Today’s News-Herald recently caught up with a 31-year-old man who broke his neck in Bridgewater Channel March 15, 2010, while chartering a group of Spring Breakers onto the often carefree party scene on Lake Havasu’s shores.

Lake Havasu City emergency responders work to stabilize Jeremy Brown March 15, 2010, near Bridgewater Channel marker No. 11 on the east shore. The 911-emergency call came over the public safety scanner as a near drowning that day. Jayne Hanson/News-Herald Photo

According to earlier reports, Jeremy Brown, of Lake Havasu City, is alleged to have attempted to dive from a double-decker pontoon boat near Channel marker No. 11 on the east shore and struck his head on the bottom rail of the boat. He slumped into the water and lost consciousness.

In retrospect, that’s not the way it went down.

Jeremy recently said he was in fact working that day. He was acting as a tour guide for visiting Spring Break kids.

Moments before his tragedy, he had walked out onto a second-story diving board that extended off the rear of the boat in order to warn his group not to jump from that height — Because the water was too shallow.

“I remember everything that happened that day, except the impact,” Jeremy said. “I specifically remember my left foot slipping. My first reaction was to turn and dive. I remember coming up from under the water (after impact) and then going back down. I could see the surface of the water above me just a few feet and knew I needed help. I was thinking ‘no, no, I can’t die’ and then I passed out.”

Brown’s next memories were many days later after he woke up at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas.

“I never had any bumps, scratches or bruises,” Jeremy said. “There were no markings on my body at all.” But, he had fractured his C-5 vertebrae in his neck. Since, a small flexible cage-type device has been inserted in its place.

According to earlier reports, bystanders pulled Jeremy from the water after his accident and began cardio pulmonary resuscitation and rescue breathing to revive him. Jeremy’s breathing was stabilized and he was transported to Havasu Regional Medical Center. He was soon air-evacuated by medical helicopter to Las Vegas to be treated for a spinal cord injury.

Nearly two weeks later, Jeremy underwent successful neck surgery in Las Vegas.

In the early stages of recovery, Jeremy learned he had coded, or died, three times on the beach just after the accident, once at HRMC before his air-evacuation, and again during surgery days later.

Jeremy remained in an intensive care unit in Las Vegas for six weeks and spent some of that time in an induced coma. With a nurse’s hand-washing station outside his hospital room, he was conscious enough to know people were in and out of his room, and he knew he was hearing sounds of water.

“I was really tripping out,” Brown said. “I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t get my drunk (explicit) out of bed to go hang out with everyone at the pool. It was a long time before I told anyone that.”

After weeks in the hospital and endless hours of physical therapy, he said he joked with the nurses that he’d been there all this time and still was yet to learn where the pool was.

After eight weeks in Las Vegas, Jeremy was transferred to an outpatient physical therapy unit in Phoenix where he attacked his physical therapy with a deep-rooted will to overcome his injury.

“I honestly don’t know where (the fighting spirit) comes from,” Jeremy said. “It’s just me. I think this happened to me because I could survive it. It was just an accident.”

After about 30 days in Phoenix, wheelchair-bound Jeremy made his way back to Havasu and headed straight for the Lake during Memorial Day weekend. He said he returned again Fourth of July and “spent all weekend in the water”.

Jeremy moved back to Havasu in August and still attends physical therapy a few times a week. During sessions, therapists stretch his tight muscles. His tight muscles are “one of the worst parts” about his condition, he said.

However, the therapy sessions regularly get Jeremy up and out of his wheelchair strengthening his muscles by walking stairs, walking between waist-high parallel bars, and walking the halls with a walker. Jeremy’s record is 450 feet with a walker.

“I will always have to have (physical) therapy,” Jeremy said. “You won’t ever have a 100 percent recovery with a spinal injury. But I will take it as far as I can take it.”

Jeremy said he tells his three children — who are 6, 8, and 12 years old — they need to be careful. Jeremy said he would send that same message to Spring Breakers:

“Have fun, but be careful,” he said.

A Facebook page “Pray for Jeremy Brown” was established a few days after Jeremy’s accident and remains in full swing. Currently 633 people ‘like’ the page on the social-networking website. The site was turned over to Jeremy after he was able to post updates on his own progress. He continues to do so.

Jeremy said because of the website he has learned of entire church congregations in the U.S. praying for his recovery, an unspecified monastery of monks and countless other individuals.

“I can’t possibly thank everybody who has been there or done anything for me,” Jeremy said. “The only way I can thank everybody is to get better, to improve. To show that it is possible.”

You may contact the reporter at jhanson@havasunews.com.