MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A former member of Morgantown City Council continues to make steps towards recovering from a near-fatal bicycle accident.
Monongalia County Republican Committee member and former city councilman Wes Nugent has returned home after an over six-month hospital stay in a Georgia-based hospital and is officially on the long road towards recovering from an injury that has left him paralyzed from the neck down. After a lengthy rehab process that required months of work to just execute basic life functions without the use of his arms or legs, Nugent is both humbled and grateful for the presence of those around him throughout this life-changing experience.
“I was just so excited to get back home, and it’s been wonderful to have visitors, which I have to say I’m blessed to be a part of a great church,” said Nugent. “I was just excited to be home once more and around my children full-time,” he said.
Nugent suffered his accident back in February 2024 when his bike flipped after hitting a bump on a trail near his home. Nugent broke his neck as a result and slipped into a two-day coma, leaving him with spinal cord injuries that left him paralyzed to the point where he was unable to breathe on his own. After a brief stay at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown before being transported to Shepherd Center, an advanced spinal cord hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, with ventilators needed to treat such injuries, Nugent then began his rehab process, where he eventually regained his ability to speak normally and eat solid foods. Both of which he was unable to do for the first few months after his accident.
“It’s one of the few facilities that actually accept patients on a ventilator, and I also had a feeding tube,” said Nugent on the severity of his injuries. “So at that time, I couldn’t still really talk, and they quickly there at Shepherd turned the page for me,” he said.
Despite Nugent rehabbing in Georgia for the majority of 2024, family members were on hand to support his children in Morgantown and his efforts to be able to speak and eat normally. While his brother Chris Nugent, who lived nearby in the Atlanta area, visited the hospital on a near-daily basis, Nugent’s wife of over twenty years tended to their children and home in Morgantown. This was separate from individuals who flew down from the Morgantown area to visit him during the rehab process and members of the Morgantown Knights of Columbus and St. Francis Des Sales Church (where Nugent attends), who funded and installed handicap-accessible rooms into his home free of charge. The support from those around him understanding the circumstances of what the future brings for Nugent was considered very humbling.
“As I’ve learned that it’s as rewarding for me, as it is to have people sit with me so that my wife can go out, as it is to the people who were taking their time in the beginning of it to sit with me,” said Nugent on WAJR’s Talk of the Town. “So it is very humbling,” he said.
As Nugent continues a rehab process that’s expected to take place for the rest of his life, he hopes to eventually return to his social life in the Morgantown community full time. This will come with the help of a modified vehicle and adjustments to his family home that will continue to be supported with the help of Nugent’s church and independent GoFundMe pages set up by his family and fellow members of the Monongalia County Republican Committee. With a long road ahead and a desire to be a part of his community, Nugent is ready to continue to work towards beating the odds.
“I’m just really excited at some point, once we get an accessible vehicle, to get back to my children’s activities and go to church again,” Nugent said. “It’s nice to watch it online, but it doesn’t replace being there in person,” he said.