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Paralyzed 5 Year Old's Heartwarming Homecoming

Strother Norman
(credit: CBS 11 News)

FORT WORTH (CBS 11 NEWS) - A little boy who suffered a life-changing injury returned to North Texas for a tear-jerking, heart-swelling homecoming.

When Strother Norman wheeled down the arrival terminal at DFW International Airport, with his little brother Hodge along for the ride, few outside his family circle knew the journey the five-year-old has actually traveled.

A June car crash put Strother in Cook Children's Hospital intensive care unit for more than a month. He suffered a severe spinal cord injury and lost all feeling below his chest.

But his mother says he soars with an ease even she can't comprehend.

"He makes me strong. He makes us all strong," says Strother's mother, Blythe Norman.

With the support of the Moslah Shriners of Fort Worth, Strother received extensive care and rehabilitation from Shriner's Hospital for Children in Chicago.

"The best place for him to be was a Shriner's Hospital that specializes in spinal cord care. So we arranged to get him there as fast a method we could do," says Patrick Bobbitt from Moslah Shriners Fort Worth.

Six weeks later, Strother's buddies, neighbors and schoolmates welcomed him back, and the five-year-old says it feels pretty good to be here.

Strother will face more medical procedures in the coming years.  His family and friends started a website to share his story and his progress.

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