Persistence, Attitude Help Medical Student Rise Above Disability
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t is not uncommon for young children to idolize professional athletes, and Mercer medical student Oliver Horne was no exception. At a young age, he began to follow the career of Jim Abbott, a former Yankees pitcher and Olympic gold medalist. The famous athlete, whom Horne met at spring training as a child, was not just someone he looked up to, but was a role model with whom he shared something more than a love of baseball. “Abbott was born without his right hand,” explained Horne, “and I was born without my left hand.”
photos courtesy of Oliver Horne
In fact, Horne’s left arm ends just below his elbow, a congenital condition most likely caused by amniotic band syndrome. Like Abbott, Horne has never let his physical impairment get in his way. “It’s never stopped me,” he said. “There’s nothing I’ve come across that I haven’t been able to do. It’s something that I don’t even think about.” That determination has served him well, said his parents, Wendell and Lisa Horne. “At first we worried about how he would crawl or what
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other limitations he might have, but Oliver just did what he needed to do,” said his mother. “He sat up and crawled at an earlier age than his sisters and hopped on a bicycle when he was four without ever having been on one before.” Some might call it over-achieving, but for this fourth-year Mercer medical student, it’s just a matter of wanting to do something, then figuring out the best way to get it done. “I’ve never let it get in the way of doing things I enjoy,” he said. With that mindset, he became involved in sports as a young boy and went on to play varsity basketball, baseball and football, even earning the position of deep snapper as a freshman. Stratford Academy coach Cater Pierce had been coaching 15 years and was skeptical when he first saw Horne on the basketball court. “I remember my first job at Stratford was to go to the Mercer basketball camp with our team. When it was time to start the game, other teams were hooting because we were sending someone with one arm (Above left) Major League pitcher and role model Jim Abbott and Horne onto the court.” Within two have in common succeeding in athletics with just one hand. (Above minutes, they realized their right) Horne, even though born without his left hand, served as the deep snapper on the Stratford Academy varsity football team. mistake. “The other guy
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had the ball in the wing and was getting ready to shoot a three-pointer,” he said. “As the guy shot the ball, Oliver left the lane, reached up, and blocked it. The next thing we knew, Oliver caught a ball in mid-air, and, as he was falling out of bounds, threw the ball to a teammate who was already heading down court to make the basket. By then, the fans were on Oliver’s side.” As a senior, Horne was named to All-Region in basketball and was presented the National Football Foundation’s Scholar-Citizen-Athlete Award by its Middle Georgia Chapter. Horne, who now plays on Mercer’s intramural teams, admits that sports and other activities, like hunting and fishing, come naturally to him. “I use my left arm in whatever I do. It’s something I’ve adapted to. If I had another hand, I wouldn’t know what to do with it.” His sisters, Caroline Fleming and Mollie McNeel of Macon, say they never considered him different when they were children. “It wasn’t like it stopped him from doing anything. Whatever he wanted to do, he did,” said McNeel. Without intending to, Horne has followed in Abbott’s footsteps by reaching out to others who have experienced similar challenges. He’s talked to young boys before and after his own ballgames and befriended a young man in Texas several years ago whose arm was amputated following a car accident. “Talking