Biker faces endurance test of life

Wayne Goodman celebrated his 60th birthday Oct. 22 in a hospital room with a group of friends and a box of chocolates.

His friends, all devoted mountain bikers like Goodman, offered to open the wrapped box for him because he couldn't use his hands effectively after a spinal-cord injury a month earlier.

Goodman said no. Emphatically.

"I kind of went at it like a dog," he said.

Greg Rollins, president of the Richmond chapter of Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts, was there. "He tore at it and tore at it," he said.

In the end, Goodman got his piece of chocolate.

He's showing the same determination — with help from his doctors and an unshakeable circle of friends — to overcome an injury that initially left him paralyzed and unsure if he ever would walk again.

"He's taking it like he's taken everything else in stride in his life," said Nathan Burrell, trails manager for the James River Park System. "He's taking it as a challenge."

Goodman, a Henrico County native and resident, has taken plenty of risks in his life. He has spent days without sleep in the wilderness in adventure races. He has ridden the toughest trails and taken some tumbles.

But his life took a turn too many when the front wheel of his bike hit a grassy rut near the main picnic shelter in Forest Hill Park. He was adjusting his camel pack so he could drink water on a trail ride with a young biker who wanted some tips.

The wheel turned right, tossing Goodman head first into a stone wall.

"As soon as that happened, it was like someone hit a light switch," he recalled in an interview this month in the Spinal Cord Injury Unit at Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond. "I could not feel anything."

His girlfriend, Chin Cha Akers, got to him quickly and called for help. When an emergency medical technician arrived and asked him to wiggle his toes, he found that he could.

"That's when I said to myself, 'I have a chance here,' " Goodman said.

Since that moment, Goodman has been working to make the most of that chance.

He underwent surgery at VCU Medical Center to relieve pressure on his swollen spinal cord, injured in the cervical vertebrae of his neck.

After two months at VCU, he transferred last month to McGuire, where he was entitled to care because of three years he served in the Marines in the late 1960s.

Goodman's injury leaves plenty of room for hope. It was an incomplete injury to the spinal cord — there's no chance of recovering movement in an injury that's complete — with a high D rating on a descending scale of severity.

"I think he will recover significantly after all this treatment," said Dr. Mohammed Bhuiyan, who is overseeing a team of physicians and treatment specialists working intensively with Goodman at McGuire.

Bhuiyan told Goodman last week that he would be able to walk again in his home once he leaves the hospital, probably by the end of February. "It made me so happy, it made me cry tears of joy," Goodman said.

None of his many friends doubt his will or tenacity.

"The beautiful thing about Wayne is he finds a freaking way to make it happen!" said Deborah Khars, a mountain biker, trail volunteer and occupational therapist who visits Goodman frequently at McGuire.

Goodman was one of the people who forged the North Trail that completed a loop for bikers, runners, hikers, and anyone else who enjoys the James River Park trails on both sides of the river, including Forest Hill Park.

"He's definitely been one of the lions," said Burrell, who worked with Goodman in designing and building trails in the park system for six years.

Bill Swann, who spent countless weekends working with Goodman over the course of a year in building the North Trail, organized "A Day in the Park for Wayne" last month in Forest Hill Park. He and other friends sold "G-Man" T-shirts and raised $2,400 in donations

It's an appropriate response for a man who had to buy a trailer for all the tools he'd bought for trail work that he did for what he calls "my ministry."

"Building the trails was my outlet for community service," Goodman said, "and doing what maybe Jesus or God would want me to do."

Even now, with his prognosis good but far from certain, Goodman is still thinking about the park system.

"I still want to come down and do trail work," he said. "I just love it."

mmartz@timesdispatch.com

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