Where Are They Now: HHS Alum Brendon Cunningham ‘90

Herndon High grad Brendon Cunningham enjoyed his day off as Best Buy project manager to celebrate his eighth Fathers Day on June 19. He spent the occasion with his wife Amy and two daughters Olivia, 8, and Hannah, 6, attending church, playing games, and eating his favorite meal ‘tuna wiggle.’

Cunningham was also informed that day that he finished as a top 10 finalist  in The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation contest: Best Dad on Wheels. You see, Fathers Day has always been a fun experience in the Cunningham home, but the past five have been especially rewarding for Cunningham.

In the summer of 2006, Cunningham and his family were celebrating Olivia’s third birthday, while enjoying a week of relaxation at the beach in  North Carolina. The following day was the last of their vacation and Cunningham sat on the beach, building sand castles with his little girls. Soon after, he told his wife he was heading out for one last swim to wash the sand off before leaving for home in Bristow.

Cunningham said a storm was approaching, but he had body-boarded and swam in the ocean many times in different weather conditions and thought nothing of it.

“I go out there as I have a million times, the wave curls, I go through one wave and realize I’m not coming out the other side," he said. "It was like two waves on top of each other. It was flipping me over, so I tucked but my head still hit the bottom. I was paralyzed instantly. I couldn’t even move my arms. I was conscious for the whole thing and I’m floating facedown in the water and can only feel my knuckles dragging on the bottom on the sand. I can’t get my head up to get air.”

Time was running out, as Cunningham was unsure if anyone could see him floating while the last bit of oxygen was leaving his lungs.

“It came to me that I’m going to breathe in water and I’m going to die. It got really calm and quiet, despite the waves crashing on me. I didn’t have any fears and my life didn’t flash before my eyes. It was just peaceful and quiet and I thought ‘I’m going to breathe in now and I’m going to be dead, and that’s OK,’” Cunningham said.

“As soon as I’m about to take my breath, I hear my wife scream and I realized ‘Hey, she knows where I am now; I’ll try and hold out a little longer.’ Right before I’m about to take a breath of water, my brother Patrick pulls me up and says ‘hold on’ and I got a life-saving breath. Finally after struggling through the waves, he gets me onto the [beach].”

Once the family saw Patrick in the water, Amy and the others immediately rushed to his attention, while his sister-in-law attentively took the children back up to the beach house, away from the commotion. Cunningham said he experienced a “disconnection” while staring down at his body. He could not feel anything and found it difficult to believe it was actually his body. Yet throughout the entirety, he remained collected.

“Amy comes over and I winked at her and said ‘everything is going to be OK. Go hang out with the kids while we take care of this,’” he said. “The lifeguards came over, put me on a stretcher and medivacced me to Norfolk Virginia Hospital.”

After several tests, doctors confirmed Cunningham had shattered the vertebrae in his neck at level C-6, which damaged his spinal cord and is considered a “complete injury.” While he did get the use of his arms back, he has no feeling from the chest down and lost any hand or finger movement.

“I remember the surgeon coming up to me and saying ‘Mr. Cunningham, I just want to let you know you’re never going to walk again.’ ”

He spent 18 days healing in the trauma center before leaving for rehabilitation at The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, where he worked arduously during the next three months, relearning things most take for granted.

“They teach you everything again from the very beginning because with your limited movement, you can’t roll over in bed, feed yourself, or anything,” Cunningham said. “The great thing about the hospital is they teach your significant other everything they need to know to help you.”

Coming home after rehab was the most difficult part of the process for Cunningham.

 “In the hospital you have a team of nurses and doctors around you all the time. If you need something, you can just hit a button,” he said. “When you come home, you are on your own. Your limitations and your kids are there and it’s really hard. Emotionally, that was the worst. I cried every day.”

However, things improved steadily and he began to appreciate what he could do as opposed to what he could not.

“To make things easier we purchased a Toyota Sienna that had been modified for me to drive,” Cunningham said. “We’ve made some household renovations, including the addition of an elevator, and we widened all the doors so I can get to the kids’ rooms and put them to bed.”

The Cunninghams have been married 12 years. 

“She was amazing and was doing 99.9 percent of everything when we got home—raising the kids, keeping routines up and everything,” he said. “I told Amy ‘I want the kids to be first and me on the back burner.’ ”

Cunningham had been the general manager for Best Buy in Manassas at the time of the accident. He now oversees  the musical instruments department in stores from here to Chicago.

He also helps others with spinal cord injuries in Northern Virginia through The Dana and Christopher Reeve Foundation and is the treasurer for the Centers for Independence Living via the Independence Empowerment Center. 

“[CIL] helps people live independently for anyone getting out of the hospital or that has been in assisted living, with any kind of disability,” he said. “They promote disability rights while advocating for individual’s needs including transportation, home modifications, and financial support through local government and state programs.”

The Cunningham family is headed to Disney World again in July, where everything in the park is wheelchair accessible. They will also drive to Virginia Beach in August and Brendon will go surfing for the second year in a row.

“It’s part of the Christopher Reeve Foundation where they have a sub-category called “They Will Surf Again” (partnered with “Life Rolls On”) and it takes people with spinal injuries and lets them go surfing,” he said. “The volunteers carry you out on the surfboard, lay you on it, and when the wave comes they push you and you ride it in.”

Cunningham's voice heightens with excitement as he discusses the opportunity. He has made several new friends and says he plans on surfing for the rest of his life.

“There’s a great group of guys and girls out there in the same situation as me and we get to go surfing once a year now,” Cunningham said. “It’s going to be my yearly thing and we’re making a vacation out of it.”

To view the video on Cunningham's story with Best Buy visit: Brendon's Story. For more information his  surfing experience with Life Rolls On visit: Life Rolls On.