A junior at the UofM, Logan Bomar is studying in the biomedical engineering program where he has the opportunity to see a solution for every problem and spends a lot of his time building prosthetics for other people with disabilities.
“Two semesters ago I built a model swing for a little boy in a wheelchair. We designed a swing that locks your wheelchair into place and you just have to hit a button and you can swing it on your own. We wanted to give him that feeling of independence,” Bomar said. “I can relate. As a disabled person, all you want is independence.”
The sense of independence stems from mundane activities.
Reading, writing or walking on your own comes naturally for people without disabilitie. However, for students like Logan, those were all skills he had to obtain.
“For me everything I’ve done to have independence is a learned behavior that doesn't come naturally,” he said.
Many of the challenges Bomar faced were due to his physical barriers from his congenital disorder. At two-months-old Bomar was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, but at birth, his parents received the worst kind of news from his doctors.
“We were told he may not live,” said Kim Bomar, Bomar’s mom. “Then when he was about two or three years old the therapist told us it would be a good chance Logan would never walk and that if he does walk he will always have to have help.”
Kim Bomar reminisced about the strength she had to conjure as she was told everything her child would not be able to do.
Regardless of the discouraging encounters with Logan’s doctors, Kim Bomar continued to pray and have faith that her son would be able to do the same things as his peers.
“I said, 'Buddy you can do it, whatever it is that you want to do, you can do,'” she said.
Spending three to four times a week at physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy, while also doing daily exercises at home, Kim Bomar and her husband were determined to prove the doctors wrong.
“We did exercises and stretches every single day and it was not fun, but she never gave up on me despite what the doctors said,” Logan Bomar said.
Although it was challenging to maintain faith on some days, both Logan and his mom never gave up hope. At the age of seven Logan was able to walk on his own.
The faces of his family and friends lit up with joy, seeing him walk into the school doors, independently, for the first time.
Bomar credits his mom’s hopeful outlook towards the future and immense faith for the reason he kept trying. “Her whole thing was, 'No, he’s going to walk, he’s going to college, and he’s going to be able to drive a car,'” Bomar said.
In every instance of his life, Logan can recall his mother filling him with encouragement, and on the bad days reminding him of the new chances he could take tomorrow.
Logan continued to push himself and set goals for his life that did not agree with the doctor’s limitations. He was able to live, to read, to walk, to run and to drive on his own. He was also able to graduate Macon Road Baptist School while maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
Currently, he is working to help other people just like them so they can achieve the goals they set for their lives and gain their own form of independence.
Logan Bomar, center, sits on his dorm bed after moving in for his freshman year at the University of Memphis. To his right is his mother and to his right is his father.
