Five months after his nearly fatal fall from a second-floor balcony at the Psi Upsilon fraternity house, College junior Matt Paris is well on the road to recovery.
Paris suffered serious brain damage in addition to several severe fractures on the right side of his body after a night of heavy drinking on his 21st birthday.
"The first day I woke up, I couldn't even count," Paris said.
The frontal lobe of his brain, which controls memory and emotions, was damaged in the fall. While he has regained emotional capabilities, his memory suffered greatly. It is still too early to tell exactly how much damage will be permanent.
Paris now walks with a normal gait and has little visible scarring on his face and lower neck. The palsy that once paralyzed the right side of his face has almost completely disappeared.
College junior David Kuhn, the Pi Kappa Alpha president, was amazed by his fraternity brother's progress.
"I remember early on ... it was difficult talking to him because he didn't know who a lot of us were."
"It's getting a lot better," Paris said. "I'll just have days where I'll just all of a sudden remember things that I hadn't remembered before."
Paris is currently in speech and occupational therapy while trying to re-learn virtually everything he had ever known.
He said he does not have any recollection of the day or night of his injuries. His latest memories date back to the week before the incident.
Relative to the incredibly serious nature of his injuries, however, his recovery has been remarkably swift.
"The day after he arrived at [the rehabilitation center], he got up and walked," his mother said.
Paris spent a month in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania immediately after his fall, after which he was transferred to the Moss Rehabilitation Center in Philadelphia.
The College junior is now living at home in Medford, N.J., but is eager to return to Penn.
"I watch too much TV" at home, he said.
The Pi Kappa Alpha brother comes back to Penn almost every week to spend time with his fraternity brothers.
"I miss it so much," he said. "I just can't wait to come back and actually live here again."
Kuhn said that having Paris around the fraternity again was "the greatest feeling," noting how sorely he was missed after his fall.
"It was obviously a very difficult period right after the accident," Kuhn said. Counseling and Psychological Services "worked with us a lot on how to deal with it."
Now, Paris is continuing to recover with the hope of returning to Penn next fall. Paris is planning on taking a non-college level class in the near future to build up the necessary skills to return to school full-time.
His goal for the more immediate future is to pass his driver's test.
"He's made such amazing progress," Kuhn said. "It's just astounding to everyone involved."
But, he added, "he's got a long way to go."
