A California man who is paralyzed from the shoulders down says his injury won’t keep him from doing something he loves – painting the American flag.
Alec “Bunk” Wurth, a 42-year-old from Orange County, was hit in the side of the head during a rugby tournament in 2006, resulting in a spinal cord injury that eliminated his ability to sketch and paint using tools in his hands.
But Wurth didn’t let his injury get in the way of painting.
“I wasn’t dead. I still have my life to live,” he told KTTV.
Wurth now paints with a tool that allows him to guide a paintbrush using his mouth.
"I remembered how to do everything; it was difficult just to remember how to teach my mouth how to do it now," he said.
Around the age of 15 or 16, Wurth took up an interest in painting the American flag, he says, for no particular reason other than it being his country, KTTV reports.
Wurth taught children how to paint the American flag for eight years at the Speech and Language Development Center in Buena Park, a school for young adults with language and behavioral disorders, according to his personal website.
“Just because you’re in a chair doesn’t mean you can’t do anything,” he said.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
