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October 14, 2009

Raisin raises hope at disabilities luncheon

Mark Millican

CRANDALL — Saul Raisin said his mom knew that the international cycling community was aware of him — and his near-fatal bicycle accident — when Lance Armstrong called to offer his help.

“Mom (Yvonne) told me Lance had called when I was in a coma and told her I was in his thoughts and prayers, and said here’s my cell phone number if you need anything,” Raisin said Wednesday at an awards luncheon for the Whitfield-Murray Disabilities Employment Awareness Committee. “Then he said one more thing — ‘Your son’s a punk because he attacked me on my last training ride before the Tour de France. But I have a lot of respect for him.’”

Raisin related how his move to France in 2005 — which he called his “breakout season” when he wore the polka dot jersey at the amateur Tour de France for winning a mountain stage — turned into an encounter with the king of cycling. He was riding six days before the big Tour began when he ran into Armstrong — a seven-time consecutive winner of cycling’s premier race — who asked him to ride with him.

“Sheryl Crow (Armstrong’s rock star girlfriend at the time) was in the car behind us giving us water,” Raisin said. “I attacked Lance (pulled ahead in cycling parlance) on the last mountain, and he tried to pass me back but couldn’t do it. Finally he just barely passed me at the finish. He said, ‘I can’t believe you attacked me on my last training ride.’”

Less than a year later, in April of 2006, Raisin crashed in a qualifying race and lay comatose with a traumatic brain injury.

“Thirty hours after the wreck, my parents had a horrific call,” he told luncheon attendees at the Cohutta Springs Conference Center. “They were told I was in emergency surgery and had slipped into a coma, and the doctors told Mom they were not sure if I would make it.”

Raisin said his parents at one point were “thinking of organ donation” because his condition was so dire.

“When my parents arrived in France, they learned I’d made it through the surgery,” he said, “but the only way my Mom could recognize me were my hands.”

At first doctors kept the coma medically induced, he said, “so all the energy would go to my brain,” but days later his parents were summoned to the hospital and a nurse said, “He’s awake!” in French.

“I was still on the respirator, but they could tell I was much more relaxed,” said Raisin. “We have a thing in my family, that if someone squeezes your hands three times it means I love you. I squeezed Dad (Jim) back four times, which means I love you, too. I did that with my right hand with Dad and my left hand with Mom.”

During the slow ride back to recovery, Raisin clung to his time on a stationary bike, began to walk and then run, and at one point actually trained with his old teammates on Team Agricole. He said a dream was to run through a park with both arms wide open to the side, and he did just that last year in the last 200 meters of the New York City Marathon that he finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes.

“Whether it’s friends or family, or God and prayers (pulling for you), all have hope,” he said. “I started the Raisin Hope Foundation (in 2007) to give hope to people who need it the most.”

Raisin has also written a book titled “Tour de Life: From Coma to Competition,” detailing his struggle after the injury.

Awards given at the luncheon included (for Murray County) student for 2009, Ryan Ridley; adult, Nick Smith; business of the year, Appalachian Bank; up-and-coming business, Bear Creek Coffee; (for Whitfield County) student, Justin Grant; adult, Jennifer Torres Salazar; business of the year, Ridgewood Manor Nursing Home; and up-and-coming business, Regency Park.

Beverly Bowman earned the hearing-impaired caseload award.









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