PAT BOONE’S faith is tested as grandson nearly falls to his death but thanks to the miracle of “Moses” CHARLTON HESTON’s blood he not only survived but is up and walking again!
Doctors told legendary entertainer Pat Boone that his beloved grandson Ryan Corbin probably wouldn’t survive after falling 40 feet through a skylight on the roof of his Brentwood, Calif., apartment building 11 years ago. But not only did the young man survive, Pat tells The ENQUIRER he recently took his first steps since the accident!
“I truly believe that the power of prayer helped save my grandson,” Pat shared. “Ryan’s not completely healed, but he’s come a long way from where he was – which was close to death.”
The 78-year-old singer – who was the second-biggest charting music artist during the late 1950s, behind only Elvis – spoke exclusively with The ENQUIRER about his grandson’s devastating accident and miraculous recovery.
On June 19, 2001, Ryan was ready to take on the world. The former star basketball player from Irvine High School had just graduated with honors from Pepperdine University’s School of Communications and was engaged to be married that November. He’d been working as an assistant to the writers for the sitcom “Will & Grace,” but while the show was on hiatus he was working part time at the California Pizza Kitchen.
“This particular day, he was off work, so he’d gone up to the top of his building to sunbathe with his roommates – and there was a big white Plexiglas skylight set into the roof,” Pat explained. “Now, Ryan’s a big guy – 6-foot-4 with size 14 feet.
“He was wearing flip-flops at the time and, while we don’t know exactly what happened, we think he may have tripped and crashed right through the skylight.”
Ryan hit the stairway railing on both the second and third floors, and slammed into the concrete floor far below. His jaw was broken, his skull fractured, and he had multiple internal injuries.
The prognosis was grim.
When Pat’s wife, Shirley, arrived at the hospital, doctors told her Ryan probably wouldn’t make it through the night. But Pat tells The ENQUIRER that Shirley “heard a voice” in her head, and it told her that Ryan was going to pull through!
Ryan was in a coma for six months and didn’t speak for 15. Doctors told Pat they had to give him 36 pints of blood to keep him alive.
In a bizarre coincidence, Pat had been at UCLA the day before the accident to donate blood with fellow showbiz legends Charlton Heston, Casey Kasem and Marty Ingels. The group was raising awareness for a nonprofit they’d started – USBloodDonors.org.
“It’s a website for people to go and log on with their blood type and give blood – especially if their type is needed and in short supply in a particular area,” explained Pat.
“So, we were there and we had cameras filming Heston and me and Casey and Marty all giving blood. We were joking, ‘I wonder who’s going to get Moses’ blood?’” (A reference to Heston’s iconic role as the biblical figure in “The Ten Commandments.”)
“It turned out that it was my grandson the next day, because they were the same type! I asked the technician whether it’s possible Ryan could have received it and he said, ‘Yes, definitely!’”
Although he still spends much of his time in a wheelchair, Ryan, now 35, is slowly learning to walk again. Pat says his daughter Lindy and her husband Mike take Ryan for “walks” each day with the aid of a walker.
Meanwhile, Lindy is co-authoring a book on traumatic brain injuries, due out next year. Proceeds will benefit Ryan’s Reach, a foundation the family started to help other brain injury sufferers get therapy.
“Ryan is now feeding himself, where before he couldn’t even do that,” said Pat. “He still has a very strong sense of humor, despite what he’s been through.
“God has helped our grandson battle back. He continues to battle each and every day, and his family is right there with him.”
