Man turns accident into opportunity

Chris Casey, (Bio) ccasey@greeleytrib.com
May 9, 2008

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Up until a few years ago, Gary Jones couldn't conceive of walking onto a stage to pick up a college diploma. The idea terrified him, actually.

Jones, 42, suffered a severe brain injury in September 1996 when a car slammed into his mountain bike on a street in Denver.

"I got scrambled up pretty good. ... It affected my whole life," the Greeley resident said. "I couldn't live by myself, I couldn't drive. I couldn't do a whole bunch of stuff."

He had been working in insurance sales, but the injury, which required extensive neurologic and speech therapy, forced him to consider a new line of work.

After a conversation with his wife, Jennie, Jones decided to give Aims Community College a try.

"I just didn't think I could do it. I didn't think I had what it took to pass the classes and everything," he said. "She basically twisted my arm."

He'd been fascinated by X-rays since childhood, and the scans on his head after the accident further piqued his interest.

So, four years ago Jones began taking prerequisites in Aims' X-ray technology program. He gradually found that taking classes, though challenging, helped improve his mental sharpness. He got on the waiting list for the radiological technology program and two years ago entered it full time.

Jones, who also is a father, said when he was doing clinicals patients would see his Aims badge and often mention a desire to go back to school.

"I'm like, 'You can do anything you want if you really want to,'" he said. "My grandmother went back to school when she was like 63. I think people can do a lot more than they give themselves credit for."

A dozen years after the accident, his ears still ring and he grows uncomfortable in large crowds. But his mind works better today than he ever thought it would -- and he's capable of so much more than five years ago.

His mind is "nothing like it was when I first went back to school," Jones said. "It was the best thing I ever did that way, not even counting graduation and getting a degree."

He starts work on May 19 at Longmont United Hospital, where he did his clinicals for two semesters. It will mark the beginning of a new life for Jones, who turned a shattering accident into an opportunity to challenge himself and satisfy a childhood interest.

"The day after I put my resume out in March LUH called me and offered me a job," he said.