CLEVELAND — A captain at the Cleveland Fire Department has a long road of recovery ahead of him. According to police, he was hit by an alleged drunk driver while riding his motorcycle Friday evening.
Ghadi Cole, 44, is currently at MetroHealth Hospital with a spinal cord injury. Claudette Cole said doctors are unsure if her son will ever walk again.
She said her son is and has always been a helper.
"If you call him, he is coming, and he is always there to rescue, always there to take care," she said.
He is a hero to his family, especially as a hands-on dad to his 12-year-old daughter, and a hero professionally as a 23-year veteran of Cleveland Fire and a part-time firefighter with the Village of Oakwood.
"He worked really hard to become a lieutenant, and he worked really hard to become a captain," said Cole. "Nothing stops him, and I mean nothing stops this kid."
But Friday evening around 11:00 p.m., Ghadi Cole was the one who needed rescuing when a driver hit his motorcycle from behind near Forbes Road and Interstate 271.
"A truck hit a motorcycle," said a woman who witnessed the collision and called 911. "You need an ambulance; the male is not moving."
Claudette said her son's coworkers were on the scene, and one of them called her while they were transporting him to MetroHealth Hospital.
"He said, 'Miss Cole, Ghadi has been in an accident, and we are taking him to Metro,' and I thought, 'Metro? That's a trauma hospital,' so we figured something was really bad."
Cole had a brain bleed and a spinal cord injury.
"The first thing I did was touch his feet, and I said, 'Do you feel me touching your feet? He said no,' and then I just had a sinking feeling that something was really, really wrong," she said.
She said Cole had been working on his bike during the day in preparation for the warmer riding months ahead.
"It was unusual for him to be out, especially at night, because he was one of those sunny, shiny day riders," she said. "He thought, 'I have been working on this thing all day, let's just go for a spin,' so he was only a few miles from his home, and he was not even a quarter of a mile from my home."
She said she wanted to speak out against distracted, drunk driving.
"Motorcyclists have to be careful everywhere they ride because so often, people don't see them. When people are so distracted, if you hit the back of a car, that's one thing, but if you hit the back of a motorcycle, that is completely different," she said.
It's hard to wrap her mind around the possibility of her son never walking again, but she adds that he is a fighter.
"We do believe that he will walk because we have to remain optimistic and remain positive and send positive energy into the universe," she said. "He has hundreds of firefighter brothers and sisters rooting for him."
His fellow firefighters started a GoFundMe page to support Cole financially.
"I encourage everybody who hears my voice, sees my face and feels what a mother feels to contribute to the GoFundMe so we can give him everything he needs," said Claudette. "He contributed so much to this world, and he will continue to contribute greatly to this world."
If you’d like to donate to Ghadi Cole’s recovery fund, CLICK HERE.
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