Carey Mallow recently shared a story with me from the May 2009 edition of Pro Bull Rider Magazine related to our recent “Bullish Faith” series. It’s the story of professional bull rider Lee Akin. In 2007, Akin suffered one “bear” of a brain injury when the bull he was riding, “Dick Dastardly,” bucked him and crushed the left side of his skull with a hoof. Akin spent 7 ½ weeks in a coma, and another six weeks regaining enough brain function to understand what had happened to him. He was a young man with a wife, Mary, and a 5 ½ month old baby girl. Immediately following the injury, most people thought it was simply a matter of time before he died, but not his wife, Mary. “We started right then praying and believing he was going to be fully restored. We believed the truth and not what the doctors had to tell us.”
Two years later Akin is very much alive and continuing his recovery from the horrific injury. Instead of spending time traveling around the country riding bulls in the PBR, he spends his time looking after his two year old daughter and continuing in speech therapy. He and his wife Mary are living examples that a “Bullish Faith” can see you through any “bear” of a circumstance, even one “bear” of a dastardly bull!
(Thank you Carey for sharing this inspiring story!)