In January, Jordan Shipley was airlifted to Austin in critical condition after a ranch fire near Burnet. This week he appeared on The Stampede podcast and gave the most detailed account yet of what happened and how far he has come since.
Four months after nearly dying in a ranch fire near Burnet, Jordan Shipley sat down with The Stampede podcast this week and gave the most detailed account yet of what happened on January 6 and how far he has come since. The former Texas Longhorns wide receiver is doing well.
"I'm good," Shipley said. "You can't even really see some of the burns. Everything has kind of turned back to normal."
The recovery itself was described as nothing short of a miracle by the doctors and nurses at Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin. Shipley was airlifted there in critical condition with severe burns on his arms, legs and hands after the skid-steer he was operating on his ranch caught fire.
Doctors initially prepared the family for months of intensive skin grafting procedures. He spent 11 days in the ICU and went home.
On the podcast he told the full story of the accident for the first time. There was no phone service on the property so calling for help was not an option. The door of the machine would not open as the fire closed in.
"You want to talk about scared? There was about 30 seconds there where I was just like, what do I do? This fire is almost to me," Shipley said. "I'm shaking the door as hard as I can and trying to open it. Just praying and screaming."
He tried to turn the machine around to crash it at the bottom of a hill but the tracks had come off the rollers and it slid back into the fire about 10 to 12 feet. He tried the door one final time and it opened. He made his way to a ranch worker who drove him 45 minutes to the nearest hospital before he was flown to Austin.
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His ankles and legs still have healing ahead of them but the trajectory has exceeded every medical expectation. The perspective that came out of the experience has been equally significant.
"A lot of times it's the things that aren't fun to go through at the time that end up bearing the most fruit," Shipley said.
Shipley left the 40 Acres as the program's all-time leader in receptions with 248 catches. Right now the only thing that matters is that he is here.