'The warrior spirit': How an Ocala businessman recovered after a major horse accident

Tom Equels credits the combination of a quick trauma response, skilled medical team, karate workouts and a desire to resume his life-saving cancer research for his rapid recovery from critical injuries suffered in a horse riding mishap last year.

He just happened to win a championship and several other karate awards along the way.

Equels‘ home and horse training facility is on his 110-acre property adjacent to the Cross Florida Greenway on County Road 475. The location in southwest Marion County was once the site of Cashel Stud Farm.

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Equels, 71, was severely injured on Oct. 9, 2021, when his 12-year-old Paso Fino, Hidalgo de Luna, a champion dressage horse, stepped into a buried pot once used to catch turpentine.

This accident happened after a two-hour trail ride. The 1,000-pound Hidalgo de Luna somersaulted after hitting the buried pot, and Equels was crushed while still sitting in the saddle.

Equels suffered a severe pelvic injury, artery damage, blood loss, and lost several teeth.

His wife, Laura, called his recovery “miraculous" and said "he is driven.”

On the day of the horse mishap, the horse’s trainer, Wilfredo Gomez, was nearby and assisted along with others on the property. A Marion County Fire Rescue station is close to his property, and Equels was transported to HCA Florida Hospital, which is a trauma center.

Equels' daughter, Lesley, a registered nurse now working in Montana, said her father joked he had “broken the horse’s fall.”

Quite an injury, and quite a recovery

She stared in an email that her father’s injury was an “open book pelvic fracture…(which)…has the potential to be life threatening.”

Lesley Equels stated the injury damaged an artery and caused significant blood loss.

Her father received advanced trauma life support and was taken into surgery “right away to stop his hemorrhaging and prevent any further blood loss. Then (he had) additional orthopedic surgery to stabilize the pelvis,” she wrote.

“When he was first discharged, he was wheelchair bound, and he had been told he might be so for several months. He was given instructions that he could use a walker for transfers only, meaning only for stability to move from his wheelchair to a recliner or bed. By the end of his second week of recovery, He was using his walker to walk short distances,” she wrote.

Equels is back to unassisted walking and riding Hidalgo de Luna. The horse was unhurt in the incident.

“(My father’s) recovery was phenomenal,” Leslie Equels stated.

She stated her father is “very passionate” about his professional and recreational pursuits and ”wanted to get back to everything as soon as possible.”

Tom Equels: 'I had to make a decision'

Retired Army Col. Bill Bryant, who lives near Panama City, flew combat missions with Tom Equels during the Vietnam War. He was not surprised by his comrade’s quick recovery.

“I spent a day (recently) with Tom. When you’re in combat together you form a bond, a bond that lasts a lifetime,” Bryant said.

Equels made it clear he was not going to let the injury defeat him.

“I had to make a decision. I could have sat on the couch and taken painkillers, but I wanted to do something to give back to myself,” Equels said recently at his home.

Equels is CEO of AIM ImmunoTech Inc., an “immuno pharma company focused on research and development of therapeutics to treat multiple cancers,” according to aimimmuno.com.

The website states the firm’s lead product, Ampligen, is “being developed for globally important cancers, viral diseases and disorders of the immune system.”

“My work with  AIM ImmunoTech, Inc. drives me. We are on the cusp of breakthrough (cancer) treatments which can help people without hope, for example people with pancreatic cancer,” he said.

The role of martial arts

Equels is involved in the martial arts and attained the level of Blue Belt in the 1990s. After getting his doctor’s permission, he began training again in January 2022, and “with instruction and permission from my old Sensei and head of Torasmado (karate) Bob Rose” was awarded his Black Belt in fall 2022, he explained in a text message.

Rose said Equels has the “warrior spirit."

Equels is now a Shodan or first-degree Black Belt. He was recognized as the Florida Black Belt Association’s 2022 season champion with “exceptional technique“ achieved through “dedicated effort,” as noted on his award.

He also garnered a trophy at the ISKA (International Sports Karate Association) World Martial Arts Championships U.S. Open held in July 2022 at Disney’s Coronado Springs resort, Orlando, and a 2022 North American Sport Karate Association National Championship.

“Tom exemplifies all that is good about the martial arts. Training helps you to understand your body and weaknesses, the mind, body, spirit element helps with healing,” Rose wrote in an email.

Retired Army Master Sgt. Andres Sepulveda of SB Tactical Solutions & Self Defense stated that Equels came to the school seeking a place "that will allow him some flexibility with condition but also help him improve upon his current status.”

“(At) Gracie Jiujitsu Academy we focus on overall health …(p)articipants in martial arts have been shown to have lower blood pressure and heart rates,” he wrote.

“(Tom Equels) is very dedicated …(and)… a credit upon himself …we are very proud of him, and we were glad to help him along his journey,” Sepulveda wrote in a text message.

Tom Equels was born in west Pennsylvania

Equels has a track record of excellence and dedication. He was born in West Pennsylvania, and after multiple trips to Key West due to Navy service, the family settled in Titusville, where he graduated high school.

Equels joined the Army right out of high school and in 1972, at age 19, was flying a Cobra helicopter gunship in combat in the Vietnam War.

He was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Bronze Star, and 15 Air Medals - three with notations for valor and 12 related to combat missions - for his service during the war, which included flying in a combat mission to help rescue soldiers under attack in a base.

He was awarded the Purple Heart for shrapnel wounds.

Equels remained in the Army after the war as a trainer and wrote instruction manuals for helicopter piloting. He earned his bachelor's degree summa cum laude and his master’s degrees at Troy University while still in the Army and his law degree at Florida State University in 1980.

As a complex business litigation lawyer, he joined a firm that included former Florida Gov. Reubin Askew (who served 1971-79) and moved to Miami. He was involved in pro bono work including efforts to aid Haitian immigrants.

Equels moved to Orlando in the 1990s due to his legal work with the Middle District of Florida and, as an avid lifelong horseman, he became interested in the Ocala area and soon moved to Marion County.

Equels was named a papal knight of the Order of Saint Gregory by the bishop of Orlando, according to an April 7, 2012 Star-Banner article. He helped Haitian detainees in the Dade County area exercise the “right to worship” and be accessible to religious leaders.

Meanwhile, he continues his work with AIM Immuno Tech and his 20 horses, including Hidalgo de Luna, and up to 80 visiting horses at his Equels Training Center.

He is also an accomplished artist, painting patriotic, wildlife and other scenes, often to be donated and motorsports enthusiast.

“I might give up my surfboard , though,” he joked.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Ocala businessman, horseman overcomes serious injuries