PALMER, Iowa — 16-year-old Justin Metzger, of Palmer, is back working on his family farm months after he was in a serious dirt bike accident.
Riding too fast and taking a corner too quickly sent Metzger airborne. He crashed into the ground moments later, and said he woke up minutes later not being able to feel his legs.
"I just kinda thought it was all over," he told Local 5 News.
After not being able to sit up for nearly a week, Metzger wondered how his life would ever be the same at home, school and on his family's farm.
He began going to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals in Nebraska to get him back to the smiling, outspoken person everyone knew he was before the accident. During treatments, he followed the lead of the team, but asked multiple times when he could be back on his family's farm driving the combine and tractors.
"That was always his goal. He enjoyed farming," Metzger's occupational therapist Lauren Cox said. "[Justin] enjoyed being on the farm running the machinery. From day one he was asking how we could make that possible."
Metzger used adaptive hand controls, including a driving simulator at Madonna, to help train him with skills that could translate back home.
Now, Metzger is back home and acclimating himself back into the rhythm of things at the farm as fall harvest is less than two weeks away.
He can get onto the mower independently, but he does need a boost to get into tractors. With a little boost, he can operate the tractors with no issues.
Looking ahead, his family are looking into getting a LifeLyft, a mobility lift, that would allow Metzger to get on all machinery without assistance. For now, the family are putting together temporary options.