Sergeant injured in rollover crash takes first steps

ATLANTA — A Pickens County sheriff's sergeant who was severely injured two months ago celebrated a milestone on Tuesday.

After seven strenuous week, Sgt. Rick Hales had put in enough hard work to regain movement and walk again.

“When I got here, I couldn’t move. And today, I stand and I walk,” Sgt. Hales said.

He arrived at the Shepherd Center in Buckhead after a rollover crash in his squad car on February 14.

The accident left him paralyzed.

“Made me think of a head placed on a mannequin,” Hales said. “There was nothing from the neck down. No feeling. No movement. No nothing.”

Now, he stands. His nerves are firing again and there is movement in all of his extremities.

It's a world of difference from how he entered the Shepherd Center.

“I’m fortunate enough to stand. I took my first eight steps on my own and today I walked the length of a hallway,” Hales said.

Sgt. Hales took his first unassisted steps alongside parallel bars in physical therapy. He said small accomplishments add up to a monumental achievement.

"The Sergeant of the Fifth Floor," as staff called him, will now transition to even more intense therapy for six weeks, but first, he will celebrate his biggest accomplishment yet.

“I can walk!” Sgt. Hales exclaimed.

Cox Media Group