A surfing accident left a veteran paralyzed—but a few words from a paralyzed cop restored his faith in life

A person's words might make a larger impact than they could ever think. A veteran experienced that when a paralyzed cop came to visit him after a surfing accident that left him paralyzed and unable to breathe. At the time of his accident, the man felt that he was at "the peak of his powers." The man, Billy Keenan, had served in the army, was a teacher, had learned to play several musical instruments, and was a competitive triathlete and surfer who had completed numerous 5,000 and 10,000, and half-marathon runs. But then the accident changed the course of events, per CBS News.

The man was surfing on the Jersey Shore in September 2013 when the incident happened. "I rode that wave, fell off my board and hit my head on the ocean floor. Everything faded to black," Keenan recounted. He regained consciousness two and a half weeks later and was paralyzed below his shoulders. The doctors felt that he might not be able to breathe on his own again. "I resembled a train wreck. I had a halo brace drilled into my skull to keep my head, neck immobilized. And I had a trach tube doing my breathing for me," the man continued. He felt that it was one of the worst days of his life.

But then a parent of one of his former students, NYPD Detective Steven McDonald, visited him at the hospital and gave him an important message. McDonald had survived a shooting in 1986 and had forgiven the assailant at some point after the incident. However, he was paralyzed too and had decided to become a public speaker and propagate the importance of forgiveness. That day, he told Keenan, "The only reason you survive is when you're better, when you're stronger, when your rehab is over, you're going to come back and contribute in a significant way. Don't ever forget that in the end, there will be life," McDonald expressed. Keenan recounted his life as a former Army lieutenant and paratrooper at that moment and realized something important.

"I was challenging myself, but positively, when times were good, never knowing that I would need those times — that evidence of resilience — when everything went wrong. My experience as a soldier and then my experience as a dad," Keenan pointed out. The message and his own experiences gave him a sense of hope and he started breathing on his own four months after the accident. "If you look at that picture, you would never think that that guy was going to be able to breathe again. You would never think that that guy was going to be able to teach again," the man said, referring to a picture taken in the hospital. He started teaching again in 2015 and when McDonald died in 2017, Keenan decided to become a motivational speaker. He had retired as a teacher by that time.

"With the energy I have left, you know, I try to be there as a steward and as a light of inspiration for, you know, the human family," the man remarked. "I've come to realize that conversation — those words — were not coming from Steven. They were coming through Steven. I truly believe that he was the messenger from God to save a terribly lost soul," Keenan shared. He also published an autobiography in 2023 called "The Road to Resilience: The Billy Keenan Story."