An upstream battle

When Dustin Kaminskey first learned a couple months ago that Jackson High School would start a fall swim team for his senior year, he felt some mixed emotions.

Kaminskey, who had swam competitively for close to eight years, was restricted indefinitely from competing and told he might never swim again in April 2006 after separating his voice box from his trachea and severing his carotid artery and a vein in his neck in an automobile accident.

Doctors thought he would not have the ability to breathe strong enough and also his heavy breathing could cause the vocal cords to close off, his mother Melissa Kaminskey said.

But just about one year and four months later, doctors have cleared him to return to the pool. Dustin, who can only speak softly and might never regain his voice, said he is glad his school added the program. But he wishes he was in his prior athletic condition.

"I wished I would not have had my accident," he said at Thursday's practice at the Central Municipal Pool. "It's nice [to swim again.] Real nice."

Dustin does not remember anything about his crash. The family said they have determined that he fell asleep while driving at approximately 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning, returning home from a friend's house where he stayed the previous night. He was on his way to do some yard work.

He struck a tree on the street where his family lives. Some neighbors heard the thump and went outside to see what had happened. Once they realized it was Dustin, they immediately informed the Kaminskeys. Melissa ran to the spot of the crash, where she said her son was conscious.

"When we found him at the accident he was talking to me," she said. "He was like, 'Mom, I'm sorry – I'm so sorry this happened,' and I was like 'It's OK.' He looked like he was fine and he was talking to me. When they got him to the ambulance he started laboring when breathing."

Melissa said her son's doctors can not explain how Dustin was able to speak right after the accident.

"They can't figure out why he was able to talk to me and why he was able to breathe long enough on his own," she said. "They said that it was probably because he was healthy and his lungs were so strong from swimming for so long. But of course, it was God watching over him."

Two days after the accident, Dustin underwent surgery to have his voice box and trachea sewed back together.

"They didn't know whether the nerves would make it to where his vocal cords would stay totally open, totally closed, or somewhere in between," Melissa explained. "If it was totally open, he would have 100 percent breathing and absolutely no voice. If it was totally closed, he'd have a normal voice but he would have to have a breathing tube for the rest of his life.

"It has been long enough that they can say it is at 50 percent or halfway open and halfway closed, which is really the best case scenario because he still has a little bit of a voice where you can understand him, and he has enough breathing where he does not have anything to help him."

And now that the nerves have reconnected enough, he is able to swim and do some of his other favorite activities such as riding dirt bikes.

Dustin was a competitive swimmer before the injury. He began when he was 8 years old. He started off with the Jackson Gators, a team he swam with for about one year. At 10, he began with the SEALs, which he was with until the accident. When he was 14 years old, Dustin was selected for the People to People Ambassador's swimming trip for a week in Australia and another week in New Zealand.

His Jackson teammates and coaches are glad to have him on this year's team.

Fellow senior, Nick Welker, said he swam with Dustin a few years ago during a Jackson summer league. They have also been on opposing teams. Welker swims for the Jackson Gators – a rival quad of the SEALS.

"His accident was just so terrible and such a horrible ordeal, and I'm just really glad he's alive," Welker said. "It's just miraculous that he's still able to swim."

Junior Levi Ruble did not expect to see Dustin at practice.

"He showed up and I was like, 'Oh, that's pretty cool,'" Ruble said. "It's inspirational to me because I've seen people get an injury and be like 'Oh, I am injured, I can't do that.' But he just came back and started doing it. It was natural."

Jackson coach Shana Kight said she is taking it day-by-day with Dustin and easing him back into swimming. She said he has great looking strokes and a nice goal would be to try to compete at the level where he might find himself in a position to swim in college. But she said right now she is just going to wait to see how he does.

Before the injury, Dustin was being looked at by some college swim coaches as a potential recruit. He will only be swimming short distance races (50 meters and maybe 100 meters) this year. That might hurt his chances of gaining back the interest, his mother said. But he has overcome some serious odds before.

"They [colleges] want well-rounded people who can swim lots of different races," Melissa said. "But anything is possible. They told us that a lot of this was impossible. We're just blessed that he's actually getting to swim again. The doctors had said, 'No way.' It's a complete miracle."