A winner, home to heal
Recovering from fall, he says depression didn't defeat him.
Mar 09, 2008
Jordan Burnham walked down the hall of his apartment building. He leaned on a walker, moved slowly, and broke a sweat.
But Jordan, 18, was home and walking on Friday - five months after jumping out his ninth-floor window in a suicide attempt.
For a week, he has been sleeping in his own room in King of Prussia, steps from that window.
A senior at Upper Merion High School, Jordan previously spoke to The Inquirer of his battle with depression in an article published in January.
"The first thing I saw when I came home," Jordan said Friday, "was the actual ground where I fell. It didn't freak me out. I didn't get any memories or flashbacks. "
He does not remember going out the window.
"When I was with my dad yesterday," he added, "I was just staring at that window, and looking down and seeing how far it is, and realizing just how much of a miracle it is that I survived. It really hasn't affected me emotionally, like I thought it would. "
Even though he was being treated for depression, Jordan became so overwhelmed on Sept. 28 that he made the leap, falling 90 feet. He spent 114 days at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, then weeks at Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital in Malvern.
At first his parents, Earl and Georgette, were filled with trepidation at the idea of his going back to that ninth-floor bedroom.
But Jordan, shortly before leaving HUP, told his father that he wanted to go back - to prove to himself that the depression didn't win, didn't defeat him. That eased the parents' fears tremendously.
The window also has a safety mechanism now and won't open more than eight inches.
Jordan's father has moved Jordan's athletic trophies from his closet to the window shelf. "When he looks at that window," Earl said, "I want him to think, 'Look at what I've achieved in life. ' "
His body is still badly broken - his left leg in a cast, his left wrist unable to bear weight. But he can get himself out of bed, move around on his walker, lift himself in and out of his wheelchair.
He has weaned himself off pain medications, other than a pain patch. He said the nerve pain in his legs, both of which were badly injured, had subsided a great deal.
He still may require plastic surgery to help repair a large wound on his lower back, where he landed.
On March 19, he will begin outpatient physical and occupational therapy. He is also being treated for depression.
Jordan is in good spirits. He went to his high school musical Thursday in a wheelchair.
His weight has climbed to 130 pounds, from a low of 100, but not yet the 140 he weighed as a varsity golfer and baseball pitcher. His father, the athletic director at Upper Merion High School, begins most mornings cooking Jordan bacon and eggs.
Thursday evening, one of his closest friends, Ryan Donovan, visited, and they played video games in Jordan's bedroom - just as they had done countless times before Jordan's fall.
Later, Donovan sent Jordan this text message:
"I jus wana let u no I never thought I wud ride that elevator up to ur apartment ever again . . . N I felt for the first time today I really got my boy back. "
Contact staff writer Michael Vitez at 215-854-5639 or mvitez@phillynews.com.
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