New Jersey Stage Issue 53 | Page 6

Gooch & the Motion SHARE BUTTON by Gary Wien This New Year’s Day will be 15 years to the day that Ryan Nelson’s life changed forever. The Salem County musician crashed his pickup truck head first into a tree, smashing his C7 vertebra, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. Doctors told him he died three times on the helicopter ride to the hospital. He would move on to a second hospital for spinal cord surgery and a third for rehabilitation. It was there that NJ STAGE - ISSUE 53 INDEX NEXT ARTICLE 6