After John Pou was paralyzed, he embarked on an arduous path of rehab

It was only a chair, but it had become his purgatory.

Each day that John Pou spent in the wheelchair, his spirit seemed to die a little more. It was a perpetual reminder of the calamity that had brought him and Marci, even the kids, to this place.

The chair stood for all that was lost: A promising career, a vigorous life spent fishing the lakes of North Carolina, future plans conjured when things were perfect — plans that seemed impossible now.

Devyn Bisson, 15, suffers a spinal cord injury, gears up the courage to surf again.

And how that changed everything.