The run of his life

Josh Mankiewicz Correspondent • Profile

Tom White: There's an internal feeling that I get when I run... and it's something that's hard to explain. Maybe it's the same feeling that a musician feels when they play or something.  But when I run, I feel a rhythm. 

Tom White discovered running in the third grade, and it became his life. He was also racing towards an event that would change the course of his life.

In his junior year of college, Tom was running a four-minute mile.  But he was also speeding towards a decision that would change his life: one that would raise a series of medical, ethical and deeply personal questions: What would you give up for your family?  Or for your health? And what would you risk to continue doing something you loved? How far would you go?

It started on a summer night, on a dark country road.

Tom White: I was riding home on my motorcycle about 10:00 p.m. at night. I came up behind a truck.  A pick-up truck. And it was going slow.

What Tom didn't know was that he was sharing the road with a drunk driver.

Tom White: The truck veered left off the road. And so what I had to do to try to avoid the truck, was I veered back right to get back on the right side of the road on my motorcycle and I did clear the rear end of the truck, except for my left foot.  And as I was sliding on my back, my legs were in the air and could feel my left foot just flopping back and forth. 

His left foot had been all but ripped from his body.

Josh Mankiewicz: So you go to the hospital and you say to the doctors...?

Tom White:  Save my foot. I'm a runner.  Save my foot.  That's what I told 'em.  And they said, "You know, you might be better off with an amputation."

Josh Mankiewicz: And you were having none of that--

Video   Helping kids understand prosthetics Tom White visits his daughter's class for show-and-tell with his new prosthetic limb. Dateline NBC

Tom White:  I was having none of that.

Josh Mankiewicz: what did you think of amputation? What'd you think of amputees back then?

Tom White: I really-- I had never been around an amputee. I'd never been, never been exposed to anything like that. And so, the--that thought was horrifying.

Tom was Med-Evac'd to a hospital.  He had done everything in his power to stop the bleeding. Dr. Richard Janson got the call.

Dr. Richard Janson: Tom was very awake and alert and realized what a desperate situation this was for his foot. And I took one look at it and realized the same thing. And I talked to him and said, "You know, the chance of this working is really, really low. And Tom said, "Try it. Please. I want it."

For Dr. Janson and the rest of the team at St. Mary's hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., it was an enormous challenge.

Dr. Richard Janson: I keep turning this over in my head, while this is going, is this something that I can do?  This is a big deal. 

The question loomed: Could they do it?  And if they did succeed, would Tom be able to walk again? Vein by vein, artery by artery, nerve by nerve, Tom White's foot was re-attached to his leg. But even before doctors knew if the 21-year-old would be able to walk normally, his mind skipped ahead to the thing he most cared about.

Tom White: Most of my life at that time was running.  And at the time, initially, I thought that I might be able to run again. But as time went on, that became apparent that that wouldn't happen.

Still more surgeries and skin grafts followed. And after hundreds of hours of physical therapy and two full years on crutches, Tom white was able to walk again. In 1990, he was accepted to medical school at the University of California at Davis.

While there, Tom met - and married - his wife, Tammy, who was studying physical therapy, a field he had come to know better than he wanted to. And ironically... Tom's new love shared his old love.

Tom White: Tammy was running and she was running lots of really neat trail runs and stuff in northern California. And I was thinking, "Boy, that looks like fun." And she'd come back and tell me how awesome they were.

It was almost a decade since his accident.  Tom had stayed in shape by biking, but that didn't get his competitive juices flowing the same way. It never provided the same thrill as running.

Tom White: One day we were in Sacramento.  And she ran, Tammy ran a half marathon.  And she ran, like, a really good run.  And it was really exciting watching her run and she finished the race and she was all exhausted, and I was like, Tammy, let's run to the car!  (laughs) And so yeah, she's like--

Tammy White: You wanna what?!

Tom White: --What?  And so we ran to the car. And my running at that time was--I would best describe it as Quasimodo-like. But I did it. I ran to the car and I was like I'm gonna do this. And so I started off by running around the block.

Tammy White: We did it every day.

Tom White: it was ugly. And you know, it didn't, it wasn't fun. But, but, I was just determined to do it.

Now as suddenly as Tom lost his ability to run, he was overwhelmed by the desire to get it back.

He ran half a mile... Then one mile... Then five... Then fifty.

Tammy White:  Watching him was fun, you know, every accomplishment.  In fact, before he did a marathon, he did an ultra marathon.  We were at the 26-mile mark of this trail run that was just a killer trail run, called the Cool King and Crawl.  And he goes, "Well, honey, I'm doing my first marathon now."  'Cause he had I think just hit the marathon mark. 

Thanks to his amazing willpower and running shoes reconfigured to give extra support to his surgically re-attached left foot, Tom White found himself literally running around the world.

Tom White:  I wasn't competitive and they were just for scenics and for exercise and to just get out there and see things.  I did four 50-mile races.  And then, I ran this, the farthest I've ever run on this leg in one day was 72 miles.  I was trying to run 100, so I didn't finish.

Video   Checking in on a patient Plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Janson sees his handiwork on Tom White’s prosthetic years later. Dateline NBC

Was he in pain?  Sure... But so is every long-distance runner.  Tom White was winning that battle - or so he thought. In fact, the pounding on his foot was taking a toll. Eventually he couldn't run or walk without excruciating pain. And he has two active young daughters, nine-year-old Whitney and six-year-old Jasmine.

Tom White:   what really got me was, was I-- I realized at that moment that in another year at the rate I was going, in another year I wouldn't be able to walk my girls to school.  I have two little girls and I wouldn't be able to walk them to school. And we do that every morning.

Tom had to make an almost impossible choice - and in the process, face his worst fear. As incredible as it sounds, in order to run again, Tom would ask a surgeon to remove the foot he'd fought so hard to keep.

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