"We really believe that," Bud said. He asked for a moment to corral his emotions, then explained why he feels so strongly that Peter won't be sentenced to life in a wheelchair.
"The reason I know it," Bud said, "is because he knows it."
Maybe Peter, 19, will wake up tomorrow and start walking. Crazier things have happened. In fact, it was a crazy thing that landed him in this predicament.
Peter's family visited Hawaii in May. Peter wanted to try surfing. He didn't crash into anything. He didn't get smacked by a big wave. He just surfed, period and felt no discomfort other than a tiny tingle.
After swimming to shore, Peter's stomach muscles began twitching so severely that it was visible to others. He complained about pain that was 9 on a 10 scale. "It felt like somebody was punching you in the back," he said. A masseuse tried to banish the pain. Peter's legs went numb. His mother, Janet, accompanied him on an ambulance ride to the hospital.
Bud and Peter's sister, Whitney, hurriedly gathered a few items and scooted to the hospital. As soon as Bud saw his wife at the hospital, he knew this was way more serious than seems possible.
"You see sports all the time, and you see a kid get hurt and they make them lay there until they start wiggling things," Bud said. "But Peter didn't have an accident."
The same night Peter got grim news — paralysis from the belly button down — he told his father, "I don't care if it takes me 25 years. I'm going to walk again."
Peter has changed his outlook. He still plans on making a full recovery. But it won't take 25 years.
"Of course not," he said during an interview at his Tulsa home last week.
Team effort
Broken Arrow is Oklahoma's largest high school with an average daily enrollment of more than 4,400 students. A possible pitfall of attending a big school is that a kid could get lost in the crowd.
But Peter's face was all over the football stadium Friday. Pictures of him were tacked everywhere before a scrimmage, serving as a reminder that donations were being accepted to offset medical expenses that insurance will not cover.
Peter was presented a football signed by former teammates, many of whom were broken-hearted when they first learned of his mishap.
Times like these are when you find out how many friends you have. One of Peter's biggest friends is a former rival, Carl Salazar. Peter and Salazar battled for kicking chores last season, when Peter was a senior and Salazar was a sophomore.
Salazar discovered that he couldn't dislike his competitor.
"Any time I kicked, if I wouldn't hit a good kick, Peter would be right there behind me with a (supportive) hand in my back," Salazar said.
"He's the nicest guy you can meet, and for this to happen to someone like him, on so many levels it is just wrong."
People do double-takes after hearing how Peter got injured. How is that possible? It's like a phantom caused his body to malfunction.
The medical world has an explanation. Peter is a victim of Surfer's Myelopathy, a rare spinal cord injury. When the backs of surfers (usually beginning surfers) are hyperextended, blood flow to the spinal cord can be disrupted, leading to paralysis.
After Peter's hospital stay in Honolulu, he spent a rehab stint at Craig Hospital in Denver. Salazar was among the buddies who visited Peter in Denver. After settling back in Tulsa, Peter made his first "get out of the house" trip when he took a ride in Salazar's truck to Salazar's home.
"He has always been there for me," Salazar said. "It's time for me to be there for him. And I enjoy spending time with him, so it's not like I'm doing him a favor."
Salazar has switched jersey numbers. He will wear 39 this season. It was Peter's number last season.
Planting a seed
Bud and Janet Jessee post updates and pictures on a Web site devoted to their son, PeterJessee.com. Does Peter know something everyone else doesn't? He seems to be smiling in every photo.
Peter, though not unfriendly, is a fellow of few words. Ask him about most anything and you get matter-of-fact responses. His actions may be more revealing.
Salazar said every time Peter enters or leaves his room, he touches a sign that says "85 percent."
The meaning behind the sign? Salazar said if Peter recovers, he will bump up the Surfer's Myelopathy recovery rate to 85 percent of documented cases.
"He will walk again," Salazar said. "It's not even a question."
Bud said doctors in Hawaii told him they know of 20 Surfer's Myelopathy victims, and 16 experienced some degree of recovery. Bud has researched additional cases. During Peter's stay at the Denver hospital, Bud met two girls stricken by Surfer's Myelopathy while surfing in Hawaii last spring.
"One walked out of there and one didn't," he said.
Peter had planned to attend the University of Oklahoma this year. Instead, he goes to the OU Health and Science Center for rehab work. Visits are usually of the feel-good variety because he sees signs of progress. He regained hip mobility. He can muster a bit of movement in quad muscles and in his toes.
Peter is a former honorable mention Tulsa World All-State kicker and has played on club ice hockey teams since he was a preteen. Bud said hockey is Peter's best sport.
But the biggest reason Peter will walk again is not because he has the body of an athlete, according to his father. It is because of what lies between Peter's ears.
"The mental side of it has to be so positive, because if you are not positive, you have nothing," Bud said.
Peter said you cannot let the bad overtake you. He rehabs in front of mirrors and visualizes himself walking.
Bud has always known his son was determined. He recounted tales about how Peter spent entire days learning how to skate and how Peter was motivated to be an honor student.
"And now that this has happened, I see the drive and determination more than I have ever seen it," Bud said.
Peter Jessee is actually Peter Jessee III. He was named after his grandfather and great-grandfather.
Peter's namesakes were farmers, according to Bud, who said, "They planted seeds and had faith that the seeds would grow."
It must be in the DNA. Peter Jessee III has faith, too.
What is Surfer's Myelopathy?
Surfer's Myelopathy is a rare nontraumatic spinal cord injury that results in paralysis. When surfers hyperextend their backs, it can create problems with blood vessels and cause flow to the spinal cord to be disrupted.
In a 2005 story published by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Dr. James Pearce of Straub Clinic & Hospital indicated that Surfer's Myelopathy injuries are caused when inexperienced surfers repeatedly hyperextend or arch their backs off the board looking for waves and preparing to catch a wave.
"They're not used to it," he told the newspaper. "They hyperextend their back a lot of times, and they happen to have the kind of build that predisposes them to a temporary problem with the blood flow to the spinal cord.
"They do it again and again and again, so the lower part of the spinal cord is impaired because of temporary but repeated problems of blood flow to that area."
Paralysis has proven to be temporary in most cases and permanent in others.
Surrounded by his teammates, former Broken Arrow High School kicker Peter Jessee, paralyzed during a surfing incident, is cheered during a brief ceremony before Friday’s scrimmage at Tiger Stadium in Broken Arrow. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World
Broken Arrow kicker Carl Salazar helps his former rival Peter Jessee onto the Tiger Stadium field Friday. Salazar will wear Jessee’s jersey No. 39 this season in honor of his friend. MICHAEL WYKE/ Tulsa WorldStory taken from the Tulsa World
