Carl Hall: An Inspiring Story

Last June, family man and former Wichita State baseball player Carl Hall was injured in a car accident.  His wife, two daughters, son, and a family friend were in the car, but were uninjured.  Carl, however, was in serious condition.  After spending time in critical condition at Via Christi Hospital, his family was informed that he was paralyzed from the neck down.  The diagnosis was not positive--Carl had sustained a traumatic neck injury due to compression of his spinal cord.  

To make matters worse, just four days before the accident, Carl was laid off from his job as a pharmaceutical sales representative in company downsizing.  

Immediately after the accident while the family was still in shock, his friends came quickly to their aid.  Requests were made and fundraisers were held.  Through therapy at Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado, Carl’s rehabilitation process has been expedited, but he is still paralyzed from the neck down.  How would you feel if that you had to spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair?  It’d be a shocking and possibly depressing realization for all of us, but Carl has remained optimistic, good-natured, and determined.  For instance, because he cannot manually move his body, Carl has become an expert at propelling himself with nothing but his own breath.     

I’ve never met Carl, but I’ve heard from mutual friends that he is a great man.  Throughout this tragic ordeal, Carl has remained more positive than many of us would have had we been in his shoes.  When he was playing baseball at Wichita State, he was a standout performer, earning honor of Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year in 1994.   

In an inspiring turn of events, Carl and his family were selected to get a new house from “Extreme Home Makeover”.  To give you a snapshot of what kind of character Carl has, he was giving a pep talk to the Wichita State baseball team at their practice facility when Ty Pennington and his crew ran through the doors and announced that Carl was selected to be on the grand finale of the “Extreme Home Makeover” season.  

Construction crews and and volunteer workers started building the house a day after the announcement.  Even college students with no affiliation with the baseball programs joined the corps of volunteers that have donated their time and effort into making this project a success.

While I have never met Carl or his family, it’s stories like this that make me realize how well human beings can treat each other.  First, there’s Carl, who has remained determined and positive after the loss of his job and the loss of the functionality of his body.  His wife and his kids have displayed great courage in the face of hardship by sticking by their beloved Carl.  The Wichita community has reached a helping hand out on a huge scale.  Not only have they raised money.  They have invested their own time and effort into building him and his family a house that will accommodate his new personal needs that have arisen as a result of the accident.  This story is a great example of people helping people.  I love to see that, especially so close to home.

If you are interested in learning more, here is a link to his benefit website...

Carl Hall Family Benefit Fund.

Here's the link to his Recovery Fan Club on Facebook.