Soon after there are a series of x-rays and other procedures.
Then finally the doctor walks into the room to talk to Jeb.
“You are the luckiest man on the face of this planet,” the
doctor says.
“Really, why?” Jeb asks.
“Well, you have really strong bones. It’s unbelievable. You
have a broken fibula. You have multiple broken toes. Both your
ankles are broken. You have a massive gash in your shin that’s
going to require skin grafting and multiple surgeries. You’ve de-
gloved both your thighs. The muscles have been torn from the bone
and been put into your knees which is lovely. But aside from that,
you’re going to be okay. You’re going to have a 100 percent recov-
ery. You’ll be able to walk again. You’ll be able to go back to your
life.”
“And it was such a strange feeling, to know you’re going to
die, and then to think you’re going to lose your legs, and then to be
told you’re going to be just fine, you’re going to have a total 100 per-
cent recovery. From a completely unsurvivable accident, some-
thing you can’t survive.”Bouncing Back: The Flying Dagger
Fast forward to a year later. A year of recovery and Jeb is back in
China scouting out a location for his next big stunt. He called it “The
Flying Dagger.”
“So it kind of was this little pathway carved maybe three
feet wide. And if you didn’t make it, you’d hit a cliff and bounce
down and basically die.”
When the day arrived, the weather didn’t cooperate. Dark
skies and lashing rain threatened the jump. They had a small win-
dow in which to do it and the crew was ready to call it off. As he was
taking off his gear, the skies parted and suddenly they were ready to
go. Except now Jeb was filled with doubt.
“You have to remember, I had just hit Table Mountain. I had
just recovered from a year of rehab, learning to walk again. And all
of a sudden, here I am facing a project and facing something that’s
most likely going to put me right back in the hospital if I’mlucky.If
I’mlucky, I’m going to the hospital. And I’m sitting there thinking,
‘I’m not going to do this.’
“Everything I trained for my entire life was coming to this
moment. And this was a transitional period of my life. This is
a moment where I’m making a decision that’s going to change the86 / Buzz!Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:19:03, subject to the Cambridge