Sequim Gazette staff

Residents are invited to hear the inspirational story of Patrick Lynn at 11 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, at

Sequim Valley Church of the Nazarene, 481 Carlsborg Road, and his triumph over adversity.

On July 4, 2009, Lynn was a youth camp teacher in the Dominican Republic when he dove into a river, hitting his head on a boulder hidden in two feet of water. The accident crushed his C-3 vertebra and paralyzed him completely and immediately.

“I remember thinking I was going to die,” Lynn said in a telephone interview.

It took 5.5 hours to get him to a hospital and paying the hospital $10,000 in cash before it permitted his release. At the University of Miami Medical Center, he was told he had less than a 5 percent of every walking again, even with neck surgery. With no other choice, he had the surgery, despairing that he’d never function again. After 140 days in the hospital, he felt a small twinge and overthe next three months, he slowly regained the use of his arms and legs.

Lynn takes his inspirational story to high schools across the country to help teens who are in tough situations come to grips with what’s going on in their lives, as he did. Lynn tells them, “You have to take and active role in your circumstances. You’re responsible for you.” At Sunday’s talk, he’ll also share a video of his recovery. To celebrate his life now, Lynn also will speak about his plans to ride a bicycle across the United States.

The public is invited to hear his remarkable story.