The following is a special presentation of WTCI, Chattanooga, North Georgia, and the Tennessee Valley.

How does this young man wake up from a coma, beat all odds and still find the courage to seek a way to help others?

I just want them to know that they can get through the hardest things in life and not to give up.

No matter what the scenario is.

From a long journey of recovery to sharing hope.

Up next, Saul Raisin sits down with me for an inspirational conversation.

You don't want to miss that straight ahead.

On the A-list.

Saul Raisin published author, philanthropist and former professional cyclist.

At first glance, you may not realize the level of achievement.

This Dalton, Georgia native, has accomplished in the sport of professional cycling, or the fact that he's an exception to statistics and defies all physician predictions because he's also a survivor.

Saul, welcome to the A List.

Thank you for having us in your beautiful home.

I've been looking forward to this interview for a long time and have read a lot about you have read your book, and I'm excited to talk to you with you face to face.

Now.

Well, thank you, Alison.

It's a real pleasure to be here with you.

So at what age did you know you wanted to be a pro cyclist early?

16, 17.

Something I was good at.

And it always feels great to do something that you're good at.

And cycling.

It was just something I excelled at.

And I just followed my heart of.

Yeah.

Now, ironically, you were born with a defect of your spine, but something that actually pushed you ahead athletically, especially with cycling.

Correct.

I was born with a condition called sunnamon chi scoliosis, which the curvature of the spine where my back caved in or my back curves.

And what makes me quite special is my chest is actually symmetric to my back.

And if I breathe in deep, my I get about double the lung capacity of any good professional athlete.

So, you know, I tell people, you know, one thing I was once ashamed of as a kid and I'm very much proud of now.

So on a scale of 1 to 10, how important is your bike to you?

It's a ten because, you know, I say, you know, Lance Armstrong, his book he wrote was it's not about the Bike.

But for me, it was all about the bike.

The bike helped me beat the odds.

I didn't even have and overcome obstacles that many doctors told me I would never overcome.

And let's talk about those obstacles.

Let's start back.

For people who don't know about your history, You're two years old.

You get on your first bike.

You don't even have training wheels.

Is that when you knew it was love at first ride?

No, I didn't know it was love until I was the best young rider at the Tour de Georgia.

I know the the huge national race that came through like Georgia when I was a 22 years old.

You know, 21 years old.

I'm sorry.

And how did that feel?

Oh, that was amazing.

Born in 1983, Saul is the only child of Yvonne and Jim Raisin at 13.

His interest in cycling took off in the form of competitive mountain biking, and by the age of 16, he took his bike to the road.

He won the best young rider jersey at the Tour de Georgia after that Raisin won the toughest climbing stage of the tour of Langkawi in Malaysia.

And he turned in the strongest American performance at the 2006 World Championships in Australia.

Next, he captured ninth place overall at the incredibly difficult and prestigious tour of Germany.

All signs were leading up to Saul's first grand tour ride, the Tour de Italia.

But this fast track on the Professional road cycling tour would soon be brought to a hard stop.

Now, in 2006.

Your life changed.

What happened was in a tuneup race for the tour de Italy at that time, they told me I was the youngest team leader ever in the sport professional cycling.

My goal was to win the tour to Italy in 2006 and then go for the Tour de France for 2007.

I was on the US Olympic team.

You know my life, you know, I couldn't have gotten to higher level.

But in the small tune up race track, we do a sorry, that's a race a little southwest of Paris.

I slipped on gravel and crashed a mile and a half to the end of the first stage of the race.

First initial reports was I broke my collarbone to the fifth arm and my scapula.

But, you know, bones heal.

But then 30 hours later, my parents get that dreadful phone call in the middle of the night that ties your stomach in knots.

This is my director of his car.

And he told them I slipped into a coma and had to have emergency brain surgery to save my life.

Now, what really sent them at least a nerve for them at the time was something they didn't get.

Which was your usual text.

Right.

Normally on.

After every bike race, I would send a text message to my parents and I finished.

I'm okay.

You know, we're just okay.

And they never got that message, so.

So they knew something was wrong.

What did the doctors predict when you were in this state?

Well, my parents, they got on a plane going to France not knowing if I was going to be dead or alive when they got there.

And their choices when they got there, they found out that I'll live within minutes, minute, second to second, their choices were either organ donation, because I told them I was possibly brain dead after the brain surgery.

It was left like an indention or a hole in the right side of my brain bigger than a half dollar.

So they told them my left side would be paralyzed forever, and I was paralyzed completely, my left side.

So I told them if I was to live and find a nursing home to put me on because I would need special health care, this rest of my life.

But every parent's worst possible nightmare, they were faced with burying their only son.

They told them I was going to die and think and think about how to bring my body back home to America.

When Sal's parents arrived in France, Sol was in a medically induced coma following surgery to relieve pressure from a hematoma.

I have.

I have memories, but they're not that well.

I do have the memory.

That's not a memory.

Had the feeling of the soft, gentle words.

Twinkle, twinkle little star.

How I wonder where you are.

I remember my mother singing to me when I was in my coma, had the feeling it made me feel good and warm.

So I do, to some extent.

I do remember that having that feeling of just feeling good.

Do you remember waking up from the coma?

I don't remember it.

Well, six days after my coma in the morning, they said they're going to stop the medication and try and wake me up out of my coma.

Well, that night, my parents got a phone call from my team doctor saying, Come to the hospital immediately.

It's emergency.

It's emergency.

So my parents rushed to the hospital and they're greeted by my team doctor at the door.

And he was crying extremely hard.

But as they got closer, those tears turned to a big smile and he started jumping up in the air saying, Yeah, Saul, he's awake.

He's awake and awake.

And so they ran to my room and they rushed to my side.

And when you wake up from a coma, you're not awake, You're still in a very deep sleep.

The only way they said that could tell I was awake was I was more relaxed.

My dad was on my left side.

My mom was on my right.

Her mom reached over and she said Saul, mommy loves you.

And she squeezed my hand three times, I love you.

And I squeezed her hand back four times.

I love you, too.

Now, the hand squeezing was something that you had done with your parents for a long time.

I guess when you were younger, you decided you were too old to hug and kiss.

So that was.

That was your little squeezing.

You know, those are more four words.

And the doctor said I would ever be able to say the rest of my life.

that said that I probably would never be able to use my body.

So she couldn't believe it.

She said, Jim, you just squeeze my hand back four times.

You love me too.

And he said, There's no way.

Let me try.

So my dad took my left hand, said Saul, Daddy loves you.

I squeezed him back four times, I love you, too.

And he couldn't believe it because the doctor said I would never use my left side again, much less be able to respond.

And my mom wanted to try.

She came over.

I said, Get the nurse with nurses in the room.

And they tried to explain to the nurse What I done, and they said no, Impulsive.

It's impossible.

And the nurse wanted to try it.

So while the nurse held my hand, my mom and dad whispered, Saul, mom and dad, we love you.

And I squeezed the nurses hand back four times.

You know, I love you, too.

And immediately tears started falling on this nurses face, and she jumped up and said, miraculous, miraculous.

These are miracles.

A miracle.

Id woke up from my coma.

Waking up was just the first hurdle this young athlete would have to overcome.

The damage from the brain injury was so extensive he'd have to begin relearning everything from basic life skills, such as eating or using the bathroom to walking, talking and even academics.

Once his condition was stabilized, he was flown from France to Atlanta, Georgia's Shepherd Center, to take the next step in his recovery process.

When was the first instant, though, that you were actually aware of the degree to which you had been injured and what had happened to you?

Well, in therapy, they always try to integrate you back into society or life by letting you take taking on outings and or just letting you get on the computer all day.

One day in therapy, they put me on a computer and I started going through my emails and I had 1500 new emails and I thought, What's going on?

And so I went to Google, I typed in Saul Raisin, and I had over 500,000 search results for some reason.

And I thought, wow, did I win the tour in Italy?

Because, you know, that's a lot of results.

But then the first one that popped up was CNN Headline News.

Professional Cycle Saul Raisin crashes and has had brain surgeries in a coma in France.

That's the first time I thought to myself, you know, I almost lost my life.

Recognizing the near miss with death.

Sauls recovery has become a long journey for both him and his parents.

Is there any way for you to describe what it has been like to suffer a brain injury physically, emotionally.

I tell people its like, get.

Its like you have extremely bad vision.

Like the point where you can't see in front of your two fingers and everything so foggy and unclear.

You can't understand it.

No, my life, for months after I woke up from my coma, was opening and closing my eyes.

I'd open them and then I go back to sleep.

I go to sleep for a day, maybe two days.

I feel someone poking me.

Tell me to open my mouth.

I'd open it, close it.

And that was my life.

Just open.

Close my eyes.

But when I was finally awake, now there's this mass confusion.

You don't know what's going on.

I mean, it's this.

Your life is is incredibly slow.

You're just in complete chaos.

You can't even you can't understand anything other than either you're hungry or you're not.

And that's about it.

It's just open and closing your eyes.

And you now, four years later, are there still things you struggle with?

I do.

The motor coordination on my left hand is still not as good as it used to be, and I really should probably work my hand more because it's it's that's one thing.

And my left leg, the coordination that when I get tired, I'll start to limp a little bit.

And then also on things that most people do quite easily, I still struggle with my thinking, sometimes trying to make the right decisions.

But but I really it takes me a little more time if, let's say, in math class, for if it takes more one 5 minutes than one page, they'll take me ten.

But I know that it's like and I do struggle with some things, but each day, even to this day, I feel like I get another pair of reading glasses and my life becomes more clear.

You know, now, at first, you know, when I got things back that were big, you could you could see it.

You know, when I got my balance back and I started getting movement in my left side, you know, you could see those things.

But now, even to this day, I still feel improvements.

I tell people it's like if you ever get over a big hurdle in your life, no matter if its college graduation, whatever it was, and you get through it and you think you have a sense of self improvement, you're a better person.

You know, for me, I have a few months.

I have a sense of a better person and a stronger person.

I don't know why, but I have that feeling.

I know it's there.

How is your long term memory?

No longer memory is excellent.

And at first my short term memory it was almost in existent.

But all those things have come back.

So Saul focuses on what he has and not so much on what was lost.

His demeanor alone inspires hope, and hope has become a personal mission of outreach for both Saul and his family.

Just a year after his accident.

Saul coauthored a book with writer Dave Shields.

How much input did you have and what was the impetus for you wanting to put this all in a book so quickly after all of this?

Well, it's because I when you look at how life changing, devastating a brain injury is not only for the patient, but for a whole family.

There's not that there's not that much out there for people.

And I want to change that.

And that's why I wrote my book, just to share my story with others, to let them know they're not alone.

Because I wanted to be document because, I mean, people need to know that they can get through it and that there are blue skies ahead.

So have you read the book?

I've read it, but not front to back without putting it down.

This is very emotional for me to read it.

And I'm.

Sure.

I know my mom and dad have never read it.

But in the writing of the book, you know, my parents kept a journal when I was in my in my coma throughout the whole process.

So the book is very accurate to the events that happened.

And I know I've written I personally wrote probably 20 or 30 pages of the book myself of my part.

But no, the book is very accurate, to what happened.

How difficult was was it for you to read the book?

Oh, very.

Because, you know, it's it's hard to imagine that I put my parents through that, like what they went through, not knowing if their only son's going to be dead or alive, You know, having to watch me relearned how to eat, how to use the bathroom, you name it.

It's got to be hard.

Talk about rehab for a second.

I mean, I don't think people understand how much you really had to relearn.

I lost everything, know I couldn't read or write.

I couldn't add or subtract.

You know, my left side, like I said earlier, was paralyzed.

I didn't have any balance.

The doctors thought I'd probably never get my balance back.

You know, doctors used an analogy.

I have to relearn how to write.

I have to relearn how to read.

But it's really if you're blessed to be able to do those things again, it truly is.

But I mean, my life was completely destroyed.

You know, I was a pro cyclist making good money, living in the south of France, living the dream.

But in one instant, it blew to pieces, I mean, it was not about money.

It wasn't about, you know, when you're in the hospital and you can't move from the neck down, it's you can you don't even think about those things.

And, you know, my life was destroyed.

For the last four years, I've been trying to put my life back together.

But, you know, the life I have now is wonderful.

It's a beautiful place.

A cyclist without a map, an artist with a clean canvas and what he calls a second chance.

Saul is moving forward with new goals and aspirations.

When you were in rehab, you made an oath and that if you got better, you were going to help others.

How have you done that?

I live by that.

You know, I also want to do good things for others just because we can.

My foundation, we've raised over $100,000 in the last almost four years now for traumatic brain injury with the charity bike ride we have each year.

It's called Raising Hope.

The Raising Hope Foundation.

Nice play on words.

Its a great play on words.

And also, I try to spend as much time as I can with our wounded veterans coming back from the war traumatic brain injury, because for over 50,000 of them now, traumatic brain injuries them in their families, they really do not have too many resources.

And I just want them to know that they can get through the hardest on their lives and not to up no matter what the scenario is, good or bad, They need to know what they can do and get through it.

Now I notice it's under your your sleeve, but your bracelet, your your green bracelet.

In cycling, I was known for raising hell, Saul Raisin.

But when I was in the hospital and shepherds, some of the therapists went on my website and they saw a pair, my custom cycling shoes.

They are green and white color my team, and they are raising hell on them.

So then initially they made raising hell for, I mean, raising hell bracelets and we sold them.

And of course, the proceeds went to Shepherd's Center in Atlanta.

But, you know, it's no change in times.

You know, it's raising hope because, you know, for us patients in the hospital and our caretakers with a brain injury, we could only really count on a few things.

For some of us, we had friends of family, others we had God and prayers.

But one thing we all share and it common, we always had hope.

We hope to get better because there's so much known about the brain, but even more unknown.

You can't give people answers, but you can be that shoulder for them to cry on.

Hope seems to be a very recurrent theme in your recovery and in your life right now.

How much does Hope play in in your goal setting and how much does the fact that you are this determined, stubborn athlete in the fact that you recovered not only to a point that doctors never imagined, but miraculously, you know, much faster than anyone could have ever anticipated?

Right.

You know, people really underestimate the power of hope.

Know, my first hope was to lift my head on my pillow.

My second hope was with my arm off my bed.

Then I hope to be able to walk among all mothers to, you know, I set my goal so, so high.

Some people say I'm crazy.

And four and a half months after my accident, I rode my bike on the road for the first time, 35 miles, an average 18 miles an hour, and the first bike ride a year and a half after max than my first and my last professional bicycle race.

The Greenville US Professional Cycling Championships in Greenville, South Carolina.

A year, two years after my accident, I ran the New York City Marathon.

Since then I've completed four half Ironman triathlon.

I ran the Georgia Marathon this last March.

My next goal is to get back home to the men and women of our country and their families that needed them to come back from the war with traumatic burn.

You talk a lot about goal setting.

How important is goal setting in your life?

I mean, is that it seems like everything you do is all about making your list, figuring out where you're going to be tomorrow or a year from now.

Does that continue on today?

Absolutely.

I'm always making goal.

You know, it's like, what's my next goal?

And I make my goal so high.

I mean, it's what you have to I mean, you have to reach for the stars.

You know, why not?

I mean.

What are you doing now?

What are your goals now?

My goals is I'm going to go to college a degree in, I think physical therapy and or speech pathology or both.

And I joke must already have my Ph.D. in both of them.

I just need a diploma to back it up because I've lived it.

I want to do that.

And then I also want to grow the foundation, you know, and raise awareness for traumatic brain injury.

And one way we want to do that is we want to start some programs like a supporter program, you know, like a big brother, big sister program to where, you know, we can go into a hospital as a family and become supporters for other people that are going through brain injuries.

So we'll be there for them.

How much of your time is spent on the foundation?

Why?

50% of the time?

Quite a bit.

Saul and his parents returned to Atlanta to visit the Shepherd Center frequently, to be with families negotiating their way through the emotional ups and downs of a loved ones traumatic brain injury.

And though saw past his physical and psychological examinations and felt ready to return to professional cycling, he was unwilling to risk it.

So he decided it was time to move on to something bigger.

Saul made the decision to pursue a degree so he could continue helping others in a way he was never able to do while riding a bike.

What has changed about you since you're since the injury?

You know, that's a good question because I'm not sure, because when you have a brain injury, everything you believe in, you stand for as a person.

All your religious beliefs, your political beliefs, everything is what you get back of your original self.

Doctors will tell you the miracle, which you don't get back is going to be what your caretakers teach you.

So I say, Who would take care of you if you had severe brain injury?

That's whose morals you're probably going to learn.

So the old Saul, I don't remember the old Saul.

but I've been told by the people that love me the most that the Saul today is very much the same as the old Saul.

It's that the new Saul is very much more passionate, more caring and compassion of a person than I used to be.

I know this might be hard, but when you look back on your life as as a whole, what has been your greatest challenge and what's been your greatest accomplishment?

Greatest challenge was my brain injury.

No question.

I mean, when I faced with my brain injury was unimaginable.

The things myself and my family say, you know, my dad, I never saw him cry until after my accident.

And that hurt so bad.

My biggest accomplishment was on with my brain injury as well, because they say statistically can never overcome a brain injury.

They also say, statistically, I should be dead.

So let's say I'm approval statistics wrong and I will overcome.

And for every life that you touched now with your foundation going to visit the rehab center and just people you meet on the street.

What's the one takeaway you hope they have when they meet you?

What's the one thing that you hope they they are inspired to do after meeting you and in hearing your story?

After I meet them, I hope they have a smile.

And that impression is just enough.

That little piece of hope that they can have to get through the hardest times of their lives.

If nothing else, you are a beacon of hope for everybody.

I think.

I appreciate you're sitting with us.

Today.

Oh, thank you.

Whether it's his life story, his personal triumphs, or his efforts to reach out to others, Saul Raisin is truly raisin hope.

I'm Allison Leibovitz.

See you next time he comes.

The sun.

He comes the sun.

I said it's all right.

It's done.

It feels like.

Since it's been.