By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
“Can’t” is a word that is not in Andrew Hastings’ daily vocabulary. In fact, he can play basketball. He can ride his skateboard. And he can jump on his trampoline.
And 8-year-old Andrew can do all of those things with one leg.
Andrew, whose family lives in Salisbury, was seriously hurt in an ATV accident a year and a half ago. He was visiting family friends in Mount Holly when it happened.
His mother, Elizabeth, had given instructions that Andrew could not ride the ATV. He was allowed to ride anyway.
Andrew took the ATV out into the road and a car hit him, causing severe damage to his left leg.
“When the car hit me, I didn’t know what was going on,” Andrew said.
Bystanders rushed to help the young boy. Soon after, emergency responders arrived and Andrew was flown to an area hospital.
He was immediately taken into surgery.
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Since the accident, he’s undergone nine surgeries and is about to have his 10th.
The day of Andrew’s accident, July 18, 2007, is a day his parents Elizabeth and Robbie Hastings can never erase from their memory.
“I’ll never forget that phone call that said, ‘Your son has been hit,’ ” Elizabeth said.
She said driving to the scene of the accident was horrifying because she didn’t even know if Andrew was alive.
When Andrew awoke after his first surgery, he asked his mother if she saw the man in the white dress.
She told him the man was the doctor and he was wearing a “doctor’s coat.”
Andrew told his mother he knew what a doctor looked like, but the man he saw was at the accident scene with him.
He said the man had long hair, a shiny dress and no shoes. He was standing on the side of the road reaching out to Andrew.
Andrew told his mother he saw the man as he was thrown over the top of the car and rolled off the back, landing on the ground.
The family believes the man Andrew saw was an angel there to protect him.
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The first eight surgeries Andrew had were attempts to save his leg. On the ninth, doctors had to amputate his leg just below the knee.
The family had the amputated part of Andrew’s leg cremated and held a funeral for it. In its place, he’s had six prosthetic legs.
The next surgery is a revision to cut back some of the nerves.
Andrew has some pain. His “stump,” as he calls what’s left of his leg, “still hurts.”
He works through the pain and strengthens his leg with regular physical therapy that includes morning workouts and yoga.
Elizabeth and Robbie Hastings don’t treat Andrew ó who has two younger siblings ó any differently since his accident.
“We make him take out the trash and take his dishes to the sink,” Elizabeth said.
The couple make it so Andrew can’t use the excuse that he has only one leg.
Robbie, who serves in the National Guard, used to make his son do pushups prior to the accident. The military man won’t accept any less now.
After the accident, he told his son: “Drop down and give me 20.”
He’s always told Andrew to “improvise, adapt and overcome,” a line he got from a movie and something Andrew takes to heart everyday.
He doesn’t wear his prosthetic leg at home. He mostly hops, slides or “gallops” around the house.
Although he gets around pretty well, he is still “frustrated to be back at the beginning,” he said.
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There are difficult times and inspirational moments.
Children call him names. But Andrew just reminds himself of a Bible verse that says, “Let your speech be with grace.”
Andrew overcomes obstacles that would get most people down.
“I just think I can do something and I do it,” he said.
That determination is not lost on his friends and others he meets.
Family friend Constance McGrail says it’s amazing when Andrew visits her Salisbury home to play with her 9-year-old son, Avery.
“I don’t think he realizes. I never see him get down. My children say ‘that’s just Drew,’ ” McGrail said.
She said she thinks children notice, but treat Andrew the same.
“He just keeps going. He never says, ‘I can’t do that.’ He does what he wants to do because he chooses to do it,” she said.
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Andrew is a positive thinker and he passes that attitude on to everyone he meets.
He visits the Hefner VA Medical Center and local nursing homes, where he talks to other amputees. He’s met amputees, some of them returning home from Iraq, who were not as confident as he is.
One soldier was unsure of wearing a prosthesis until he talked with Andrew.
Although family members stay positive and believe there’s a purpose for everything, they say the financial costs of their son’s surgeries, recovery and therapy have been overwhelming.
They rely heavily on their Christian faith to see them through it all.
The family had a fundraiser to help with hospital costs in 2008 and plan another in the next few months.
On Saturday, Andrew will play his final game with Upward Basketball at First Baptist Church’s Family Life Center. The center is located on Fulton Street across from the church.