ruins, Eric was crestfallen.
Nobody believed he stood a chance. Except Doctor Shertzer, the one doctor that continued to encourage him and support his goals to fight back towards the life he had.
The Long Road..to Where?
When you are going through such significant trauma, you think in terms of a long road to recovery. But what kind of recovery? Would Eric be satisfied walking again? Running again? Lifting again? All of those goals felt so out of reach in the early days following the accident.
After two weeks in the hospital and another 8 weeks recuperating at home, relying on a wheelchair, Eric finally took his first steps. First one, then another, then another. He tired quickly and had constant pain running through his body.
But he had to keep moving. Forward.
And finally, after months of recuperation he was ready to return to the gym. But now, this former elite powerlifter that could bench press 400 pounds, struggled to lift 5-pound dumbbells. He had to learn about his “new” body. He had to adjust.
A Life Lived with Intention, Passion and Pursuit of Excellence
“I realized at that time,” Eric recalled, “that this was going to take a lot of time and effort. I had to take the seemingly crazy goal of returning to my previous life and turn it into very small, achievable goals.”
That meant that Eric’s progress was measured in very small steps. First the 5-pound dumbbells. Then the 10s. And so on. Of course, it didn’t happen fast enough for Eric, but he remained determined.
Days turned into weeks. Weeks into months. Eric remained steadfast. “Achieve the small goals,” he reminded himself.
Lke a Phoenix Rising
And so it was after two years of hard work, that a very determined Eric was able to recover enough to beat his own personal record that he established just prior to the accident. But he didn’t stop at that. By 1997 he was back in competition. By 1998 he won the Mr. Pennsylvania amateur title.
Today, Eric looks back on that event with a perspective that seems impossible. “I wouldn’t change a thing,” he said. “The incident in 1994 taught me that life is precious. Every day is valuable. Don’t waste them,” he declares.
After his bodybuilding career Eric opened a gym, worked as an elite trainer and ran a successful real estate business. He also became a father to his only son. “The biggest gift of my life was my son,” Eric exclaimed. “I know that without that terrible day in 1994, I would have never been in the position to meet and marry his mother. I can’t imagine a life without him.”
Eric recently wrote his first book, 56,000 Pounds: Surviving Was Only the Beginning and is now available on Amazon.
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