Survive and Thrive A Story of Resilience

[Applause]

i was deep

in the san yacito mountains of southern

california

it was late january it was an overcast

and chilly day

it would also become a very

painful one i had just sustained

a traumatic fall when i

first arrived on the ground my right

foot hit first

it arrived with such energy and force

that it drove

my femur through my pelvis into my

pelvic ring

snapping my pelvis off of my spine

and pushing my right hip all the way up

into my ribs

the edge of my right hip served as a

blade

as it cut arteries and lacerated

multiple organs

i was in rough shape internally blood

was

gushing out then

as if that weren’t enough the back up

parachute

that did nothing to slow my descent

suddenly fluffed open

in these strong winds and began taking

me for a brutal ride

across the top of this barren mountain

top filled with bowling ball sized rock

this only added more broken bones and

life-threatening injuries to the already

long list

as a former emt injuries of this extent

could be considered incompatible with

life

yet here i am in front of you today

breathing and moving about independently

not only that but also managing a smile

how’s that possible

i’m here with you today to share my

recipe

for resilience now the first move i had

to make

to fully optimize

this new world that i was thrust into

was first to say goodbye

to the previous one this is one of the

most difficult things i’ve ever had to

do

but it was necessary saying goodbye to

the 29 year old lane

i wept i grieved i mourned

i i was devastated and just to have an

idea of how devastating this was

i think it’s worthwhile to bring a

little bit of my background

to the forefront prior to this event

i had the opportunity to earn the title

united states marine

i ran multiple marathons i was a

competitive cyclist

and i was a wildland firefighter for

about 10 years

the last four years of which were spent

doing the dream

job of smoke jumping now what makes

smoke jumping particularly unique in the

fire world

and the dream job in my opinion is how

we arrive

so we get to fires we parachute

into fires not into fires but next to

fires

and this opens up the world in terms of

what we can access

it was a job filled with incredible

adventures a

family that was so robust

but now what now what was i going to do

before i could answer that question i

first had to survive

and fortunately my friend scott warren

was first on scene

he cut me free from that parachute that

was dragging me he activated ems we had

a helicopter

that landed within a couple hundred feet

quite quickly

but still with the severity of my

injuries

i was bleeding out i bled out

i coded slash died flatlined the first

time within two hours

notice that i said the first time

over the course of my nine-week coma

my incredible and compassionate mother

was there every single day

and the anxiety and uncertainty she

dealt with

on a daily basis i can never imagine

no no mother should have to look at

their child

while also hearing the sound

of a heartbeat indicator indicating

no pulse she

watched over the course of nine weeks as

my body just withered going from

180 pounds down to 108.

every day they weren’t sure is lane

going to make it

it’s looking good looking good up

something ruptured

so my mom took initiative to

capture these beautiful moments wow she

felt

like she could she took my

my limp lifeless atrophied arms

and put them around my my loving sister

to capture this moving image just

packed full of love

over the course of my nine-week coma i

may have technically been unconscious

but my mind had never been more active

because my ears still worked and my

imagination

was as active as it was then as it was

when i was four

and there was a lot of beauty i could

hear the

voices of my fire family coming to visit

my brothers my sisters my mom and dad

but there were also some very terrifying

moments

one so terrifying it almost cost me my

life

the hospital had been using a particular

medication

that unfortunately wasn’t short supply

there was a nationwide shortage

so they switched over to a different

medication and i did not respond well to

it

but with the severity of my traumatic

brain injury

that could have easily explained my

subsequent behavior

so it wasn’t immediately connected that

this was an allergic reaction

and my reaction was one filled with

agitation

i was paranoid i was certain i was in

the hospital being held there against my

will

i was some sort of test experiment and

my survival

depended on my ability to escape so

somehow

i managed to sit up muster the strength

to pull out my breathing tube

my ivs that were transferring life

sustaining fluid

just again putting me on the brink of

cardiac arrest

then i was pinned down to the hospital

bed and

strapped down to it

this only confirmed my paranoia

no one could get through to me i

couldn’t trust my mom

my dad let alone the hospital staff

but my mom had an idea if anyone can get

through to lane right now

it would be his twin brother lance

and lance wasn’t even in the hospital at

the time not even in the same state

but he got the phone call with the added

sense of urgency

and he dropped everything and some

movers and shakers behind the scenes

did what it took and got lance to my

bedside within

hours when i felt his presence

and heard his voice i was certain he was

also being tortured right there

alongside me

and because of that he had credibility

he could be trusted

and lance was able to to talk me down

and get me to accept treatment

this is lance and i the following year

had lance not been there when he was

there

there is no doubt that i would not be

here

on this stage in front of you today

and that’s why these human connections

with other people are fundamental

to resilience so i consider human

connections to be the first of four

ingredients

and my recipe for resilience now just

what is resilience well

the dictionary alludes to it as being an

ability

to return to the previous state

but this didn’t seem really applicable

in my situation because i had said

goodbye

to the previous state instead i had to

learn to navigate an entirely new one

i had to learn to do more with less

i had to learn to hit turbulence rough

air

sinking air and make the necessary

adjustments to continue flying

so as a paragliding pilot i see the

world through the prism of free flight

so we’ll be using metaphor to help

convey

this understanding of resilience and the

ingredients involved

so as a glider pilot the first thing you

need

in order to go anywhere in order to

cover any ground you first

need altitude altitude

lets you go places it offers an

incredible view

not only that but altitude

altitude gives you time to fix problems

because you

will encounter turbulence

so just how do you go about gaining

altitude

well i talked about one way already and

that’s through these

human connections so we’ll be calling

these ingredients now

sources of lift because human

connections

is a phenomenal source of lift

now the next source of lift may be the

easiest to overlook

and that’s our own health what we choose

to

do with our bodies and put in our bodies

is of extraordinary significance

i’m certain had i not been in the best

shape of my life

on the worst day of my life i wouldn’t

have survived

now the third source of lift i think

requires the most

discipline and determination and that is

keeping a

constructive attitude when i first came

out of my coma

and was sizing up what i was dealing

with

it’s easy to get caught in that

whirlpool and just

eddie into it but i shifted my mindset

constructively on you know i may not

have control over this this this and

this but

you know what what do i have control

over you know what i can bring a camera

to my

to my one good eye so with that i took

my savings from the previous fire season

and i went all in on camera equipment

and since i was a child a camera has

always been a close companion

and this continued all the way until my

time on the hot shot crew

and at the end of every fire season i

would put together a

season summary video highlighting all

the fires that we went on

and i didn’t realize it at the time but

i wasn’t

only growing my skill set as a

videographer but i was also

demonstrating it to my fire family

and this was huge because

in the national fire world there’s an

ongoing need for training videos

and in my state of paralysis i had a

need i

i needed work and again through these

human connections

driven by a constructive attitude i was

able to make training videos

for the national fire center and the

first video

i made just so happened to be about

helicopters

and their evolving role on wildfires

now with the helicopter playing an

essential role in my survival

i felt really strongly about this so i

placed significant emphasis

on their role in emergency medical

situations

and i did this by highlighting a couple

federal agencies

that were using some advanced techniques

because not everyone is as fortunate as

me where a helicopter can land within a

couple hundred feet

especially for wildland firefighters

that are working in the most

mountainous densely forested places in

the country

so these other techniques like hoist and

short haul

are game changers and at the time the

forest service

did not have a policy like that

and i think this video i produce just

joined the already mounting pressure

on the forest service because the next

year the forest service signed off on

the first

new forest service aviation program and

50 years

the emergency medical short haul program

and i was brought in to create all the

training videos

for the first ever united states forest

service

short haul class and i’m confident

that this program and these firefighters

and this image

will save lives i could have never

imagined that the crowning achievement

the greatest

contribution i would make to my

nationwide fire family

would be after i was no longer fighting

fire

now the fourth and final source of lift

may be the most simple and that is

recognizing

the power of choice regardless

of the devastation and depression you’re

dealing with and how limiting

the may seem you can always find some

semblance of a decision

to be made this was

hugely insightful because when i first

came out of my coma

nothing seemed to work i would

say move foot not not today how about

hand no

not happening so in this limp

paralysis state

i made a realization i may not be able

to control much

but i can control one thing perhaps the

most significant thing

i can get a hold of my mind and i can

direct my imagination i can choose which

memories i want to relive

and what futures i want to imagine

and this had the effect of pulling me

out of

depression and despair it tilted my

chin up and and gave me hope

and the other thing that kept my chin up

and my eyes oriented skyward

is my passion for paragliding i knew

the moment i was able to leave the earth

again

and re-enter the sky i would get back to

a familiar world

a world filled with boundless

[Music]

potential

[Music]

so going forward starting today

go out there find lift

gain altitude appreciate the view

and know this you will encounter

turbulence you will

find yourself in massive parcels of

sinking air

but through that do what’s most

important and that’s adapting

and doing whatever it takes to keep

flying thank you

[Applause]

you