Personal Trainer Tracy Markley Helps Accident Victim Regain Independence
Mark Bouvier poses with his son Jack, 2, at Tracy Markley's Personal Training Studio in Huntington Beach, where Mark does some of his physical therapy to help with injuries from a 2009 car accident. The accident left him paralyzed on the left side. His fiancee, who was in the car with Mark during the accident, was seven months pregnant with Jack at the time.
HUNTINGTON BEACH – Two years ago, all Mark Bouvier wanted was to pick up his son.
After he survived a devastating car accident in 2009 that left him with a severe brain injury, doctors questioned whether he would be able to ever again lift his child, walk or be independent.
But just about a week ago, he took his son shopping for guinea pigs. Bouvier, 29, drove in his new car fitted with special attachments to help him drive because his left arm has still not regained full function.
They walked into the store together, and when his 2-year-old son Jack couldn’t see the guinea pigs on the top shelf, Bouvier scooped him up with his right arm and lifted him to see.
“It feels good,” he said.
Bouvier is again learning to live on his own – he cooks, he cleans, he takes the stairs.
“I have the ability to regain a lot of my independence and do things on my own,” he said.
His mom, Nancy Johnson, said she sees reminders in their everyday lives that show how far her son has come.
“He didn’t accept (the diagnosis). He just keeps pushing.”
The Register caught up with Bouvier in 2010, a little more than a year after the accident.
He had braces on his legs and needed help moving his limbs. He could walk with the help of others but it was very slowly with unsure steps. He couldn’t live alone and couldn’t grab his son for a big hug.
At the time, friend and personal trainer Tracy Markley had organized a fundraiser to help pay for the five-day-a-week specialized therapy at Progressive Strength Recovery in Irvine.
Witnesses of the accident showed up, as did some of the firefighters who responded to the scene of the crash, to donate funds to help pay for Bouvier’s therapy.
“Hundreds of people came,” Markely said. “Even strangers.”
Bouvier remembers little about July 9, 2009.
He and his then-fiancee were sitting at a red light at Bolsa Chica Street and Heil Avenue. He was told a car behind them lost control and flew through the air, landing on his car. He remembers the crunching sound of the impact and briefly waking up to see someone cover him with a blanket.
He woke up at UCI Medical Center in Orange paralyzed on his left side from his face to his feet. He stayed in the hospital for two months and underwent two brain surgeries before being released.
Since then, he has worked with therapist Tom Wisenbaker, who specializes in brain injury victims, to regain function in his left side. He started with sessions five days a week but is now down to two because they are expensive and insurance does not cover the specialized therapy.