Hinson continues fight, eyes return to Wrestling following tragic accident

Written by Jasmin Bower for CUWFalcons.com

MEQUON, Wis. – John Hinson will never forget June 27, 2013 because his life changed forever.

A summer day at home was the downfall for him, a wrestler at Concordia University Wisconsin. Although the scars remain for Hinson, both physically and mentally, he now knows how hard he can fight. Every day he is fighting to return to the mat, return to a normal social life and to a peaceful time before June 27, 2013.

On that day, Hinson's brother decided to fry chicken in a large pot of grease. Being inattentive to it, the pan caught on fire with its contents and began to spread out of control. With seconds ticking by and flames rising to the cabinets above, something needed to happen quickly before all was lost.

Hinson stepped in from another room of the house and saw what was taking place. His actions most likely saved the home and the precious contents inside, but changed his life forever.

"I tried to put a pizza pan over the pot it to smother it," he recalls in a quiet voice. "But then it blew up and made it worse."

He then grabbed the pot to take it out of the house, but what happened next is unfathomable. While holding it, the grease spilled out of the pot and onto his skin from his neck to knees. One thing Hinson will never forget is looking down and seeing his left hand on fire from the grease. To save himself, he tossed the pan to the side and flung himself into the pool nearby as the ambulance arrived.

For the next three-and-a-half weeks, Hinson does not remember anything because the doctors induced him into a comatose state to help with the excruciating pain. While his family was in a loss for words, the comatose state helped him recover faster.

"I was wrapped up from head to toe like a mummy," Hinson recalls what he was told months later. "The bandages were changed twice a day and they'd scrub the skin off."

By the time he was able to head home in Glendale, Ariz., he had endured a week of rehab and care. When he did get home, life was obviously different for him. "I couldn't really do anything myself. The burns were so deep on my arms that I had irreversible nerve damage. I could not use my hands at all and I couldn't really open things or open doors, or anything like that. I had to have help with everything."

It took about eight months before things were on track to be back to normal for Hinson. Even now, the scars and numbness remains.

Being a competitive wrestler, he wanted to return to school the first chance he could, but it was just too much with the burns and psychological challenges. Hinson finally returned to CUW for the spring semester of 2014 and began his transition to life as a collegiate student-athlete.

"The hardest part was people staring," he said.

His wrestling life was an even greater challenge. Despite minor workouts before returning to the sport he loves, wrestling, things had changed for him significantly. "Wrestling hurt really bad and I didn't think I could do it. Then the more I competed, the easier it got."

Doctors and medical professionals have told him it will be close to a year before he fully heals physically and psychologically. For John Hinson, the time can't go by fast enough to forget June 27, 2013 and move on with his life, especially on the wrestling mat.