By ,
Published April 05, 2017
Professional bull rider Bonner Bolton is lucky to be alive and competing on "Dancing with the Stars."
The 29-year-old Texan, who dances with Sharna Burgess, told reporters after Monday’s show about his brush with death.
In January 2016, Bolton was bucked off a bull and landed on his head. He was paralyzed from the neck down but miraculously recovered and got spinal fusion surgery in Chicago.
"The doctor that did my surgery told me I'm an inspiration to everyone who's ever sustained a spinal injury, and it's a true miracle what's happened to me," he said.
He didn’t think he would be so lucky.
"I [believed] I was dying the day it happened and I was saying my last prayer."
The rider can't believe he's gone from "being paralyzed in that bed laying face up… and now dancing on this floor."
Bolton, who won the bull riding world championship when he was 20, told Fox News, "I was on the rise again when I got hurt."
He wouldn't accept that he'd be paralyzed forever: "I kept pushing myself to know and believe that I would walk again, not only would I walk again, I told [doctors] they would see me walk that week before I got out of the hospital -- and they had me climbing three flights of stairs."
The determined bull rider admitted of recuperation, "It was hard to hold a fork the right way for a few months….I couldn't bathe myself. I had to have help."
Bolton will tell "DWTS" fans more during "personal stories week" on April 10.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/dwts-bonner-bolton-on-accident-that-left-him-paralyzed-i-was-saying-my-last-prayer