Published by North Star Press
ISBN#: 0-87839-205-X
Price: $14.95 [Order details]

Foreword by Joe Schmit, Sports Director, KSTP-TV, St Paul, Minnesota

Ben Peyton's story began on Sunday, December 22, 1996. On that fateful day, while playing hockey for the Edina Junior Gold team, he collided with a player from the opposing team and lay motionless on the ice. His parents, John and Nancy, observed the horrific collision and experienced every parent's worst nightmare. Doctors offered little hope that the seventeen-year old would ever regain use of his limbs. After two emergency surgeries to repair crushed vertebrae and fuse his spine, Ben was paralyzed from the neck down. His story is more than a simple tragedy. His was a study in courage, fortitude, and inspiration. From the day of his accident, BE NOT AFRAID proceeds to describe in detail Ben's struggles with life-threatening pneumonia, a collapsed lung, and his extraordinary will to regain some--any--use of his limbs. It concludes on March 26--the day he leaves the Sister Kenney Institute.

Ben Peyton and Peter Rennebohm

Excerpt:

…Ben saw it coming but had no time to brace himself. His head snapped back viciously, and his feet left the ice as he was propelled up and back. Landing on the back of his neck, he lay motionless, his arms and legs splayed to the sides. Strangely, there was no pain--or any other feeling.

John and Nancy had seen Ben hit that hard before. The impacts often looked worse than the one they just witnessed, and Ben always got up and skated off.

Come on, Ben, John begged. Get up!

John couldn't move. Like a petrified tree, he stood leaning against the glass, his fingers as white as ice as the color drained from his face. He watched in horror as the referee signaled a time out and motioned for help.

Ben's coach ran onto the ice and slid to a stop beside Ben. Players from both teams gathered around.

When Nancy saw her son hit the ice, she knew he was in trouble. She ran down the sideboards toward the players' box and shouted, "John! You'd better come!"

John, still caught in the nightmare of the moment, didn't want to move, but he must. He was paralyzed by the thought of dealing with the horror on the ice. If I stand here just a little longer, Ben will move, and the nightmare will end. Please, let it end!

It didn't end. Suddenly, everything speeded up, and John ran out to join his wife and son on the ice….

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Portions of the proceeds from the sale of each BE NOT AFRAID book will be donated to: The Morton Cure Paralysis Fund.