After former West Rowan volleyball coach Jan Dowling was severely injured in a motorcycle accident last October, doctors were not sure if she would even live, but just last week, Dowling stood out of the chair that has confined her for three months and put weight on her legs for the first time.

“It was painful and scary. I did not know if I would have balance or not,” Dowling said. “Would I have so much pain that I couldn’t walk?”

Dowling acknowledged that she is unsure if she would be where she is without the support of her prayer community.

“I had my church (The Arbor Church) praying and so many people praying that when I went to my doctor’s appointment, he would allow me to get upright,” Dowling said. “It is so hard when you have to lay in a bed all day, and you can’t really do anything because you cannot be weight-bearing.

“When my doctor told me that I could weight bear, I literally raised my hand to God and said thank you.”

Then, Dowling began to cry.

“It is what I have been waiting for for so long,” she said. “Three months in a chair is a long time.”

Dowling’s first time without crutches or a walker came at her home on Jan. 23. 

“My husband (Scot Young) was here,” Dowling said. 

In a strange twist, a young woman whom Dowling helped coach returned the favor as a physical therapist assisting in Dowling’s recovery.

“I have been very blessed that a former player of mine, Kayla Morrow Jester, has been coming and working with me for the past month and a half, trying to get some muscles right,” Dowling said. 

Dowling said that Morrow worked with her using dry needling, cupping, stretching and massages.

“She has done such a good job getting my muscles ready to be upright,” Morrow said. “That helped a ton. When I got upright, it hurt, but it was not as bad as what I thought … but it’s getting better.”

Morrow is now going to an outpatient clinic in Harrisburg. There, she has been treated by a friendly face as well.

“Kari Shank is a former West Rowan girl and a friend of mine also,” Dowling said. 

Shank is an orthopedic specialist in physical therapy.  

“She is really pushing me,” Dowling said. “I have been there three days, and I know that it’s going to be tough to get me to where I need to be.”

I have known those girls forever, and I am super proud of them. I always knew those girls would do something great. They are super smart and super dedicated.

“I get emotional cause I love the fact that I coached one of them, and now she is helping me get back to where I need to be,” Dowling said. “I felt like I helped her get to where she needed to be, and then just as a friend of mine, Keri has been a friend forever. 

“She has done everything to fit me in. It fills my heart because I have been surrounded by such good people.”

As her rehab continued, Dowling also started working with an old lifting partner, Glenn Heilig, who is a trainer at The Forum in Salisbury. 

“He has been helping keep my upper body and my core strong,” Dowling said. 

Accident aftermath

“For the first three days, I was in ICU,” Dowling said. “They did not know if I would live or die, but they put me back together and got my bleeding to stop.”

The accident, which happened over the weekend of Oct. 28, left Dowling with a crushed pelvis and a compound fracture of her tibia and fibula. She spent a few days in the hospital before going to a rehabilitation facility at Wake Forest Baptist. 

“I was there for a whole week,” Dowling said. “Those people are amazing.”

Dowling sang praises for the medical staff that treated her. 

“I can’t say enough to thank (my surgeon),” Dowling said. “Dr. Jason J. Halvorson is just so humble about it. I got to see him last week, and he said, ‘I am just a carpenter. I just put pieces back together.’

“He was amazing. And then all the people in the PT department at (Sticht Center). 

Road to recovery

She came home after a couple of weeks with a wheelchair.

“I could only weight bear on my left leg. I could pivot to get in bed or pivot to get in the shower or car. That was all I could do. Every day, I did my exercises they sent me. 

About six weeks out, Jester began working with Dowling. As helpful as rehab was, so too was the outpouring of support. 

“The first month, I was just overwhelmed,” Dowling said. “I had such a core from my high school. They came and built a ramp. Just an overflow of kids sending cards.”

As time went on, that initial support waned. 

“People all come at the beginning but then start to dwindle,” Dowling said. “That’s when it became the long days. Less conversations. Me still grinding rehab-wise.”

She had an appointment on Dec. 20, where she hoped to hear she was ahead of schedule.

“My hips were nowhere near close,” Dowling said. “I went back in the chair for five more weeks and kept grinding with rehab.

“That was a bad day, not going to lie. That was one of my darkest days. My daughter was home that day and told me that she never wants to see me like that again.”

Dowling was only momentarily deterred and put her mind back to recovery. 

“Grinding, working hard and doing the things I need to do,” Dowling said. “Lots of prayers. My church has been phenomenal. My new pastor has been phenomenal. It’s just a community, and they have really kept my mind positive. When the negativity creeps in, you have to remember that it is just the Devil talking, but you have bigger things to do today.”

Her family has stepped up, too, between efforts from her husband, parents and daughter Kaylin.

“My family is amazing,” Dowling said. “I am so blessed. Now, I am upright. We are trying to make big moves, but it is going to take some time. I am so weak from being in that chair for three months, but I am making progress.”

Dowling has another follow-up appointment on March 14.