At BCKR we believe that fandom runs deeper than game days. It lives in the people who carry their school’s places, traditions, and communities with them long after graduation. And so, we created this series to share the stories of those whose loyalty, resilience, and purpose embody the best of their alma maters.
A week before her father’s funeral, Nan McMahan learned how to walk again. Newly fitted with a prosthetic after losing her right leg and using a walker, the seventeen-year-old made her way to the pulpit to give the benediction.
Four months earlier, she was in an Atlanta hospital, waking up to a reality she didn’t yet know about after a jet ski accident that she couldn’t remember: she had lost her leg. Her father, Jim McMahan, 53, had died on impact.
Nan spent her senior year of high school recovering from the accident, relearning how to walk, and leaning on her faith. She was also applying to colleges, hoping to get into her dream school, the University of Georgia. She’d grown up rooting for the Dawgs alongside her dad, who was, she says, “the biggest Georgia Bulldog fan in the world.”
Below, Nan shares her story, one of grief and recovery, faith and identity, and how the school she grew up loving became part of the path that carries her forward.
“An earth-shattering, life-changing moment”
In July 2019, the day after I took the ACT, my family and I drove to our lake house on Lake Wedowee, in Alabama, about two hours west of our home in Atlanta. I don’t actually remember the accident, but I was on one jet ski and my dad was on the other. We collided, my leg was amputated, and my dad died on impact in the crash. No one saw it, but three fishermen heard it and came and found us and called 911.
A helicopter took me to Grady [Memorial Hospital] in Atlanta and I went straight into surgery. They completed the amputation of my leg and did a full pelvic reconstruction. One of my lungs collapsed and they replaced my blood volume I don’t even know how many times.
I was intubated and in and out of surgeries those first few days. They’d told my family not to tell me anything about what had happened until I could talk on my own again and ask questions. So, three or four days after the accident, they took my breathing tube out and my mom looked at me – I’ll never forget this – and said, “You lost your leg. You’re going to be in a wheelchair for a little bit but then you’re going to be able to walk again.” And I asked her, “Where’s Dad?”
She said, “He’s in heaven.” I asked if it was a car accident and she told me it was a jet-ski accident. The first thing I said after that was, “I’m so glad he’s with his mom,” because he’d lost his mom when he was little. And then I told her, “We were great as [a family of] four, and we’re going to be great as three.” It was an earth-shattering, life-changing moment, but God’s peace really covered me. I really just don’t have any other way to explain it.
Recovery and a new reality
After a month at Grady I was transported to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for inpatient rehab. It was three hours of therapy a day as they taught me how to live again with a new level of function. My biggest fears were how I was going to look with a prosthetic leg and how in the world I was going to live in a world without my dad because he was my very best friend.
The accident happened in July and I didn’t get out of the hospital until September of my senior year. We had my dad’s funeral on November 11 and I got my prosthetic a week before so I could walk up to the pulpit using a walker and give the benediction. It was really special to be able to honor my dad, standing on two feet.
I learned to walk through that whole next year. I was in and out of my wheelchair because you have to build up tolerance for a prosthetic. Another important person in my life at that time was Steve Ehretsman. He was the owner of Shamrock Prosthetics and he made a way for me to get the best leg even when my insurance wouldn’t cover it. At first I was so scared of even looking at a prosthetic leg, much less wearing one. All I cared about at 17 was how I was going to look. Growing up, I really wasn’t exposed to disability ever, and I thought it just had such a negative connotation. Acceptance of the reality of my circumstances and my new identity as a person with a disability is something I’ve been working on with God for a long time now.
Becoming a Bulldog
I’d started my college applications when I was in the hospital. I applied to two other schools too, but from the time I was a little girl Georgia was the only school I ever wanted to go to.
My dad didn’t go to college but he was the biggest Georgia Bulldog fan in the whole world. Something so special to me was watching games together. It was just our thing. So after he was gone it meant even more to me to go and spend that time of my life at the University of Georgia because it was such a big part of our bond.
When I got in I was so relieved and excited. Over the next four years, even though my dad wasn’t physically there with me, I was still able to connect with him through this university. I had a really awesome college experience. I made the best friends and I grew so much, as a person, as a Christian, as a woman who is in the world but not of the world.
I spent so many nights at the MLC and the Tate studying my eyes out for anatomy lab practicals with my friends. And we won two [football] national championships, back to back, during my sophomore and junior years (2021 and 2022). I will never forget walking around the streets after those wins.
On graduation day we had the time of our lives. We left the stadium and walked to North Campus to walk through the Arch. Then we went to this bar called the Roadhouse, where they throw napkins off the bar at midnight and play “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” It was the best.
From pain to purpose
I was a philanthropy chair of my sorority, ADPi, for a year, and we supported the Ronald McDonald House, which was a cool connection. I was also involved with UGA Miracle, which raises money for Children’s Healthcare Atlanta, which is where I was for my inpatient rehab after I lost my leg. Over my four years, I was able to raise over $65,000 for Children’s, which was so special because the first million dollars we raised every year went to the inpatient rehab floor that I was on, where I basically learned how to function again. That was a really special part of my time at Georgia.
I chose [to pursue] occupational therapy because it was the most fun thing for me to do when I was recovering. When I was in the hospital, my rehab doctor was like, “You know, a lot of people go through stuff like this and then they come back and work here,” and I was like, “Uh, that will not be me. Get me out of there and don’t ever bring me back!” I thought I’d study business and interior design and they’d never see my face again. And then I left the hospital and realized I really missed being in a place where every day you see what’s most important in life.
I’m in my second year of the Occupational Therapy Doctorate program at Georgia State and I just finished my first full-time rotation at the Emory Inpatient Rehabilitation Center in Decatur. For my capstone project next year I’m going to focus on mothers with limb differences during the perinatal period. My biggest dream for my life is to be a wife and a mom and I want to build a comprehensive resource for girls like me to help them navigate that experience.
The emotional and mental aspect of my accident—of losing my limb, of losing my dad—was truly the most challenging part of my recovery. And while my occupational therapists were teaching me how to sit up on the edge of the bed, how to use a wheelchair, how to walk, they were also holding my heart. I’d be feeling the pain in my body but I’d also let them in on the pain in my heart, in my head, and my spirit. I know it’s a place where there is a lot of suffering but there is a big opportunity for God to use my experience to bless others. So, whether it’s through my presence or my words or now through the clinical skills I’m learning, I feel really sure that this is God’s plan A for my life.
Athens Favorites
The music scene in Athens was the best thing ever. We would always go see Futurebirds at band parties and one time I saw them play a free show on the roof of the Georgia Theatre, which has been in Athens forever.
My favorite restaurant in the world is Marker 7 Coastal Grill. We’d always walk there on a sunny day and sit on the patio and have a good meal.
I also loved Walker’s, a coffee shop downtown that turns into a bar at night and has really great cocktails.
And the cheesecake at Last Resort Grill is so good.
