BOWLING GREEN, KY (CNN/WBKO) -- A Kentucky man who was once paralyzed got to live out a dream Wednesday. He spent the day working at the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green.
It was a dream come true for Patrick Rummerfield when he got to install hoods on his favorite cars at the Corvette plant. He says, "I love sports cars but not just any sports cars, I love the U.S. made Corvette and to me, it doesn't get any better than this."
But Rummerfield is no ordinary man and is remarkably the only fully recovered quadriplegic in history. Back in the 70s he was in a car wreck that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Determined to be able to move again, he first learned how to use an electric wheelchair with his mouth before having a breakthrough one night. Rummerfield says, "The nurses had put me back to bed and I was, laying there, day dreaming about racing corvettes and playing basketball when my left big toe moved."
Rummerfield would go on to undergo 17 years of physical therapy to get where he is today. He also says he has been blessed with many second chances and that they key to life is to never give up or give in. He says, "You never know what tomorrow is going to bring but if you don't try, and if you don't stay strong, and try to keep your body as physically fit and keep pushing it to move, you know, you'll never achieve your goal."
Workers at the Corvette plant say they are impressed by Rummerfield and that he inspires them. Plant manager Dave Tatman says, "Patrick's awesome, i'd hire him in a minute. He's actually been doing, a very, very good job."
Rummerfield he is also a marathon runner, a race car driver and was a torch bearer at the Olympics.