ROBERTSDALE, Alabama --- Terry Fent is a walking miracle.

Just 19 days after being severely injured in a single-vehicle accident, when he swerved to miss an animal, the Summerdale Police officer was able to go home from USA Medical Center in Mobile.

Nearly two weeks later, a phone call to Eddie Ingram about a benefit fish fry to be held Friday, March 23 at the police station, by chance found Fent visiting in the police chief’s office.

“I consider myself to be very, very blessed,” said Fent, who broke his back in two places near his neck and his lower back, suffered massive head injuries and a spinal cord injury in the accident which occurred in the early morning hours while on his way to training on Saturday, Feb. 18.

Six days after the accident, Fent was up and walking.

“It was tough to get my legs under me at first,” he said, “but through the power of prayer, by the third or fourth day, when they came and asked me if I wanted to walk a few steps, I said, ‘no, I want to walk the entire floor,’ and I did it.”

Two days before he was released on March 8, Fent said, he had the staples removed from his head. This past Tuesday he had the staples taken out of his stomach.

“My doctors told me that 12 weeks after the date of the accident, they expect me to make a full recovery,” Fent said.

A 14-year veteran in law enforcement, Fent was the assistant chief in Silverhill before being rehired by the Summerdale Police Department in November.

Because Fent was still under a three-month probationary period as a condition of his hire, he did not have any health insurance, Ingram said. The police department has set up a fund to help the wounded officer pay medical expenses related to the accident.  He was just seven days from receiving full benefits from the department when the accident occurred.

On Friday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., there will be a benefit fish fry at the Summerdale Police Department on Highway 59.  Plates will be available for $10 each from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This will be the third event for Fent since the accident.

A friend of Fent’s,  Hillary Johnson, along with her friend, Candie Koenig, organized a pair of benefits, one held March 3 at Garrett Park in Robertsdale, and softball games between firefighters and police department officers held Saturday, March 17 at the Barnwell ball fields, which drew enough to have seven teams, according to the Facebook site Officer Fent Support Page.

More benefits are scheduled to be held in April, including a benefit concert at Oak Hollow Farms in Fairhope.

“Words cannot express how much I appreciate all the cards, words of encouragement and all the volunteers and people who came out to the benefits,” Fent said. “I can never repay everyone for all they’ve done, but I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying.”

Fent said he was going to do his best to come to Friday’s benefit so he can personally thank everyone. Information on Friday’s benefit can be obtained on the Officer Fent Support Page on Facebook or by calling the Summerdale Police Department at 251-989-7777.

Donations for Fent’s medical expenses can also be delivered or mailed to the Summerdale Municipal Complex at 502 W. Lee Ave, Summerdale, AL, 36580. Donors should make checks payable to Terry Fent, Ingram said.

Fent said if there’s one lesson he can take from all of this it is to live each day like there’s no tomorrow.

“You’ve got to give everything you’ve got every day. If there’s someone you love, you need to tell them you love them. If there’s something that has to be done, don’t wait,” he said. “You’ve got to live every day like there’s no tomorrow, because, for me there almost wasn’t a tomorrow.”

Fent said he has a mission now to find his destiny.

“I know everyone has a destiny and I know I haven’t found mine or else I wouldn’t be here,” he said.

But for right now, he said, he’s ready to get up and get back to work.

“Everybody says to take it easy and take my time getting better, but I’m just itching to get back up and get back to work,” he said.