Canton teen completes Grand Slam of turkey hunting after surviving near fatal brain aneurysm

Published 12:00 pm Saturday, June 16, 2018

CANTON—Jarod Durham didn’t have double vision when he first set out to complete the Grand Slam of turkey hunting.

The 17-year-old’s balance was more stable. He had a stronger heat tolerance and the feeling of raindrops on his skin didn’t bother him.

All of the challenges Jarod faced when harvesting Rio Grande, Merriam’s, Osceola and Eastern turkeys in pursuit of his goal were not lost on his immediate family, who recently gathered to celebrate his Grand Slam.

If the tables in the barn entryway topped with several boxes of pizza and ice cream float ingredients didn’t give away the surprise, the reveal of his stuffed and mounted Osceola did.

The gift was from his father Jeff Durham, 48, general manager at the Silver Spur Resort, where the small surprise party was held one afternoon in May. 

When the small group settled in, two officials with the National Wild Turkey Federation congratulated Jarod and presented him a certificate in recognition of his harvesting of all four U.S. subspecies of wild turkey.

They said it was uncommon for a teenager to complete a Grand Slam, citing great discipline and parental support as major factors when it occurs.

While Jeff has long supported Jarod along his way to achieving the Grand Slam, the work it has taken to make it happen took on a new meaning for the whole family after Feb. 11, 2016.

Since then, the same reasons that could have led Jarod to set aside his goal have motivated him to not let it slip away.

Losing Balance

Jarod has gone on hunting trips with his father for as long as he can remember.

He, along with siblings Jacob, 11, and Jaxon, 10, have grown up spending many weekends, summers and school breaks all across the country in the woods. The arrival of the boys gave the oldest Durham child, and only girl, Taylor, an appreciated reprieve from some of the outdoor trips.

Jarod had harvested several Rios, when in 2015 he decided, and was encouraged by his father, to pursue the Grand Slam.

Because the accomplishment does not have to be completed within a certain time period, Jarod started out having already secured one subspecies of turkey.

During a hunting trip to New Mexico in March of that year, he was able to harvest a Merriam’s, and was all set to go to Florida to attempt to nab an Osceola in March of 2016.

Several weeks before that, his life would change.

On the night of Feb. 11, 2016, Jeff was sleeping when his wife Tanya Durham, 46, woke him.

Jarod, 14 and a freshman at Canton High School at the time, was in the kitchen when he’d collapsed just before calling out to her.

“She got him up and brought him to me,” Jeff said. “He was hollering about how his head was hurting real bad. If mom had been asleep like me he very likely would have passed away on the kitchen floor.”

Jarod was taken by ambulance to a Tyler hospital where doctors confirmed he was having a brain aneurysm. An external shunt was place in his skull to relieve pressure and allow fluid to drain from his brain. 

From there, he was flown by a jet to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, where a CT scan confirmed the aneurysm was next to his brain stem. The confirmation led to him being transported to UT Southwestern Zale Lipshy University Hospital, located in Dallas.

Because he couldn’t be stabilized, two neurosurgeons rode with him in the ambulance to the hospital. Once there, doctors stabilized Jarod and admitted him into the intensive care unit.

While in an operating room the next morning, neurosurgeons began an endovascular coiling treatment, which is designed to slow the blood flowing to the aneurysm and cause the blood to clot. If all went well, a scar would form across the aneurysm neck, healing it and helping prevent a future rupture.

During the process, Jarod’s aneurysm fully ruptured.

“They said if he had been anywhere else, even the ICU, he wouldn’t have made it,” Jeff said. “They actually had to remove about a third (of his cerebellum), get in there and clamp it in three different spots to save his life.”

Jarod remained in ICU for about a month. During that time, he received a tracheostomy so he could breath without a ventilator.  

He later spent around three months receiving rehabilitation care from an Our Children’s House facility. He had to re-learn many basic skills such as how to sit up, stand, walk, talk and swallow. As he progressed, he was able to catch up on his schoolwork by meeting with a Dallas Independent School District teacher for 30 minutes a day at the facility.

Jarod described the whole process as being “very difficult.”

“I just did it,” he said.

After making progress, Jarod was able to go back to Canton High School in the fall to begin his sophomore year. Side effects have ranged from balance issues to some personality changes that have led him to be much quieter than before the brain aneurysm.

But even with his new challenges, Jarod was making much bigger strides than what some of his doctors had once expected.

“There were some times in ICU where they didn’t think he was going to make it…,” Jeff said. “At one point they told us he would not be neurologically viable.”

Grand Slam

As much as Jarod loves to hunt, there is one very common wild animal he sometimes hesitates to shoot.

When he was younger, the family trapped wild pigs that would wander through their property.

On one occasion, they caught a piglet that he bottle-fed and named Miss Piggy.

The family has old photos of him stooping down next to pigs, revealing his fascination and affection for the animals. Jeff said Miss Piggy learned to sit and take commands from his son before she eventually disappeared.

Miss Piggy is part of a long line of pets — including dogs, cats, chickens, goats, possums, rabbits, ducks, pheasants, a coyote that was mistaken for a dog and more animals — the family has kept through the years. Part of the result has been that while the Durhams enjoy harvesting turkeys and other wild game, they also have a deep respect for nature and all things outdoors.

Most of their hunting has entailed a lot of waiting, and what’s happened between the unanswered mouth calls and hours of no animal sightings have been conversations and other moments Jeff hopes his children will treasure for a lifetime.

These experiences are part of what Jarod was able to regain when he decided he wanted to finish what he started, even if it meant sometimes wearing an eye patch to help him work around his double vision.

In a trip funded by the Outdoor Adventure Foundation — which helps provide hunting and fishing adventures for children and young adults with cancer or other life-threatening illnesses — Jarod was able to go to Florida with his dad in March of 2017 and successfully harvest an Osceola.

And finally, after several attempts — including one where he could not tell which side of a property line the turkey was on — Jarod got his Eastern, the final turkey he needed for his Grand Slam, on the first weekend of April this year. 

Jarod said he was happy to finally complete the Grand Slam, and while he didn’t elaborate much, Jeff said his son’s excitement about the achievement runs deep and is pretty clear when he tells his little brothers to stay away from the stuffed and mounted Osceola.

“It’s a pretty major accomplishment for anybody to get a Grand Slam,” said Shawn Roberts, director of field operations in the South U.S. with the National Wild Turkey Federation. “Anything that impairs you makes it that much more difficult.

“I hope he remembers all the experiences he had getting it because … it’s not all about the harvest,” Roberts said. “It’s about the times you spend with the ones you love—friends, relatives, (whoever). Those trips, they’re memories that you keep forever.”

Regaining Balance

As part of a one of his classes at Canton High School, this past school year Jarod was required to write down a one-year goal.

He wanted to be able to run without worrying about falling down. 

“He couldn’t run because his balance was so iffy,” Mrs. Durham said. “Now he can run almost 100 yards across a football field.

“(We are watching) him get better and improve and drive a car and do things people and doctors said they didn’t know if he’d ever be able to do…” Mrs. Durham said.

She added that her son’s completion of the Grand Slam represents a huge milestone for him.

“The fact that he was able to go and shoot all of these turkeys and do his …Grand Slam is like a big deal for him because he feels like he attained a goal that we didn’t think he would attain,” she said.

She also has noticed her son make attempts to step outside his comfort zone, including being a little more social and expressive with others. About three weeks ago, Jarod reached another objective by earning his driver’s license. 

He is the proud owner of a Jeep that he and his dad have spent hours customizing for hunts, and that was purchased in part from leftover funds raised through a hunting benefit that was organized for Jarod and held in Canton.

The Durhams said members of the community went above and beyond by praying, visiting and supporting the family during their time of need.

Now, as Jarod looks to the future, there are still many goals he is excited to reach.

Next year will be his last year of high school and after graduating he hopes to attend college and later work in wildlife management or as a game warden.

He keeps the requirements to be a Texas game warden stored in his phone as a constant reminder of the goals he hopes to achieve. Right now, many of the physical demands are skills he’s still working to improve.

Those who are close to Jarod know that it wouldn’t be the first time he’s come back to beat the odds.

“We were in the hospital and I was real down about the whole thing and I remember talking to him and he was always just so upbeat,” Jeff Durham said. “I said, ‘Jarod, do you wonder (why) this has happened to you? He said, ‘Dad, everything happens for a reason.’”

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