Local attorney Tommy Vance nearly lost his life last September when the Cessna 182 small-engine airplane that was carrying him to a deposition crashed in the pine trees short of a runway in Wheeler County.

The plane’s pilot, Dan Marnell, was killed on impact in the Sept. 8 crash, but Vance’s shattered body was pulled from the wreckage with two broken ankles, five broken ribs, a punctured and collapsed lung, an exposed, fractured left elbow, torn left rotator cuff, three fractures of vertebrae in the back and severe lacerations to the head. In the last year, he has undergone four surgeries, including fusion of his back, two surgeries on his elbow and rotator cuff surgery.

“I still feel these places, but it’s not like a nagging pain,” he said. “You definitely know where the breaks are.”

Vance, 64, a licensed pilot himself, has yet to get back in a small-engine airplane, and may never do so again, but just a few months after the accident he was back at work at Tisinger Vance in Carrollton, where he’s practiced law since 1971. He also recently began competing in triathlons again, placing third for his age group on Aug. 20 at the Sandestin Triathlon in Destin, Fla., where he also received a “comeback” award. He had competed a week earlier in a shorter triathlon in Guntersville, Ala., to make sure his body could withstand the physical demands of the longer event that featured an 800-yard swim, a 20-mile bike ride and a 4-mile run.

Vance has competed in triathlons since 1986 and after the plane crash he made it his goal to get back to the point where he could compete five or six times per year. However, he readily admits there were days during his recovery and rehabilitation that he wasn’t sure that goal would become a reality, joking that he was put back together with “a little duct tape and bailing wire.”

“They really didn’t know,” he said. “They said I’d be able to walk again and I’d probably be able to run again, but it was just a question of how everything healed. That was the most difficult thing, the uncertainty.”

Much of Vance’s return hinged on his ability to regain his function in the various injured areas of his body, a journey that began with a six-week stint at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta following the initial 13 days at the Medical Center of Middle Georgia in Macon, where he was initially “put back together.”

The Shepherd Center specializes in the rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord and brain injuries.

“That’s a wonderful institution,” Vance said. “They began the process. They got me out of bed, they got me upright and they got me taking baby steps, literally. My goal at the time was just to walk across the hospital room.”

Vance also gives a lot of credit for his recovery to the outpatient therapy he continues to receive from Southern Therapy Services in Carrollton, where he’s already had more than 100 physical therapy sessions.

“They have continued what the Shepherd Center started and have just done an absolutely wonderful job,” he said. “My function is much better in my ankle, my back, my elbow, my shoulder, and there is room for, and will be, continued improvement. I basically have the range of motion back in those areas and they’re working a lot now on strength while continuing to work on my range of motion.”

Even after overcoming adversity to compete in two triathlons, Vance already has set new goals for improvement. His bike times are near where they were before the crash, but his speed in the running and swimming portions of the triathlon at Sandestin had dropped. His said his time in the 800-yard swim was the most disappointing, dropping from 20 minutes before the crash to 27 minutes two weeks ago.

“My goal now is to get my times back and be competitive,” he said.

The improvements he has made thus far are tremendous considering he wasn’t able to even begin jogging until given permission by his doctors in May and he couldn’t train on the bike or swim until June. Despite his busy schedule, he still tries to make time each day to traint by riding the bike, swimming or by taking a run, and he has no plans to quit anytime soon.

“When my body says quit, I’ll quit,” he said. “It hasn’t yet.”

Vance will next compete on Sept. 10 at Tanner Beach, a local triathlon in which he is sure to have many supporters. It’s the support he’s received from the community he said that has given him a tremendous boost during his continuing recovery.

“I’m pleased that with the help of physicians, Shepherd Spinal Center and the therapists at Southern Therapy, together, have been able to get me back close to where I want to be. All of those people have been so great,” he said. “Certainly, my wife’s help has gotten me through a lot. She had to physically look after me when I couldn’t even dress myself. I’ve also had a lot of support from my friends and colleagues from around the state. What has amazed me more than anything is how thoughtful and supportive people have been.”