GREENE – In late April, Thomas Akshar stood before an applauding crowd surrounded by fellow firefighter graduates and told them they could accomplish anything themselves. It was a moment of which he had long dreamed.
The 22-year-old Greene Fire Department volunteer successfully completed the New York State Firefighting One Training Course with 20 other classmates and is now a certified interior fireman – despite only having the use of one of his arms.
The course involved a number of state mandated written exams, timed physical trials and hands-on evaluations. Many of the tests performed required participants to complete them without any assistance.
Paralyzed from his right shoulder down, Tom had to rely on his left arm and will power to accomplish such tasks as cutting a ventilation hole through a house’s roof with a chain saw, quickly setting in place a 25 foot ladder, dressing in his full turn out gear – bunker pants, boots, jacket, hood, gloves and helmet – in under 90 seconds and then putting on an oxygen tank.
In total, a firefighter carries with him around 75 pounds of interior equipment and has to be able to confront obstacles in the form of locked doors, blinding smoke, searing flames, unconscious victims and a depleting air supply.
“You have to look at getting things done differently. I kept playing them out in my mind as I watched the others do it. I’m trying to create a plan of action in my head: I do this, then I have to get this done,” said Tom. “Try tying your boots one handed and you’ll see the point. You can’t give up on things. If you can’t get your boots on, then you won’t be going anywhere. It’s that simple.”
On Jan. 2, 2003, Tom was traveling in the front passenger seat with his 14-year-old twin brother in the back seat. Tom’s sister was driving the car when it came over a small hill along County Road 30 in Afton and struck a patch of black ice. His sister lost control of the vehicle and Tom, who wasn’t wearing his seat belt, was ejected from the vehicle and slammed into a nearby tree ahead of the sliding car. A moment later, the car came up behind him and pinned him against the trunk.
With the car’s red paint smeared into his flesh and clothing, Tom struggled to free himself from the wreckage despite his fractured ribs and pelvis, a partially collapsed lung, spinal injuries and a crippled right arm. He slumped from the impact and amid the car’s debris and his own blood as he laid on the snow-covered ground, waiting.
“It seemed like I laid in that snow for hours just waiting to hear the sounds of those sirens,” he recalled.
Tom was taken to Wilson Regional Medical Center in Binghamton by ambulance because the emergency helicopter was unavailable at the time. He was to spend the next two and a half weeks in the intensive care unit.
Those emergency responders pulling him from the roadway that day were people who knew him and his family personally. He was a member of the Afton Fire Department’s High School Explorer group and eager to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, by 9 years, who was already a member of the service.
“It was weird because all the doctors were talking about if I’d be losing my arm or not and the decision wasn’t even up to me – it was my mom’s,” he said. “I told her ‘no, I want to keep it,’ though.”
Tom would go on to have surgeries at a number of different hospitals in a number of states. By April 25, 2003, he entered a recovery phase. Today he is able to move his right arm slightly after doctors successfully connected nerves from his pectoral muscles. “I tense my chest and my arms moves. It was strange at first,” laughed Tom.
Apart from the physical challenges he faced following the accident, Tom said one of the hardest things to do was let go of his childhood dream of being a fireman.
“When I was younger, 10, I think, my twin brother and I saw how much fun our older brother had suiting up to go our to a fire or an accident. It was very exciting, especially as kids. There was this big smile he had when he always went out, so I got into the Explorer program. When I had the accident, I thought that was the end of my dreams, basically,” said Tom.
Tom moved away from Afton to live with his father in Massachusetts in 2004.
“When I moved out to Massachusetts with my father, it was a big life change for me. He basically encouraged me that there was nothing I couldn’t do. He’d say ‘Hey Tom, go do this.’ And I couldn’t ever say no to him. I got my mind set that I can do it and I did it,” he said.
Tom came back to the area in 2009 for the sole reason of joining the local fire service.
“In Massachusetts there aren’t volunteers, only paid firemen, and I wanted to be a fireman,” he said. “We’d sit there and watch the trucks go by and every time I’d tell myself I needed to get back to it.”
“I always remember something my brother, Fred Akshar, told me after the accident. You can have anything you want in life. But the man upstairs deals you your cards for life and you have to play them, there is no folding.”
Tom thanked the Afton and Greene Fire Departments for their help in making his dream a reality.
“I owe a lot to the Greene department and Afton, but also to all the members of the FF1– the recruits. They’re the ones that helped me get through it. I don’t think I would’ve been able to go through with it without these guys and the instructors. They never told me I couldn’t do it. They’d say ‘OK, let’s see if you can do it.’”
Tom said sometimes he has his low points over his disability, but turns to those in his family and in the fire service for comfort.
“I go about my day just like everyone else – just sometimes it’s twice as hard,” he said.
“It’s better to joke about it,. There’s times to be serious in life and others to just laugh. You’ve got to be able to laugh at things,” he added, recalling his occasional nickname, “Lefty.”
Tom says every time he heads out to a call now, it reminds him of a second chance in life and he wants to make it count.
“I got a second chance at life and I want to prove to myself and to others what I can do. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve always wanted to be a firefighter.”
“There a reason why I’’m here, why we’re all here on Earth. I’m as happy as I’ve ever been.”