Shawn Brown: Student, Athlete, and Paralympian
Attending
college in Carson, working in Pasadena, and living in Playa del Rey, student
Shawn Brown knows what it means to work hard. And, he was especially busy
this fall preparing for the Paralympic Games. "Some people put on their glasses
in the morning," he shrugged. "I pull on my leg."
Brown, 29, holds the Paralympics world record in the discus throw, and this was the second time he has competed as a member of the United States team in the Paralympic Games. They include athletes who are disabled -- paraplegics, tetraplegics, learning disabled, visually impaired, people with cerebral palsy, and amputees such as Brown, a student in the bachelor of science in health science, orthotics and prosthetics option.
One of only seven such programs in the nation, the CSUDH Orthotics and Prosthetics program teaches students to evaluate patients whose limbs are lost through illness or accident and help them restore their lives through artificial limbs or mechanical body supports.
His life experience in prosthetics began at age 21.
At the time, Brown studied by day as a college sophomore and toiled by night as a grain elevator worker in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was working on the floor of the grain silo one October night when he accidentally stepped into a conveyor belt.
"One evening, working second shift 'just made a wrong move in the work environment and found myself in the hospital with an amputation of my left leg," says Brown with the matter-of-factness of a farmer discussing crops.
His mind recorded and replays the accident in virtual slow motion. He remembers the sheen of the halogen bulbs that glare off the slick grain dust, the chatter and laughter of co-workers over the drone of the whining machinery. Relaxed and cleaning up at the end of their shift, they are getting ready to leave. It is a workday like any other, but this time, as Brown reaches to put some tools away, he missteps into the clutches of the conveyor.
"It was instantaneous. It had me. It was tugging. I remember the pain being intense. It was a surreal type feeling," Brown recalls. "You're caught in it. I remember the other employees running by me and knocking the light away and now it's completely black pitch black, pitch black. I knew my leg was gone. I could feel my leg was gone."
But all the time in the hospital, and in the all the time since, he's never felt sad, he says: "What's done is done."
"It was about 'all she wrote," Brown explains. "There was no 'multiple surgeries,' or, 'We're going to try to save it.' They didn't even find part of my foot until the next day."
Perhaps his no-nonsense upbringing girded Brown's spirits. Maybe he drew on the strength of his family and friends who stayed by his side in the hospital -- "I was never left alone my entire time there," he recalls -- but he accepted what happened with the grit one gets growing up on a farm: What is simply is. Things happen. Do the best with what you've got and then move on.
In fact, after the accident, Brown didn't wait long to pick back up.
"I moved back in my apartment with my friend; I didn't go home like my mom wanted," Brown says. "I did what I did before. I lost my leg in October of '92. In April of '93, I went to Switzerland on my prosthetic.'
His
first doctor was an amputee, too, and came to Brown's apartment to show him
the mechanics of his new leg. There they sat on the floor, passing the wrench
back and forth, practicing how to put the leg on and take it off..
The doctor knew Brown by his reputation as an athlete, and encouraged him to continue track and field. In less than a year, Brown resumed working out, throwing the discus with a fellow athlete he'd known from high school. In fact, it was through track and field that Brown met his girlfriend - herself an amputee who swims competitively. When she moved West, Brown followed, enrolling eventually at Dominguez Hills.
Life is good, Brown said: "I've walked down the right road."
He never wonders "'what might have been' because I have done it,'" Brown says. "Did I ever wish I could play college football? I did play college footballThere have been limitations, but there have always been ways around those limitations."
That is the spirit of the Paralympic Games, started in 1951 by Sir Ludwig Guttman, director of a center for spinal injuries in England. He introduced sport to the patients as part of their therapy. The competition grew to include other clinics and, over time the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) was formed: The first Olympic Style games for athletes with a disability was held in Rome in 1960.
Brown sees no reason not to continue competing. After all, at 6 foot 3 inches,' and 245 pounds, he's in good physical shape. "I'll be a 'clear and present' danger for the next two or three Paralympics to come, I think," he said with a wink. "I just know that the level of loss has not disabled my life stride for stride, leg for leg." 6
- T.W.
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UPDATE Shawn Brown, a student in the Orthotics & Prosthetics bachelor of science program at CSU Dominguez Hills, brought home a gold medal in discus throw from the 2000 Paralympics Games in Sydney, Australia. This was the second Paralympic Games for Brown, who also won a discus gold medal and set a new world record in 1996. The Paralympic Games include athletes who are disabled - paraplegics, tetraplegics, learning disabled, visually impaired, people with cerebral palsy, and amputees such as Brown, who lost his lower left leg in an industrial accident while working in a silo in 1992. He also competed in the shot put contest, earning fifth place. |
