Excerpt from Cincinnati.com
Ryan Custer remembers laying in a hospital bed two years ago.
It was five or six days after the April 8, 2017 accident that left him with a critical spinal cord injury. Custer couldn't feel anything from the neck down.
He was uncomfortable and couldn’t sleep. His dad, George Custer, was by his side the entire night, Custer remembered.
“He left in the morning. We were both pretty shook up, and we were both trying to digest everything,” Custer recalled.
His mom, Kim Custer, came in to spend the day with him. Ryan Custer recalled the feeling of love and support he felt from his parents, teammates, friends, and others.
When his dad returned later that day, Custer, who was unable to speak at the time, said he mouthed, "I’ve got this.”
“From that day on, I never looked back,” he said.
That was the moment that the Elder High School class of 2016 graduate and Wright State University basketball player pivoted from feeling sorry for himself to looking forward.
Custer, 21, said he was on top of the world that day in April when everything changed. He was at a party at Miami University celebrating the completion of his freshman year of college and the end of basketball season when he jumped into a make-shift pool with other party revelers.
“I had a college scholarship. I had everything going for me. The next thing I remember I was laying on the ground, motionless,” he recalled.
The critical injury was life-changing.
