Home For St. Rose Of Belmar Student In Horrible Lifeguard Mishap

OCEAN GROVE — "Welcome home Sam."

That's all the 17-year-old needed see, five months after he was paralyzed from the neck down while working as a lifeguard in Ocean Grove.

Sam Jarmer returned home to Ocean Grove on Tuesday, greeted by a giant purple banner and a family that has been worried sick about him, while also rooting hard for his recovery.

So far, so good.

"He’s doing really well," his mother, Jessica, told Patch.

Sam, a 17-year-old junior at St. Rose High School of Belmar, suffered a serious spinal injury while working at his lifeguarding job. Now he's showing progress, showing an increasing ability to move his arms and legs.

Jessica confirmed what's next in a report in The Asbury Park Press, saying Sam will have in-home nurses’ care. Sam can move his biceps and feed himself, Jessica said, and his legs are finally beginning to respond.

“I can actually hold stuff in my hand, pick up stuff, grab stuff,” Sam told The Asbury Park Press. “I can move some more toes, and I can occasionally move my leg. I have a lot more balance and core strength.”

As for schooling, Sam will be tutored at home and hopes to return to St. Rose by the end of the year.

As for support from the community, well, there's plenty of that. Jessica Jarmer only sees the outpouring of love for her son — as well his progress — that can only make her feel good.

His family shared it in an Asbury Park Press story:

"The more people we can get praying and sending good vibes, the better," Jessica told Patch during the summer.

The support has been there since the beginning.

Sam dove into a wave and somehow hit a sandbar that he didn't know was there. He was saved by another lifeguard.

Since then, it's been months of rehabilitation, his mother said, but it's also been months of progress as feeling has returned to much of his body.

They go so far as to celebrate every little movement — even if it's the pinky toe on his foot.

Two days after the accident, more than 450 members of St. Rose Parish in Belmar, its two school communities, and neighboring St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Bradley Beach, packed the church pews for a Mass of Healing, she said.

His fellow lifeguards did a cheer for him in a video, yelling the name that his been applied to social media groups set up to provide his family boost: Samvincible.

Celebrities have been there, too. Keith Olbermann of ESPN provided a video of support.

Sam Lofquist from the Sibir Novosibirsk Hockey team out of the Czech Republic reached out after hearing Sam’s story. He said: "The whole team is rooting for you and will be looking for updates on your page!"

Perhaps it's no wonder that Sam has shown improvement. Months ago, Jessica watched as the doctors asked Sam "to shrug his shoulders."

"I didn’t see much movement. They would look at me and smile and say they felt a little something. I held on to that with such hope," he said.

Now she's watching him do much more.

"That is a miracle," she said.

His spinal cord injury was classified as "incomplete," and he's come a long way since surgery, when he felt slight movement in his arms and shoulders.

He has spent four hours each day in physical therapy and occupational therapy, his mother said. He has slowly regained movement in the lower part of the body; but on Jessica's birthday, she said, there was a breakthrough: He wiggled his right pinky toe, which brought tears to her eyes.

“He hasn’t cried once,” she told The Press. “He hasn’t said, ‘Why me?’ once. Every time I cry he’s like, ‘Knock it off.’"

Jessica said a top neurosurgeon has obviously helped, too. But in this saga, she said, "God put everyone in their place,” she said.

"Thank you for the continued love and support. The prayers are working," Jessica said. "Please keep them coming."