After His Stroke, Charlie Daniels May Take Up Skydiving

The mild stroke occurred while the 73-year-old musician was snowmobiling in Colorado with his wife and friends. Thankfully, the accident occurred near a local hospital, Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango, Colo., and the facility had recently began stocking the drug used to break up the blood clot in his brain. Daniels explained that if he had arrived at the hospital any later, the clot would have caused permanent damage.

“It’s just an absolute fact that God was looking after me,” he told the Associated Press.

Daniels can thank his lucky stars that a plane was immediately available because after being treated at Mercy Regional Medical Center, he was airlifted to Swedish Medical Center in Denver, about 230 miles away.

The Grammy-winner and Grand Ol Opry member was released from the hospital on Sunday, returning to his vacation home near Durango to recover.

He has begun physical therapy “to speed up” the healing process. Although he has numbness in his left hand, doctors say feeling will return on its own.

Daniels says he’s “doing fine” and that the Charlie Daniels Band has no plans to cancel any upcoming shows. The band’s 2010 tour kicks off Feb. 27 at St. Lucie County Fairgrounds in Fort Piece, Fla.

“I can still play my fiddle. I can play my guitar. One of the first things I did when I came home from the hospital in Denver was to pick up my guitar and make sure my fingers still worked on it,” Daniels said.

After the left side of his body began to go numb Jan. 15, Daniels realized he was having a stroke. He said the thought crossed his mind that he might never play music again but he didn’t obsess over it.

“I never seriously thought, ‘Well, this is it,’ I just look for everything to turn out good,” Daniels said.

The fiddler/guitarist says his list of life goals includes “to keep entertaining people” in addition to “fishing in Alaska again” and returning to Israel, which he plans to do in March.

“What the heck, I may take up skydiving next, who knows.”

He also plans to keep doing what he’s always loved, from jumping back on a snowmobile to fishing, shooting guns and hanging out with horses and cowboys.

Daniels says he believes his high blood pressure was responsible for the stroke.

“It had gotten higher than what I realized it was,” he said. “We have taken steps to remedy that, and we are back in the game.”
     
Click here for the AP article.