Miraculous feat

Miracles still happen.

Just ask Sean Thomas of Port Maria, St Mary.

When the detective corporal earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology, with honours, from the International University of the Caribbean in 2019, he became the first member of his family to graduate at the tertiary level.

A true believer in the power of education, Thomas was supposed to complete his studies in 2017, but due to financial challenges, he had to take a break from school to attend to other family issues.

The two-year delay didn’t affect his will to succeed, and when he graduated, he knew there and then that he had to return to get his master’s degree.

He made it.

On November 2 this year, Thomas graduated with his Master’s in National Security and Strategic Studies (Merit), one of more than 3,500 members of The University of the West Indies, Mona’s Class of 2024.

Yes, he made it. And miraculously, too.

“It has always been my passion to excel in education being that I’m coming from a poor family background. I see that education and discipline would be the key in pulling myself and family out of what we would call poverty, and as such, I maintained that drive in doing a bachelor’s and master’s and, possibly, going to a doctorate,” Thomas told The Gleaner.

Family, friends, and other members of his support network were at the graduation.

“I had mixed emotions,” he admitted.

“Last year this same time, I was just recovering from a [serious] accident, which almost took me out, and to see that last year, I was nursing injuries, and this year, I’m actually collecting my Master’s in National Security and Strategic Studies, not with a pass but with a merit, with a good GPA, it really got me emotional,” Thomas explained.

The accident occurred in St Ann in the early hours of October 22, 2023, just a few minutes before 4 a.m. in the vicinity of Pearly Beach, near Dunn’s River.

“I was driving home, coming in the direction of Ochi (Ocho Rios), when I saw some bright lights. A vehicle was overtaking, so I drifted left to avoid it, and the next thing I know, I felt something hit the vehicle, and the vehicle flipped and tumbled about four times and got stuck in a gully. When the vehicle stopped, I said to myself, ‘Mi nah dead in a dis,’ because it was a Honda Fit, and I know that those vehicles normally catch a fire.”

Thomas said he used his elbow to knock out the window, resulting in deep lacerations to his right hand and elbow. When he got out of the car, he realised that blood was gushing from the wound. He then began noticing the taste of blood and quickly realised that it was coming from a wound across his right eye.

Those weren’t the only injuries. His throat was also slashed. There was a chop just below the left knee and another on his right hand. His left shoulder was dislocated. Worse, eight bones in his back were broken and his spine was also damaged. He was weak and couldn’t climb out of the gully.

“I was in the gully for maybe about an hour because the car was hidden in the bushes,” he explained.

Then he heard a familiar voice. But the next thing he knew, he woke up in a bed at the St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital.

He later learned that he had been in and out of a coma for two to three days.

“I woke up at one point and heard the voice of my mother. I heard her cry and felt her hand on my chest. I remember I said, ‘Mommy, yuh all right?’ and then mi gone again,” he shared.

“As it relates to recovery, I still feel pain, my two shoulders are numb, but the pain is a motivation. My scars serve a purpose. There’s a mission for me to complete, and I wouldn’t say it’s a selfish mission. It’s a mission for the Lord, in the sense of doing His work, not just in the Church but socially as well. I can use my situation as a testimony to show that no matter what you go through in life, you still can thrive,” said Thomas.

Even now, he is still uncertain what hit his car.

“Honestly, I don’t even know what hit the vehicle. Maybe they don’t even know that they hit my vehicle because mine is a small vehicle, and based on the light that I saw, it would have been something big that hit me. All I know is that I felt an impact. And to God be the glory, I’m here to tell the tale,” he said.

Thomas spent several weeks in the hospital before being sent home to complete the recovery process. After the October 2023 incident, he didn’t return to work until May 2024.

“For school, after my accident, I did school, basically, from my bed. I did all of my coursework, research, everything from my bed. I actually did a research in the utilisation of forensic science and crime reduction, which I received an A for.”

At school, he was in a group of four that was called ‘Back of the Class’ group because that’s where they always sat. After the accident, the other three classmates continued sitting at the back of the class while Thomas remained confined to bed. The separation didn’t stop the flow of energy among them.

“All of us came through and graduated with merit, and we’re still here communicating and looking forward to either starting a business in expertise of security or doing our doctorates,” the cop told The Gleaner.

Although his road to recovery was long and hard, several people were there for him, including his mother and other relatives and close friends.

“During my journey of tragedy, they never left me. My mother was there day and night. She is my motivation. There are persons who played their part, whether it be the security of my life at the time, getting me to the hospital, ensuring that my family reached there; persons who ensured that I reached the doctor for therapy and other persons who ensured that I was okay financially. Those persons know themselves. Two of them were at my graduation as well,” he said.

Thomas also credited his diet for aiding in his timely recovery.

Thomas has words for people facing challenges: “Believe in God 100 per cent. No matter what the challenges are, God is the man, the Supreme Being that will take you through whatever challenges you are going through. You just have to pray and believe.

“We also have to do our best in terms of effort to ensure that either we recover from what we’re going through or we find new ways of dealing with it, find new ways of coping, because at the end of the day, change rests with us.”

Thomas says he is stronger, having gone through the terrible ordeal.

“The accident was a moment of change for me. It changed my life drastically, physically, and mentally in every way, and as such, I wouldn’t say that I regret it because today I can say that I’m mentally and physically stronger.”

editorial@gleanerjm.com