‘He can bounce back from this;’ Morehouse student suffers severe spinal injury during basic training

ATLANTA — A Morehouse College student will have to learn how to walk again after family says he suffered a tragic injury during basic military training.

Michael Romulus, 19, was ready to attend his dream school in Atlanta, but he needed a way to pay for it, so he joined the military.

His mother, Michele Rattary, told Channel 2′s Candace McCowan that her son is everything a mother could want.

“He was always intuitive, he was always studious, did well in school, he was a great big brother,” she said.

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Then she received a phone call that no mother ever wanted to get.

While at basic training in Kansas, Rattary was told her son was hospitalized after an accident.

“He was climbing up a 30 to 40-foot wall and fell backwards,” she said. “He fractured his breast bone, and he fractured two discs in his neck.”

Now, the severe spinal surgery has put Romulis’ dream on hold.

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“The neurosurgeon said he is amazed to see the progress that he has made,” Rattary said.

She said Romulus could not move his arms and legs initially, but he has since regained some feeling.

“I think he’s drained because when you go from fully functioning to depending on someone to assist you with your daily functions,” she told McCowan.

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Rattary is now working on getting her son to Atlanta’s Shepard Center for rehabilitation so she can continue to be by his side while he gets back on his feet.

“My goal is to be there for him, to support him, and to remind him that he is strong and he can bounce back from this,” she said. “He’s going to continue at Morehouse, he’s doing biomedical engineering, and now he wants to focus on spinal injuries and how to make things more accommodating.”

To help the family, you can donate to this fundraiser.

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