PAGE
JONES A MODERN DAY MIRACLE!
By Michael Harker
Page Jones is not your average
human being. He is not an average college
student, not an average employee,
not an average husband. Nearly 10 years ago, Page was an established racecar
driver, perhaps above average, running all three USAC national series. With
seven midget wins and one sprint car victory to his credit, Page
was hoping for the break so many dreamed of moving up in the racing world
and driving an Indycar or stock car.
The 14th annual “4-Crown Nationals”,
which took place Sept. 25, 1994 at Eldora Speedway
in Rossburg, Ohio, was a USAC tripleheader at
the 1/2-mile dirt track, with the first feature consisting of the National
Midget Car Series, then the National Sprint Car Series, and finally the
Silver Crown Series. Page was entered in all three series and qualified
for each feature the previous night, one of only two drivers scheduled to
run all three events. The native of Torrance, Calif. started out race night with
a fourth-place finish in the midget race. Heading into the sprint
car feature, Page was ready to add to his win earlier in the
year at Marne, Mich. He would start high in the
field, and following the 25-lap feature, he would run to another car, just
as he had done earlier in the night.At least that was the plan.
It appeared Page would finish high in the sprint feature after jumping
into the lead early. But while he was maneuvering through slower
traffic, he lost traction in turns three and four, clipped the wall and
flipped. That’s when Page’s world and life changed instantly.
Another car slammed into Page’s
rollcage, causing, among others, severe
head injuries, which became
permanent. Page said at that time he was no
longer alive, but a former
racer told him to go back to Earth. “When I had the accident, I was dead,”
he said. “I had a brief moment when
I went up to heaven. I saw
Kara Hendrick up there. She told me ‘Page, it’s not your time. Go back. You’ve
got more to do down there.” I was virtually dead. But paramedic Darick
Brunson brought me back.”
Page was the third victim who
needed to be transported to the hospital and, accompanied by Brunson, flew
via helicopter to the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. At one point, he had stopped
breathing. Meanwhile, Page’s famous father, Parnelli, was in Utah at a vacation home. Page’s
brother P.J., participating at a race in Tucson, broke the news to their
father.
“One of the kids who was with
Page called P.J. and P.J. called him back,
and the kid said that Page
had been hurt really bad,” Parnelli said. “So
P.J. called me and told me
that.”
P.J. jumped on Vince Granatelli’s
Learjet in Phoenix and headed to Los
Angeles to pick up his mother
Judy. The jet then landed in Utah to pick up Parnelli, and the family headed
to Dayton, where Page was fighting for his life. When the Joneses
arrived early the next morning, several of the drivers racing at Eldora were already
waiting in support of Page. Parnelli, Judy and P.J. were able to visit
with Page, who remembers them holding his hand and talking to him. Though
Parnelli said he looked fine but numb, nobody knew if Page would pull through.
“During the first three days,
they didn’t know if he was going to live or not,” Parnelli said. “He was
really critical at that point.” Page battled for those three days, much
as his family thought he would. Still, there were workers who
said he would never walk again, would never be able to undertake
everyday activities. He would later prove them wrong. “My family never accepted
the fact that he wasn’t going to get well,” Parnelli said.
His family would stay with
Page in Ohio for 3-4 weeks before going back to California. During his stay, Parnelli
and Judy found that Daniel Freeman Hospital in Inglewood, which had a rehab center,
would be the best place for Page to do therapy. After
his time in Dayton, Page made his way to Daniel Freeman.It
was a struggle. Doctors told Parnelli that Page was still coming out of
a coma. They also said he would need special attention the rest
of his life.
“One of the doctors told me
that he was going to need 24 hours of help a
day the rest of his life, as
well as a special training table, a
handicapped bathroom, wheelchair,
the whole shebang,” Parnelli said. “He
gave me the worst scenario
in the world.”
Page needed none of that. He
worked hard to improve physically, thanks in part to motivation and his
positive attitude, eventually learning how to walk again, as well as doing
special exercises and stretching. Though he made the biggest jumps in his
recovery over his two years at Daniel Freeman and Casa Colina, another rehab
center, it wasn’t easy.
“It was like being born again,”
Page said. “The simplest things were
difficult. Instead of being
a baby two or three feet off the ground, I was six feet above the ground.”
That time was also frustrating for Page, who Parnelli said tore up
nearly 150 T-shirts. “He would reach down, grab them
and put them in his mouth and just rip them right off his chest,”
Parnelli said. “He was just nervous; it was just unreal. But
he never ran out of T-shirts because his friends kept sending them
to him. One of his friends sent him a T-shirt that had a dotted line across
it, and it read, ‘Tear here, Page’. His friends really, really stuck by
him.”
By the time two years had passed,
those tending to Page felt they got him as far as he would go in life.
But that was just the beginning. Parnelli and Judy sent Page to Indianapolis for a year, where a computer
program helped him progress.
Next, he went to the Rusk Institute at New
York University in Manhattan, which specializes in assisting
people with
brain injuries. There, he made
strides in communication, standing up in
front of people and giving
speeches. Professionals at NYU also taught Page how to cope with his injury.
“They basically taught him
that he was going to encounter obstacles in life and how to go around them,”
said Jamie Jones, his wife of three years. “And the one thing about Page is
that he’s so positive about his accident that he’s been moving forward. They
haven’t really seen any limitations on his recovery because of his positive
attitude.”
During his time at NYU, Parnelli
and a group of 17 others made a trip to
South Africa. One of those people was Jamie
Zupanovich, who later became
Jamie Jones. She became Page’s
roommate on the trip, and the two hit it off almost instantly, and were
married April 14, 2001.
“He has the biggest heart in
the world,” Jamie said. “He is emotionally
generous with me. He’s incredibly
handsome, so that helps. And he is so
cheerful. He’s taught me so
much about life and not to take anything for
granted. I think that was the
biggest lesson learned. And I just fell hard.” Added Parnelli, “They love
each other like you can’t believe.” But Page made another step in life by
regaining his driver’s license, perhaps the biggest goal he has
reached thus far. Three years after his accident, Parnelli took
him to Danny McKeever’s Fast Lane Racing School in Lancaster,
Calif. He turned some miraculous laps, Parnelli said. “I was really shocked
at how well he did,” Parnelli said. “I’m anxious to take him
back to do it again. Not that he’s ever going to race again, but I think
it might make him feel better about himself.”
And it was a step, perhaps,
in regaining his license. Parnelli hired a
professional instructor, and
Page re-learned how to drive in a car equipped with two steering wheels. For
his efforts, Page learned how to become patient in a car, something
difficult for racecar drivers to do. “It’s difficult for a racecar driver
to do everything by the law on the street, like going the speed
limit and not taking the corners too fast,” Page said. “I had to learn how
to do all of that.”
Jamie used to kid him by jumping
into the back seat, but has no problem
with his driving abilities.
“He’s a really safe driver, plus he had to
prove himself twice as hard
as we did, with him having a brain injury,” she said. “Anyone who suffers a
brain injury, it’s more difficult for them to come back, and it’s pretty
miraculous that he got his license back.” Parnelli has ridden with Page
several times, noting his amazing recovery.
The one thing Page has not
done, though, is drive on his own. “The thing that we haven’t done is turned
him loose to just take off by himself,” Parnelli said. “But he
drives fine.”
Page has also attended several
local colleges near his San Pedro, Calif.
home, including the Coastline
Community College. There, he took a number of business classes in addition
to his computer and cognitive classes. He also studied current events and
comprehension. All of his classes have been designed to teach students
like Page concentration and motor skills. Again, Page’s attitude surpassed
many people’s imaginations. He spoke at his graduation ceremony from
Coastline and is now attending Santa Monica City College, which has a program
for people with brain injuries. His positive qualities have helped him gain
a part-time job at his father-in-law’s business, Harbor Diesel,
which specializes in diesel engine parts and repair.
His attitude will help him
as a father, as Page and Jamie are scheduled to welcome into their family
a baby boy in mid-September. The unborn child is expected to be healthy
once born.
“That made Page really proud,”
Jamie said. “We’re starting a family. We’re moving on, which is nice. He
decided to become a father.”
As Page continues to step forward
and better himself, Parnelli has seen
vast improvements between Page
before and after his accident. Page has
never been opposed to complete
and attend different functions, therapies
and programs to better himself.
Though Page is not the same, he is better in other ways.
“He’s just a little bit different
than he was before,” Parnelli said. “There’s a lot of the same
things. He’s got a lot of great qualities. One thing that’s really
helped him is that he’s always been able to tell the women how beautiful
they were, kiss them on the hand, and give them a hug. Boy, that
has really helped propel him through his recovery. Anytime a nurse
was down, all she had to do was come in and talk to Page for a little while.
He’d be telling her how beautiful she was and that sort of thing. He’s
got a great quality there. What he might have lost he gained in a lot of
other ways.”
Page still talks about racing,
about his days with USAC and its officials, about the drivers he used to
compete against. But has his accident changed his attitude on racing?
“No it hasn’t,” he said. But
it’s not something he dwells on. “I try not to think about it,” he said.
“I’ll support all of my friends who are still racing, and I try
to help them out as much as possible. I’m not down on it. I feel
that my role now is to instruct, be their coach, and basically
help out as much as possible.”
Page Jones enjoys sharing his
story with others. Anytime he finds tasks too difficult to complete, he said
all he needs to do is “look at the video of myself, and that inspires me
to keep going forward.”
And Jamie said Page has taught
her so much about life. “He’s really motivational to other people
who suffer similar injuries, or just people who are everyday
people,” she said. “He’s been an inspiration to me. He’s taught
me all sorts of different things about life; not to take things
for granted, and he loves to share that with people.”
Nobody would expect anything
different for an above-average guy who has a positive attitude on life.
