Blind hunter still has it
Friday, November 28, 2008
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) _ Dennis Thompson finally bagged a buck. This feat is all the more amazing because Thompson is missing his right leg, right arm and is blind as a result of a motorcycle accident in 2001, when he collided head-on with a car at 45 miles per hour and fell into a coma lasting more than two months.
To survive, he needed 156 units of blood. His heart stopped four times.
"At first it was just a question of whether I could get out of bed, ever," said Thompson, 46, of Columbia.
After nine months in a hospital, Thompson began his quest to normalcy. He was fitted with a prosthetic leg and arm. Previously right-handed, he learned to do everything with his left hand. And he learned how to "see blind." It was a painful adjustment, but he refused to feel sorry for himself. "I've always been taught growing up, whatever you put into life, that's what you get out," he said.
Thompson said Thursday he was determined to get as much of his life back as possible after the accident. He began working by answering phones for his family's company, Star Heating & Air Conditioning. He bought a motorized fishing pole so that he could fish without help. He also met his future wife, Sandy, who was working at the doctor's office where he went to be fitted for his prosthetics.
"We went out for Dairy Queen one day, and that was the end of it," he said with a big smile.
Thompson, a duck hunter before the accident, said that several years ago he thought he would like to give bowhunting a try. He spoke with a cousin working as a Border Patrol agent who supplied him with a military-style laser to attach to a crossbow. The laser sight, which required a special permit from the Missouri Department of Conservation, allowed a guide to see where Thompson was aiming the point of the laser and his weapon. But there were unintended consequences.
"Evidently, the deer could see the dot, too," said Thompson with a laugh. "When we put the laser on, man, them tails went up and they were gone."
Three years ago, Thompson learned about Boone County Special Sportsmen, an organization that arranges for people with physical handicaps to go hunting. The group's co-founder, Victor Acton, said he recognized that working with Thompson would be the group's biggest challenge yet.
"We've done" hunting with "one-armed guys, we've done one-legged guys, we've done blind guys, but we've never done all three together," Acton told him at the time. "But we'll try to take you out."
After realizing bowhunting wouldn't work out, Thompson remembered seeing hunting shows that featured a video image of game behind the cross-hairs of a rifle scope. He thought video equipment would help a hunting guide serve as his eyes, allowing Thompson to hunt with a rifle.
After four months of searching on the Internet using special software for the blind, Thompson paid $1,300 for a rifle scope that can be used with a video monitor. The device would allow a spotter to direct Thompson's rifle, either whispering commands or tracing "up, down, left, right" on his back.
This is Thompson's second year hunting with the scope. On Nov. 15, Special Sportsmen organizers arrived at his home at 3 a.m. and took Thompson and five other disabled hunters to a 300-acre plot near Hallsville.
Last weekend, Thompson and spotter Mike DeShazo waited until nearly 4 p.m. Finally, a young buck moved within about 50 yards. DeShazo, who helped Acton start Special Sportsmen, watched the monitor and directed Thompson's aim.
"He whispered, Squeeze,' " Thompson recalled. But the first shot went awry, and the deer ran another 100 yards. Loading a second shell, the team made another attempt. "Pow," Thompson said of the direct shot to the heart.
"I've hunted caribou in Manitoba, bears in Saskatchewan, Canada," DeShazo said. "I've hunted all over, and I've never done anything this exciting."
Thompson plans to keep hunting and might try to get out again this season. "I find that if I put the effort into it, then other people will put effort into helping me," he said. "I've found you can't just sit around and wish for things to happen. You kind of gotta show ambition."
Acton said Special Sportsmen is always looking for new places to hunt, new volunteers and disabled hunters, particularly youths.