After sustaining a C5 spinal cord injury the summer after high school senior year, Neil was determined to be an athlete and live his life, now in a manual wheelchair.
We were coming home [from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho] and it was 2:00 o’clock in the morning. I was sleeping and [the driver] fell asleep at the wheel. There was a semi-truck parked on the side of the road and we crossed over the line and hit head on going 50-60 miles per hour. I was not wearing my seat belt. I was DOA (dead on arrival) when the ambulance arrived. My parents got to the hospital and the staff told them I wasn’t going to make it through the night. But I did. – Neil
[Read more…] about Lessons in coming back from a spinal cord injury stronger
