Puyallup—
There is so much in life we take for granted, things we don't appreciate until they're gone. A Puyallup man knows all too well how quickly that can happen and how much work and determination it takes to get what you've lost back.Steve Gross has had a lot of firsts in his life. His first kiss, first car, the first time he rode his dirt bike. A few days ago he had a first that tops all of those. But to appreciate what Steve has accomplished, first you have to understand how he got here.
"At that point all I could do was barely move one arm. They said the chances are really slim you'll get anything back at all," says Gross.
Steve was paralyzed from the neck down when he crashed his dirt bike five years ago. Since then, he's gone through grueling physical therapy at Pushing Boundaries, a rehab center in Redmond that specializes in helping people with spinal cord injuries.
As part of his therapy, Steve was strapped into the "Lokomat", a robotic walking machine, so he could feel what it was like to walk again. Finally just a few days ago he did.
"They gave me some arm crutches and weren't sure I was ready but I wanted to try and I did it. I was just crying, tears of joy just running down my face," says Gross. He says the feeling was amazing, accomplishing something he thought might never be possible and proving his doctors wrong. It's a first he will never forget, but don't think it will be his last. His next is to walk without crutches, and then to jog.
"That's just amazing to even think about. You just have to fight and you can't give up," says Gross.
Steve travels 50 miles each way from Puyallup to Redmond for therapy twice a week. He hopes someday to get back on his dirt bike.
