WHEN Doctors Told Mark Chenoweth He Would Never Walk Again, He Resigned Himself to Spending

WHEN doctors told Mark Chenoweth he would never walk again, he resigned himself to spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Mark, 45, had been born with spina bifida, and by the age of 34 he was unable to walk because of nerve damage to his spine.
But whilst on holiday to Menorca in October 1998, a miracle happened of biblical proportions.
He had persuaded a local dive centre to teach him to dive - despite not having the use of his legs.
When he surfaced after diving to 17 metres below the surface and was pulled back into the boat by the instructor, he could walk.
When he returned to the shore, he even walked back up the hotel ramp, PUSHING his wheelchair infront of him, to the amazement of his wife Denise and her parents.
Denise, 45, a nurse, said: ‘We just couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Mark had gone out to the dive centre in his wheelchair, and now here he was arriving back not in his wheelchair, and instead pushing it infront of him.
‘My father was speechless and myself and my mother were just watching him with tears pouring down our face. We just couldn’t stop crying.
‘We had thought he would never walk again, and yet here he was, as large as life walking towards us with a huge smile on his face. We thought we must be dreaming.
‘He just couldn’t believe it either. We were all speechless and none of us knew what to say.
‘We didn’t know how long it was going to last. When we went to bed that night, I woke up in the morning and thought I must have dreamt it all. Then Mark got out of bed and walked into the bathroom to have a shower.
‘It was wonderful to watch him. Every morning I would have to help him get dressed and help him go to the bathroom - and sometimes he would fall onto the floor as he was so helpless. Yet here he was doing it all himself. Then we walked downstairs and into the hotel restaurant for breakfast. All the staff couldn’t believe what they were seeing. The previous morning we had wheeled him in for breakfast, now here we were, just walking in like a normal couple, not having to bother about wheelchair access or whether the breakfast table would be able to accommodate the wheelchair.
‘We were scared that it would stop working, so we didn’t make any plans for the future and think he was going to spend the rest of his life being able to walk.
‘But whatever miracle had happened, it had been after the diving, so we talked about when it stopped working, we would do was book our next holiday for him to go diving straight away again.
‘When it did wear off a few days later, it happened quite quickly. The feeling in his legs went away within a few days, and soon he was back in his wheelchair.
‘But even though he had stopped being able to walk, it really boosted Mark up. It had given him the hope that he would be able to walk again.’
Since then he has dived regularly - and bizarrely, the deeper he dives, the longer he is able to walk for afterwards.
If he dives to 17 metres, he can walk for three of four days afterwards. If he dives deeper to 30 metres, he can walk for several months, 40 metres he walks for four months, and after 50 metres he can walk for at least eight months.
Over the last 12 months, he has only been back in his wheelchair twice, and it has baffled doctors.
He has even undergone tests in a special high pressured chamber, studied by doctors in Eygpt, who have tried to discover why diving has enabled him to walk. But so far they have come up with no answers.
Doctors at the City General Hospital in Stoke, where Mark has been treated over the last decade, are also baffled.
He said: ‘No-one knows why this is happening. The first time it happened, I came back from the holiday and told my consultants what had happened. They just couldn’t believe it.
‘When I next went diving I came back and walked into the hospital and they were amazed. But they don’t know why it happens.’
Mark was born with spina bifida, where the spine has not closed properly whilst developing in the womb and it causes nerve damage and possible paralysis.
By the age of 12 he had started to have difficulty walking, and by the age of 34, he was in a wheelchair.
Denise said: ‘We knew he had started to go downhill a few years before he was in a wheelchair. we were walking along the seafront at Cannes and Mark was unable to walk in a straight line down the pier front.’
In October 1997 he had an operation to try and help repair his damaged nerves, but it wasn’t a success.
Denise said: ‘Mark became extremely depressed when he had to be reliant on his wheelchair. When we had first met we were both 19, and he was full of life. His walking had started to go downhill, but he could still cycle, which he loved, and for my 21st birthday he took me cycling to the Lake District.
‘Slowly he got worse, and when he couldn’t walk anymore, he refused to have a wheelchair for several years, and would just sit in the house in a chair and wouldn’t go out. If we did go out for a drive in the car, he wouldn’t get out when we arrived.
‘He was just so devastated at not being able to walk anymore. When we had married, he was still able to walk and we even enjoyed skiing holidays. But now he couldn’t go anywhere without his wheelchair.
‘He even had to give up his job as an accountant because he couldn’t get out to see clients.’
‘When the surgeons said they could operate, he became really excited, as he thought he may have a chance of walking again. When it didn’t work, I thought he may get even more depressed.
‘I gave up my job as a nurse, and took some office work instead, as the long hours as a nurse meant I couldn’t be there, looking after him.
‘But actually the operation did give him some hope. He thought that one day he may be able to have a successful operation. He was so excited by the thought, that he wanted to book a holiday, which I was thrilled at, as before, it had been difficult to even get him to go out of the house.’
The couple went on holiday to Rhodes in the summer of 1998, where Mark tried to persuade a local dive centre to teach him. But they refused, saying he would have to have a doctor certify that he was fit to learn.
When he returned hom to Staffordshire, he went to see the hospital consultant and persuaded him to let him try.
Mark said: ‘The doctor told me that it could be dangerous and that if I went below 18 metres then it could kill me, as I wouldn’t be able to feel any nitrogen bubbles building up in my legs because they were numb. That could lead to me having a heart attack.
‘But I was so desperate to learn to dive.’
On the couple’s next holiday five months later, Mark went to another dive centre, and signed up for a course.
He had to be lifted out of his wheelchair and into the water, and even though his legs were lifeless, the instructor pulled him through the water.
He managed to dive to 17 metres, and thats when the miracle happened. He discovered he could walk when he came out.
He said: ‘It was just unbelievable. I came out and I could feel my legs like I had never felt them before. They were actually working. The instructor couldn’t believe it. I just stood up in the boat and shouted ‘Look at this’. Neither of us could believe it.
‘He’d seen me arrive in my wheelchair, and now I didn’t need it.
‘When I arrived back at the hotel and walked up to Denise she just couldn’t believe it. She and my mother in law just started crying. It was very emotional.
‘When we got home we booked our next holiday. I couldn’t wait to go diving again and see if I could walk again.’
He didn’t have long to wait. The couple went to South Africa five months later, and again after the dive, he could walk for another few days.
He said: ‘Over the next few years I experimented and found that the deeper I dived, the longer I could walk for afterwards.
‘I had to go to below 17 metres. It was lucky that I didn’t just go down to 16 metres on my first dive, or else I would have never found out.
‘Now I dive to deeper depths as it means I can walk for longer. If I dive to 50 metres, then I walk for about eight months at a time, so thats what I do now. And I’m just about to go on another diving course, to qualify upto depths of 55 metres.
‘I’ve only used my wheelchair twice in the last year - it feels absolutely fantastic. Friends and family can’t believe it.
Denise added: ‘We go on holiday and Mark has to be lifted out of his wheelchair in the boat and lowered into the water, and when he comes out he can walk again. Its like a miracle.
‘When we went on holiday to Kenya in 2002, the staff at the hotel where we were staying were very religious, and they kept thinking that a miracle had happened. They had seen Mark arrive at the hotel in his wheelchair, go off diving whilst still in his wheelchair, then come back walking and spending the rest of the holiday walking around the resort.
‘And he’s a changed man too. He’s so much stronger and happier - and more like the man I married. Its great to be able to have a normal husband and wife relationship too - just like any normal couple. For years I have been Mark’s carer and he’s been the patient - now its like we are a proper couple again. And I’ve been able to go back to work as a nurse again as he doesn’t need me as a carer like he did.
‘After the first few dives, he could walk for longer, and he went abseiling and also did archery, and windsurfing too. He’s completely independent, and can drive again now too. He even goes on diving holidays sometimes on his own. It has really given him a new lease of life.’
Mark has been examined by Eyptian doctors in 2004, who put him into a hyperbaric chamber, to mimic the high pressure underwater.
The only theory that medics have been able to come up with is somehow the extra oxygen is affecting the nerve cells and making them work temporarily.
Denise added: ‘A few years ago a research centre at the Bupa Hospital in Hull wanted to do some research on Mark, but the funding wasn’t available. We would be willing to help out in any further research as it may help other patients who are wheelchair bound with spina bifida.’
Mark added: ‘Its just like a miracle. I’m just so thankful that I wanted to learn to dive so desperately - otherwise I would have spent the rest of my life in a wheelchair.’