AI Summary
5 min readOn a Thursday night in rural Wisconsin, 20-year-old Zach Tremski dove into a lake at 1 a.m. and immediately became paralyzed from the neck down. He was conscious underwater, face-down in the dark, unable to signal anyone. He gave up hope of being found. A friend’s girlfriend, Lindsey, felt him bite her leg, realized he wasn't playing, flipped him over, and screamed for help. By the time paramedics arrived, a storm had rolled in. He couldn't feel the rain on his face. That was when he knew this was not just shock.
The injury, the surgery, and the stroke
Tremski’s vertebrae did not crush his spinal cord, which is the usual mechanism in diving injuries. Instead, his vertebrae exploded outward. His spinal cord was badly bruised on one side but not severed. That outward explosion severed arteries in his neck, causing a stroke. He flatlined at one point. The surgery, performed by Dr. Wolflaw at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, fused his spinal column back together using a piece of bone cut from his own pelvis. The procedure took six hours instead of the expected two. During the surgery, the surgeon said “the whole lake came out of me” — water that had been trapped in his lungs, meaning Lindsey got to him seconds before drowning would have been irreversible.
The drug dependency and the slow withdrawal
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What you'll learn
- 1 Main Outline
- 2 (01:00) **The Night of the Dive** - Zach Tremski describes diving into a shallow lake at 1 AM and becoming immediately paralyzed from the neck down while conscious underwater
- 3 (07:51) **The Worst Phone Call** - Zach recounts his brother having to call their parents at 2 AM to say their son was paralyzed, and the surreal calm he felt believing he would die
- 4 (11:54) **The Ambulance and First Hospital** - Zach describes drifting in and out of consciousness, asking the paramedic if he could sleep, and being taken to a rural emergency room
- 5 (16:46) **The Grim Prognosis** - Doctors told Zach he had a broken neck, walking again was out of the question, and surviving was very much in doubt
- 6 (21:50) **The Miracle of the Exploded Vertebrae** - Zach explains that instead of crushing his spinal cord, his vertebrae exploded outward, severely bruising one side of his spinal cord but not severing it
- 7 (25:17) **The Hallway of Support** - Zach describes being rolled to surgery with friends and family lining the hallways cheering, and his memory of asking his nurse to "pull the plug"
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
At 20 years old, Zach Cheremski dove into a lake he'd grown up on and instantly became paralyzed from the neck down. In this episode, Zach shares the moments leading up to the accident, what it was like to survive a catastrophic spinal cord injury, and the physical and emotional challenges that followed. He reflects on resilience, hope, and how one split-second decision changed the course of his life forever.
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Topics Discussed:
→ Surviving a life-changing diving accident
→ Living with a spinal cord injury and quadriplegia
→ The physical and emotional challenges of recovery
→ Navigating addiction, chronic pain, and healing
→ Finding purpose, resilience, and hope after trauma
On This Episode We Cover:
→ 00:00:00 - Introduction
→ 00:01:20 - Why did they decide to go night swimming?
→ 00:04:29 - What was going through his mind while trapped underwater?
→ 00:05:26 - How was he finally rescued?
→ 00:11:26 - What happened after he arrived at the hospital?
→ 00:18:38 - Who helped his family find hope during the darkest days?
→ 00:20:20 - What unexpected complications happened after the accident?
→ 00:23:30 - Why did he ask to "pull the plug"?
→ 00:27:38 - How did the support of others change his mindset?
→ 00:36:50 - Which unexpected visitor gave him hope?
→ 00:41:46 - What was recovery in the ICU really like?
→ 00:52:12 - How did pain medication become another battle?
→ 01:01:48 - What was it like returning to college after paralysis?
→ 01:13:20 - Why was going home harder than the hospital?
→ 01:16:42 - Did the hallucinations change the way he saw life?
→ 01:20:00 - Why did he question what was real after the accident?
→ 01:35:20 - How did he finally overcome addiction?
→ 01:51:20 - What does healing really look like after surviving trauma?
→ 01:57:45 - What message does he hope others take away from his story?
→ 02:01:10 - How has this experience changed the way he lives today?
Show links:
→ Hung From a Power Line By My Leg for an Hour
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