WASILLA — Aaron Cooper knew when his body hit the ground that something had gone horribly wrong.

On a clear Sunday afternoon in early November 2007, the Wasilla resident was visiting friends in North Pole to try out some new sledding tricks.

“I was trying out a new jump hit, but soon realized I had hit it too hard,” Cooper said.

Photo courtesy of Guy Davis Aaron Cooper performs his weekly physical therapy session at the Wasilla High School pool. Cooper was injured last November in a snowmachine accident that left him with a broken back and pelvis.

Preparing for the Iron Dog race, Cooper, 19, was practicing a new jump on his snowmachine when he miscalculated the landing.

“I ended up with my nose up in air and gave it too much throttle,” he said. “I couldn’t get it down, so I ditched the sled and took the impact.”

Laying there, Cooper knew he had broken his back.

“It just happened,” he said. “Mostly I was thinking about how much horrible pain I was in, screaming at these guys to call an ambulance. Then I went into shock.”

Cooper was taken by Medovac from North Pole to Fairbanks, then flown to Providence Hospital in Anchorage. Doctors informed him that his lower back was damaged, along with portions of his spinal chord, and his pelvis was smashed.

Cooper said orthopedic surgeon Dr. Upshur Spencer rebuilt his spine and put the pieces back together like a puzzle, reattaching portions of his spinal column. Despite attempts to stand and walk again following the surgery, Cooper was bedridden.

Partially paralyzed for two weeks, Cooper was taken to Alaska Regional Hospital, where he entered physical therapy for 45 days. He could move his feet and wiggle his toes, and learned to walk using a cane. After a short time, he developed rachnoiditis, scar tissue forming in his spinal chord, making movement unbearable.

“Everything was painful,” Cooper said. “It’s hard to explain. I did nothing but lay there because of the constant burning. I’d try to move and my dad would help me out of bed, but the pain would run through the whole body.”

On New Year’s day, Cooper said his father saw a KTUU television story on Mary Lee Miller, a woman who underwent spinal cord stimulation in Anchorage after a similar accident.

“It was this miracle procedure that stopped her back pain,” he said. “My dad said, ‘Come look at this everybody. This is what we need for my son.’”

In January, Cooper, who had moved in with his family in Wasilla, was referred to Advanced Medical Centers of Alaska. After some qualifying tests, Cooper was eligible for a procedure that would hopefully relieve his pain.

Doctors told him about a spinal cord stimulator (SCS), an internal device that when implanted into the subject’s body, runs wires along his or her spinal column, isolating pain signals from making their way back to the patient’s brain.

The device, about the size of a Game Boy, is run by a rechargeable battery that has leads coming out of the pelvis.

Dr. Larry Stinson, Cooper’s physician at Advanced Pain Centers of Alaska, said the test run stimulator helped Cooper stand painlessly and cut out the painkillers that he’d been on.

“When I met him, he told me he was getting ready for the Iron Dog and he seemed like he was a competitor,” Stinson said. “Here he had crushed his body and was baffled by the pain two months later. Here’s a young man who now has a reconstructed spine, but couldn’t heal because of the nerve pain.”

Stinson said Cooper’s extensive nerve pain was caused by premature signals from the scarred spinal column to the brain, sending pain signals back to his brain as if the accident had just happened.

“We wanted to allow him to be functional, like a young person should,” he said. “So we opted for the spinal cord stimulation.”

Stinson performed the surgery, inserting trial leads into Cooper’s lower back. The device was implanted near his hip and connected to cords installed up through the spine, acting as sensors. The leads then send electrodes into his back spinal column, blocking the pain messages.

“It’s like a pacemaker with electronic impulses, except it’s not regulating the heart beat, but the pain messages in his spinal cord instead,” Stinson said. “For him, the pain switch is stuck in the ‘on’ position, so he’s still having the pain. The SCS helps stabilize the pain and now he’s progressed wonderfully.”

Stinson said Cooper has become more and more mobile as his recovery progresses.

“Hopefully, he’s getting better and better pain control,” Stinson said. “He’s not paralyzed, so we want to get him back so that when he’s 22, this whole thing will be nothing but a memory.”

Cooper said he has lost certain motor functions, but is regaining them over time.

“If the reason for the pain is under control, but you still have nerve pain, then this is the niche of the SCS product,” Stinson said. “The device has been around for 25 years. The technology was mediocre, but in the last five years has become better and better.”

One reason for the improved SCS technology is battery size. No larger than a silver dollar, the battery is rechargeable and lasts up to a decade.

Guy Davis is communications director at Advanced Neuromodulation Systems (ANS), manufacturer of Cooper’s SCS. Part of St. Jude Medical Center’s neuromodulation division, Davis said ANS has helped patients like Cooper.

“It’s a good success story,” Davis said. “Even better when he reaches out to other patients and helps them.”

Cooper said when he is able to, he wants to get back on his snowmachine. It’s what he does and enjoys.

“I won’t be doing any tricks anytime soon,” he said. “But I’d like to get out there with my friends and family.”

Contact J.J. Harrier at valleylife@frontiers-man.com, or 352-2269.