A Walking Miracle
A Walking Miracle
Tyler Finch's Story of Faith, Grit, and the Riley Men's Health Fund
Tyler Finch is the first to tell you he has a high pain tolerance. It's part of why, for three weeks, he had no idea his neck was broken.
It started with a vehicle accident in Illinois. Doctors there cleared him to travel, and he came back home. But the pain didn't let up. Tyler describes it as the worst he'd ever felt — a "6" on his own scale, a number he says he'd never hit before in his life."
He didn't stop pushing for answers. "I kept going to hospitals and they kept telling me I was fine and didn't have a broken neck," Tyler recalls. He kept searching until a doctor finally took one look and said they needed to get him into surgery immediately.
What they found was serious. Three vertebrae in his neck — C5, C6 and C7 — were completely broken off and resting on the bones below. Bone shards had come within a millimeter of his carotid artery. The damage nicked some of his spinal cord and the nerves running to his hand, but somehow spared him from paralysis. Surgeons fused his neck with two rods and sixteen screws.
“So miracles all the way around,” is how Tyler sums it up.
An Unexpected Blessing
The broken neck turned out to reveal something else. In the course of his care, doctors discovered thyroid cancer — an aggressive form that had already begun spreading to the lymph nodes in his throat. It was caught before it reached the more advanced stages, and Tyler was sent to Mayo Clinic in Phoenix for treatment.
Today, he's cancer-free, with scans every six months to make sure it stays that way.
“If I wouldn't have broke my neck, I wouldn't have found the cancer,” Tyler says. “It was a painful way to find it, but it was amazing. It's definitely a blessing for sure.”
Help When It Mattered Most
Between the neck surgery and the trips to Mayo Clinic, the medical bills piled up fast. The Riley Men's Health Fund helped cover a portion of Tyler's doctor bills and the travel costs of getting specialized care far from home.
"There's not too many foundations out there that help men," Tyler says. "It was an amazing thing, especially going through hard times."
The support meant Tyler could focus on healing instead of financial strain. “It didn't financially destroy me, which is a blessing also,” he says. He's also grateful to have kept his job through it all — his employer held his position and welcomed him back as soon as his doctors cleared him. “There are great people out there,” he says. “You just have to let them know what you're going through.”
A Message to Other Men
Tyler is candid about how hard it can be for men to ask for help — and he doesn't want his story to end without saying so directly.
“Don't be too proud to ask for help,” he says. “You don't know everything, so if you know that something's not right, go get yourself checked out. Don't just keep pushing through it...”
“As dudes, we always think we have it figured out,” he says. “You have to go out and ask for help when you need it.” His advice is simple — reach out, make the call, and let someone know you're not okay. “There is people that care,” he says. “That was what saved me for sure.”
Seventeen months removed from the accident that changed everything, Tyler calls himself a walking miracle — cancer-free, walking, talking, and back at work. “I don't have any room to complain, for sure,” he says.
Why the Riley Men's Health Fund Matters
Stories like Tyler's are exactly why the Riley Men's Health Fund exists. Men in our community are often reluctant to ask for help, and few resources exist that focus on their health needs specifically. When a man in San Juan County is facing a health crisis, the Riley Men's Health Fund helps ease the financial burden so he can focus on getting better.
The San Juan Medical Foundation is deeply grateful to the donors, sponsors, and community members whose generosity makes support like this possible. Every gift helps make sure that when someone like Tyler needs help, it's there.
If you'd like to support men in our community, visit sanjuanmedicalfoundation.com to learn more, or take part in one of our fundraising events:
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