What happened?

First, let's try to understand what happened to JoJo on that fateful day two and a half years ago.  As you know, he was on a church youth trip at the beach.  As he dove into the water, the waves tossed him in such a way that two of the vertebrae in his spine were broken.  Although the hard bones of the spinal column protect the soft tissues of the spinal cord, vertebrae can still be broken or dislocated in a lot of different ways that can cause traumatic injury to the spinal cord. Injuries can occur at any level of the spinal cord. The segment of the cord that is injured, and the severity of the injury, will determine which body functions are compromised or lost.

JoJo has factured his Cervical-5 and Cervical-6 vertebrae (C5 and C6).   The cervical spinal nerves are located in the neck, and control signals to the back of the head, the neck and shoulders, the arms and hands, and the diaphragm (the muscle that controls breathing).  As you descend down the spine, the areas of movement that are controlled by that portion of the spine go down the body.  When the spinal cord is injured, the patient loses movement of the muscles controlled by the nerves not only in the injured portion of the spine, but every other portion below the site of injury, meaning Jojo has limited control of his hands/arms, and chest, and paralysis (loss of movement) of the areas beneath the mid-chest.

He spent the first several months after his injury hospitalized.  The first few weeks, he was intubated (which means he was hooked to a breathing machine that filled his lungs with air, and breathed for him).  As swelling decreased, he was able to come off of the ventilator and is now able to breathe unassisted (Praise God!!).  He is still the same JoJo that our whole town has grown to know and love over the years!  He travels by wheelchair, and through the support of his family and friends he has adapted quite well to his circumstances. 

I have heard a multitude of doctors say that the patient's outlook and their support system is the most important factor in their recovery.  I'd say that JoJo and Jessica have got those two things more than covered!