When Tanner Wegher regained consciousness, the road was 150 feet away. He was disoriented and lying on frozen dirt far from the remains of his car in a remote area of the San Luis Valley.
He prepared himself to die.
Three years after Wegher nearly lost his life in the car accident, his driving force is to get better so he can help others.
Wegher, who turned 38 on Feb. 14, grew up under Perins Peak in Durango and graduated from Entrada, a now-closed charter school in the city. Growing up, the outdoors was his retreat, whether it was skateboarding, snowboarding or hiking.
Wegher was on his way to the mountains to go camping in January 2018 when he ran off the road near Rock Creek in the San Luis Valley.
“I was going down a road I knew really well, and I don’t know what happened,” Wegher said. “I don’t have any memory of what happened. I just remember waking up in the dirt.”
He called for help until he didn’t have a voice. He crawled to his vehicle, where he wrapped himself in a sleeping bag. When someone said help was on the way, he thought he was dreaming.
He was flown by helicopter to Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs where he learned his back was fractured in four places. He had a fractured pelvis, sacrum, ribs and tailbone, bruised organs, a severe concussion and memory loss, according to his GoFundMe fundraiser.
Garett Dickinson, a friend since sixth grade, remembered seeing Wegher for the first time weeks after his accident.
“There was, of course, a heaviness that had settled onto him because of everything that happened,” Dickinson said.
Wegher had always been adventurous, kind and ready to enjoy the good things in life, Dickinson said. The kind of guy who, as a teenager, would shirk cliques to befriend the “outcast.”
“Despite the heaviness he was experiencing, those better aspects of his nature just seemed to really be ignited even more,” he said.
His doctor told him there was a chance he would not walk again, Wegher said.
He spent about a month in the intensive care unit. Colorado Springs had the medical care he needed, so he decided to stay. But when he was discharged from the hospital, he did not have a place to live and his monthly budget was $198.
Without family and friends to support him in the city, he stayed in the homeless shelter. He was in a wheelchair and experiencing significant, steady pain. His truck was in Durango, so Dickinson and a friend drove it to Colorado Springs.
“It was heartbreaking to see him go through something so intense, to a degree on his own and without having lots of financial resources. Just trying to make it and figure it out.” Dickinson said. “Even in the middle of all that stuff, he had a better attitude than I could picture myself having.”
He spent more than 250 nights sleeping in his truck in the first year. In his darkest times, he didn’t want to go on anymore. He struggled with loneliness and experienced severe depression.
“Just getting shut down so many times asking for help ... It really breaks you down,” Wegher said. “I don’t think anybody should ever have to suffer so badly without help. It’s almost like it sucks that people have to ask.”
In the midst of those challenges, Wegher was hatching a pay-it-forward plan – a way to use his story to help others.
“Looking around, so many other people are going through this same stuff,” Wegher said. “I quickly snap myself out of it. If I can get myself better, maybe I can help somebody else going through the same thing.”
Walking is key to his pay-it-forward plan.
Wegher wants to do a series of hikes, eventually completing the entire 500-mile Colorado Trail from Durango to Denver. The hikes would serve as fundraisers for kids with disabilities, a way to pay forward every act of kindness he has received.
“It really hit home for me when I was in the homeless shelter,” Wegher said. “There were a few other people with disabilities in the shelter, and I just thought to myself, ‘It’s way too hard for people.’”
Some aspects of the plan are still in flux: He has a long road of recovery still ahead of him before his legs can handle the distance.
“When the doctor told him he wouldn’t walk again, I think that triggered, ‘Hey I’m going to prove you wrong,’” said Michael Komrofske, a physical therapy assistant with Dynamic Physical Therapy.
The work he is putting into physical therapy is paying off. His legs have more strength, although his left leg still has significant nerve damage and his walking is limited.
“It’s extremely difficult to recover from these types of injuries,” Komrofske said. “For him to get up and move around is pretty amazing.”
“If anybody can do it, Tanner can do it,” Dickinson said.
But the health care system can be difficult to navigate, and Wegher needs continued medical support to keep advancing his recovery, he said.
“To be able to have all of these therapies and the right types of procedures done to fix some of the physical injuries, I think that’s the thing we’re focused on right now for him,” he said.
Now, the days follow a regimen.
Wegher, who is still in Colorado Springs, starts the day with 10 minutes of stretching before he gets out of bed and hours of stretching immediately after. He wakes up at 3 a.m. to make 8 a.m. medical appointments.
Meditation, yoga, breathing techniques and nutrition have helped, he said. He no longer takes powerful prescribed pain medication and focuses on staying active instead.
“During my darkest times in my recovery, I had to find ways to look on the bright side,” Wegher said. “I practice gratitude, like a gratitude list every day.”
Above all, Wegher wants to share his experiences with as many people as possible in the hope that they would help someone else.
“People are so much stronger than they know,” Wegher said. It’s really important to ask for help, and for people to share their stories, he said. “Just remember that you’re strong.”
But Wegher is already helping others. When asked if Wegher had changed him, Dickinson paused. He collected himself. He’d been going through his own challenges, he said.
“To see the hand that life’s dealt Tanner, to see him working so hard and maintaining this bigger picture for helping other people – it inspires me all the time to be honest with you.”
smullane@durangoherald.com This story has been updated to remove an inaccurate birth date for Tanner Wegher.
