1. AWAY IN A MANGER
Stefanie Braun and Clay Bernabeo
represent Mary and Joseph with the baby
Jesus at a live Nativity story presented by
Colts Neck Community Church.
DOUG HOOD/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ASBURY PARK PRESS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2013 $1.00
ADVICE .......................................... B9
CLASSIFIED ................................... D1
COMICS ......................................... B8
LOTTERIES .................................... A2
OBITUARIES ............................... A12
OPINION ..................................... A15
SPORTS .......................................... C1
TABLE ............................................ B5
HOWELL — At just 17 years old, Adam
Johnson was expected to never walk
again.
But with a year of intense strength-
building workouts and an equal amount
of motivation to stand on his own two
feet, the so-called “all-American boy”
defied a paraplegia diagnosis and today
stands and takes strides on his own two
feet.
It’s a special Christmas gift for the
Howell resident and his family, coupled
with feelings of gratitude and a will to
help others move past the physical and
emotional challenges he, too, faced in a
year’s time.
The night things changed
On Oct. 7, 2012, Johnson, then a senior
at Colts Neck High School, was heading
home from visiting a friend in Freehold.
It was 10:30 p.m., and he was nervous
about being out past the 11 p.m. curfew
on his provisional license; he didn’t want
to upset his parents or get in trouble with
the law.
With roads slick from an earlier rain,
Johnson attempted to speed home, going
60mphona35mphroad.Whenheturned
too fast making a right onto Five Points
Road from Route 537, his Ford Explorer
hydroplaned, flipped over onto the pas-
senger side and then crashed into a near-
AGAINST ALL ODDS,
TEEN WALKS AGAIN
Adam Johnson, 18, of Howell, who was diagnosed with paraplegia after a car accident but now is walking, visits his physical therapist,
Susan Poland, and surgeon, Dr. Michael Lospinuso, at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune. TANYA BREEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Doctor: ‘It’s what you do with that second chance that makes it different’
By Gina Columbus
@ginacolumbusapp
See WALKS, Page A10
If there is one lesson Tim Mc-
Donnell has learned in the past
seven years, it’s that you get what
you give.
His life took a turn in 2006
when his dear friend Tom Nolan
died from leukemia, leaving a
wife and three sons behind. Mc-
Donnell, a Holmdel resident,
made a promise to the Nolan fam-
ily that they would never go with-
out.
He kept his word, raising more
than $300,000 from the Holmdel
community in a private founda-
tion to send Nolan’s children to
college.
But six years later, a twist of
fate would leave McDonnell him-
self battling leukemia. McDon-
nell fought the disease, got back
onhisfeetthisyearandcontinued
paying it forward.
McDonnell, a survivor of the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
said the outpouring of community
support for the My Three Sons
Foundation for the Nolans in-
spired him to help more families.
“Because everyone was so
good to us, we wanted to do some-
thing for other people,” said Mc-
Donnell, 55.
In 2006, he partnered with
McLaughlin Pentecostal Faith
Church in Long Branch and
launched an annual Christmas toy
drive. He supplies toys and even
food to the church, in which about
half the congregation is low-in-
come.
Christian Thomas, 3, of Neptune
holds a toy he received at church.
ROBERT WARD/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Paying it
forward
By Nicquel Terry
@NTerryAPP
See FORWARD, Page A2
WATCH VIDEO
Scan the QR code to
see scenes from the
Christmas party.
Holmdel man’s
holiday lesson: You
get what you give
Rumson-Fair Haven High
School’sThomasMartellotries
to follow the lessons of his dad
— killed in the Sept.11, 2001,
attacks — whom he barely
knew. SPORTS, C1
A tribute
to a father
Holiday Express delivers
meals, music, gifts and
Christmas cheer to more
than 20,000 people in need.
TODAY, B1
Transforming
experience
Are you a Christmas foodie?
Take our quiz to find out how
much you really know about
holiday treats.
TABLE, B5
Christmas
food quiz

2. Page A10 Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013 Asbury Park Press APP.COM
frompage one
by wooded area.
Inandoutofconscious-
ness, Johnson lay in his
car and felt shooting,
burning pains in his back
and not much of anything
in his legs before para-
medics arrived.
“I remember them cut-
ting me out of the car, the
glass breaking on me,”
said Johnson, now 18.
Later, in the Regional
Trauma Center at Jersey
Shore University Medical
Center in Neptune, doc-
tors were familiar with
Johnson’s spinal cord in-
jury. The upper part of his
torso was dislocated from
the lower part (his T-12
segment); so doctors in-
stilled a series of two rods
and 11 bolts.
“We exposed every-
thing; it left us all with a
low point,” said Michael
Lospinuso, chief of spinal
surgery of Meridian
Health,ofthe61
⁄2-hoursur-
gery, admitting the out-
come looked grim. “(We
said) ‘OK, let’s just keep
going and focus on doing
your job and doing it the
best we could.”
Lospinuso told Adam’s
parents there was a
strong chance their son
would be a paraplegic and
spend the rest of his life in
a wheelchair.
“You’re meeting these
people for the first time,
and you’re giving them
horrific news,” Lospinuso
said. “He’s [Adam] the
kind of kid to be working
behind an ice cream par-
lor. He’s got that kind of
face, wholesome looking,
an all-American kid.”
Johnson’s parents
chose not to tell Adam
about his predicted diag-
nosis for fear of upsetting
ordeterringhimfromtry-
ing to walk, his father,
Kyle Johnson, 48, said.
“Myparentswouldjust
be like, if it [walking]
doesn’t come today, it’ll
come tomorrow,” said
Johnson, on days follow-
ing the surgery. “The first
time I stood up, I was so
dizzy I had to sit down.
The whole hand move-
ment of moving opposite
of my legs ... it’s like I was
a baby again learning how
to walk.”
Following his stay at
Jersey Shore University
Medical Center, he was
transferred to Kessler
Rehabilitation Center in
West Orange, with cranes
lifting him into and out of
bed.
In February, Johnson
transferred to the center
in Howell with a walker in
tow.Hefoundhisphysical
therapists motivating and
he kept his mindset posi-
tive.
“I was just kind of hap-
py I was alive,” Johnson
said.
Still, he was deter-
mined to move his legs
again. Back at home —
and without his parents
watching — Johnson
would test his own
strength and try walking
around the house without
the walker.
“Using a walker, I
didn’t like it at all,” John-
son said. “I went to the
mall, I was still in a wheel-
chair and just getting
stared at, it wasn’t OK
with me. Like ‘look at that
kid, 17 and in a wheel-
chair.’ That kind of lit a
fire under my butt.”
He returned to school
in February without the
walker, though he used
the elevator versus stairs.
It was tough, he recalled,
not to be able to use the
stairs or play ball with his
friends like he used to.
“I used humor to get
through it … I’d say, ‘oh I
flipped my car and sur-
vived,’ ” he recalled. “It
sounds messed up, but it
worked for me... and not
dwelling on what hap-
pened. In all honesty, I’m
happy it happened to me
and not one of my friends
because I’m the only one
who can deal with it.”
As a member of the
school’s Junior Reserve
Officer Training Corps
program, Johnson’s sen-
ior-year goal, as a mem-
beroftheJr.ROTC,wasto
be able to spin the rifle at
drill team nationals.
“At first I really
couldn’t do it, because I
couldn’t march the way
they were marching, so
that was hard,” Adam
said. “Eventually I got
back to do it. That was my
big ‘hoo-rah.’ ”
In September, Adam
came in with his walker
for a routine exam with
Lospinuso, but quickly
put the tool aside and be-
gan taking steps, rattling
off the workout routines
he’d committed to. It was
the most dramatic recov-
ery Lospinuso said he’d
ever seen.
“Most of these type of
injuries, they have some
fraction (of recovery) but
it plateaus. But to get to
him with almost a com-
plete recovery, that’s
rare,” Lospinuso said.
A second chance
Following his surgery,
Lospinuso told Adam he’d
been given a second
chance at life.
“(I told him) ‘Every-
body gets one. It’s what
you do with that second
chance that makes it dif-
ferent’,” Lospinuso said.
“He meets with people
thathaveitfaroffworse.”
Today, Adam is study-
ing physical therapy at
Brookdale Community
Collegeandplanstotrans-
fer to the Stockton Col-
lege of New Jersey. He
has part-time jobs at the
Jersey Mike’s in Howell
and Clark’s Landing Ca-
terers in Point Pleasant
Beach. He’s even driving
again.
He volunteers at the
Kessler Rehabilation
Center in Howell where
he once was a patient,
chatting with those in-
jured far worse than he
was and helping them re-
build their outer — and in-
ner — strength.
“From what they [ther-
apists] gave me back, I
want to pay it forward to
other people,” said John-
son of his volunteering
and career decision, add-
ing that he cleans the fa-
cility and assists with
therapists and patients.
Teaching safe driving
also has become a priority
for him. When Colts Neck
High School students par-
take in a ceremony to re-
ceive their parking per-
mits, Johnson lectures
them on the rules.
“(I tell them) ‘you’re
not invincible,’ ” Johnson
said. “I talk to them be-
cause it hits home, be-
cause they still know me.
Don’t speed; if you’re go-
ing to be late for curfew,
pull over and call your
parents.”
Above it all, Johnson
calls his family and
friends his backbone
throughout his recovery
— and Lospinuso his
guardian angel.
“Without him, I
wouldn’t even be walk-
ing,”Johnsonsaid.“Ican’t
thank him enough. ... I’d
either be dead or in a
wheelchair.”
Sofar,Johnsonsayshis
body is all but completely
healed. He still hopes to
increase his strength
through running and
weight training.
“I’m going to try to go
snowboarding this sea-
son, but we’ll see how that
goes,” Johnson said.
This Christmas, John-
son’s eyes have opened up
to the second chance at
life he’s been given.
“I enjoy family time,
enjoy friends ... because
you don’t know when your
life is going to end,” John-
sonsaid.“Presents,Idon’t
even care about that any-
more. I just want to be sit-
ting with my family and
enjoying the company.”
As a doctor who’d
thought he’d seen it all,
Lospinuso admits John-
son — who he calls re-
markable — taught him to
expect the unexpected.
“When you think it’s
just a usual business, and
it’s not always the case,”
Lospinuso said. “Someone
can turn around tomor-
row.”
Gina Columbus:
732-643-4010
WALKS
Continued from Page A1
Dr. Michael Lospinuso shows Adam Johnson of Howell the X-rays of his spine that were taken just prior to his surgery
last year at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune. RUSS DESANTIS/SPECIAL TO THE ASBURY PARK PRESS
Johnson, 18, visits his spinal surgeon, Dr. Lospinuso, at Jersey Shore University Medical
Center one year after the car accident that nearly cost him the use of his legs.
TANYA BREEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Scan the QR
code or visit
APP.com to
see Adam, his
father and
surgeon
discuss his recovery.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS