Walking with Anthony

SPINAL CORD INJURY AWARENESS MONTH

INTRODUCING SCI HEROES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

This September, we aim to raise SCI awareness by sharing 30 different stories from 30 individuals with SCI, highlighting their tragedies and triumphs each day on our social channels and website. Walking With Anthony receives thousands of grant applications every year from individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) in desperate need of help. Each story has the same underlying theme: these brave heroes need mental, physical, and financial guidance and support.

Please share these stories during the month of September to help us raise awareness for spinal cord injury.

SCI Heroes

Ian Malesiewski

I was wrestling at the junior freestyle and Greco world team trials. It was my first match of the Greco portion of the tournament and I threw my opponent. I landed hitting the mat with my forehead first and all of my opponents weight, as well as mine, was added force behind the throw. I broke my neck at C4 leaving me paralyzed from the chest down.I am currently attending Harvard Law School. My mom is my caretaker and has been having trouble transferring me when we travel. I will be required...

Rhonda Williams
SCI Heroes

Rhonda Williams

I am a C5 C6 quadriplegic who had a car accident when I was 16 in 1989 in Virginia. Through the many years of living as a quadriplegic I have had ebbs and flows. I met my husband while living in Florida and we moved to Fresno, California. In 2012 I lost my husband who was a paraplegic and disengaged from the outside world somewhat. I have no family due to the fact I was a foster child and grew up in many different group homes. Although that initial start in life did not stop me from...

David Wieselmann
SCI Heroes

David Wieselmann

I was Mt. Biking with friends up in Vermont after work. We were cutting down a hill at the very end of run, and my front wheel sunk in some soft dirt. I went over the handlebars and did a somersault. Broke my neck. Stood straight up. And fell to the ground. I waited with friends for four hours for a helicopter and was med vacated out of there to Dartmouth where I had surgery. I was in ICU for over a week, then transferred to Fletcher Allen Hospital in Colchester, VT to learn how to live in...

Stephanie Nichols-Rodas
SCI Heroes

Stephanie Nichols-Rodas

I had a car accident May 6th,2017, early in the morning on my way to work. Another car was going to hit me, so I swerved and hit a concrete median while merging on to the freeway. I flipped 3 times, and then another car hit me and threw me a mile away. I broke C5-C6,damaged from C4 to C7,and damaged my neck arteries. Unfortunately I didn't remember what happened right away, it took me 3 years to get the flashback. Being a quadriplegic for 5+ years has been very challenging, for my loved...

Eden Hoelscher
SCI Heroes

Eden Hoelscher

On December 23, 2015, our five-year-old daughter, Eden, collapsed on the ground after doing a backbend on our living room floor. Within 30 minutes, she was paralyzed from the waist down. She was rushed by helicopter from our local hospital to the PICU where she was diagnosed as a complete paraplegic because of a spinal cord stroke at T8/9. After 2 months of inpatient rehab, she was discharged with the dire prognosis that she would never recover, and that we should prepare for a very...

Rebecca Koltun
SCI Heroes

Rebecca Koltun

On March 13, 2021, I was skiing with some friends in Vermont. While I do not recall the day itself, I was told that I had a very bad fall. I woke up in a hospital in New Hampshire, paralyzed from the neck down and attached to a ventilator. I was told that I damage my spinal cord at the C1 C2 Junction. I was in the ICU for 2 1/2 weeks before I was transferred to Spaulding rehabilitation hospital in Boston. I spent 4 1/2 months there, doing intense rehabilitation, getting off the ventilator,...

Rob Balucas
SCI Heroes

Rob Balucas

hey, i’m rob This part of my story starts in 2015. That year was a shaping up to be a breakout year for my business and me. My business, a boutique creative agency, was on track to grow by 12% annually and double-digits for the third year in a row. I had proven that I could survive in San Francisco, a goal I accomplished 3 years ago. I took up triathlon. I wasn’t a swimmer, cyclist, or runner. Being someone who was always wanted to push myself, I sought a physical challenge to find my edge....

Stevie VanAusdale
SCI Heroes

Stevie VanAusdale

I was in a car accident the summer going into my junior year of high school. I was with 4 friends. We made the poor choice of throwing water bottles at other cars, which caused one car to chase us for 2 miles on back country roads. The chase ended with us crashing into a tree and ditch. The man chasing us called 911 but then promptly left the scene. I was dead when help arrived but they were able to resuscitate me. I went through 24 hrs of surgery to place rods and screws in my back, repair...

Casey Ellin
SCI Heroes

Casey Ellin

On June 1st, 2013, when Casey was only 26 years old, he had an accident at Jones Beach that forever changed his life. After diving into the ocean, he fractured his C4 – C6 vertebrae, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. Face down in the water and unable to move, Casey was rescued from the ocean by Emergency Medical Technicians and air-lifted to Nassau University Medical Center. The distance Casey traveled for his very first helicopter ride was a half marathon (13.1 miles). Casey had...

Michael Kim
SCI Heroes

Michael Kim

38 years old father of two young children, PARALYZED. This fund is set up for Mike's family during a time of incredible heartache, to help them navigate a long road of recovery and treatment. This fund will help with medical expenses, home care, childcare and rehabilitiation. On May 30, 2022, while vacationing in Hawaii with his family and two young kids, Mike got into an accident at Waikiki Beach. He dove into the water and landed on a sand bar, fracturing his spine and injuring his spinal...

Anne Nelson
SCI Heroes

Anne Nelson

I was a passenger in a car accident. After emergency personnel rescued me from the car I was taken to Huntsville Hospital in Huntsville, AL where emergency surgery was done to stabilize my spine. The neurosurgeon on call performed a spinal fusion from T10-L2. The day after, my surgery was done on my right radius and ulna to stabilize the broken bones. Thereafter, I spent about 8 days in neurosurgerical intensive care unit (NSICU) and neurosurgical step down unit (NSSU). On July 1st I was...

Justina Plowden
SCI Heroes

Justina Plowden

My life as I knew it changed forever in only a split second. It was a beautiful day and everyone I encountered that day were great spirits and everything felt perfect. I can only remember smiling and laughing with family and friends not knowing that later that day, myself and my daughter along with three others would get into a horrific car accident. I broke my neck which left me paralyzed with a spinal cord injury. I could not move or speak. I was hospitalized for 5 months, in which I was...

SCI Hero - Joseph Stokes
SCI Heroes

Joseph Stokes

Joseph was on his way to school on Monday, November 2,2015. It had been raining that day and Joseph ran off the road and overcorrected, hitting a culvert. This caused his truck to roll twice. Joseph didn't have his seat belt on and was thrown from the vehicle. When he came to he had no feeling from the waist down. He was taken to the local hospital where it was determined that he a SCI and a severe concussion. He was then taken by ambulance to Navicent Hospital in Macon, Ga where he had a...

SCI Hero - Zahra Ali
SCI Heroes

Zahra Ali

In 2010, I started having an electrifying pain initiating from the back and moving up to the right arm. I took it lightly until it started interfering with my day-to-day routine, and I had to stop going to school because of the sharp excruciating pain. There is a general lack of awareness in our country about spinal cord-related issues therefore, my parents did not have any idea that this would turn into something serious. However, I went to an Orthopaedic surgeon and he diagnosed that I...

SCI Heroes

Diana Petrone

I was involved in a tragic car crash in December of 2020 which left me paralyzed from the neck down. I was a passenger in a vehicle that was being driven by somebody who intentionally drove us into a tree at 80mph. It is being considered a crime of passion and is currently indited and awaiting trial. If you want further details I can send you multiple articles about the incident. This event has impacted every aspect of my life to say the least. It has especially effected my 13 year old...

SCI Heroes

Amari Franklin

On April 20, 2021 I clocked out of work early in the morning and I went to my car so I could go home. As I was leaving the parking lot of my job, I got in front of another car trying to leave the facility. The person I did that to followed me onto the highway but after a while I couldn’t see him in rear view mirror. After a while of driving without seeing him, I saw his head lights coming toward me fast in my rear view mirror. The vehicle pulled up to the driver side of my vehicle and began...

SCI Heroes

Jackson John

My name is Laurie Lafferty-John. On September 5th, 2020 my 27 year old son Jackson was involved in a bad car accident causing an incomplete spinal cord injury with a jump fracture at C6-7 resulting in severe quadriplegia. His care was given at ECMC (Erie County Medical Center) in Buffalo, NY. His initial spinal surgery involved fusion of C4-T1. In 10 days, he was moved to the Medical Rehabilitation Unit receiving intensive OT/PT sessions. At this point, he already had developed a pressure...

Amanda
SCI Heroes

Amanda Stuckey

Woke up normally 8/10/15 & sat up in bed stretching a little when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck. My hands started tingling and going numb, and it quickly moved up my arms & down my entire body, and was completely paralyzed within 15 minutes. Was married at the time & he took me to the ER where I continued to worsen over the next few days. Lost my diaphragm and was put on the ventilator by day 3 and was in n out of a medically induced coma for about 8 days...

Francesca Carraway
SCI Heroes

Kat Carraway

Last December Kat slipped and fell from a balcony and broke the C5 and C6 vertebrae in her neck, resulting in a complete SCI. The injury has left her paralyzed from her shoulders down. Initially she was given an ASIA score of A and was not expected to gain much use of any of her body below the shoulders, so she was released from her rehab center and sent home with home care. But after healing more and working with her Physical and Occupational Therapists for the past few months at home, she...

SCI Heroes

Jordan Rice

Jordan was having a normal summer like any other 16 year old boy, lifting wieghts for football, hanging with his friends, bothering his sister, spending time with family and eating us out of house and home!Accidently, on June 22, 2022, while swmining at his best friend's house, Jordan dove into the inground pool and misjudged the distance to the bottom and broke his neck. His brother and best friend heroically saved his life from drowning. Jordan and his mother were airlifted to the...

Brittany McClain
SCI Heroes

Brittany McClain

Hello there! My name is Brittany McClain and I am a C3-5 quadriplegic from a car accident when I was on my way to work on February 27th 2015.I have worked very hard to try and put my life back together despite fighting off the daily struggles and symptoms that come with having a spinal cord injury. I find that I am the most fulfilled when I am helping others. I have always wanted to be a counselor of sorts since I was a young girl and decided to get my Associates Degree in human services....

SCI Heroes

Ronald Opp

In 2005, three days after my 17th birthday I was in a rollover motor vehicle accident and ended up paralyzed from T4 down. Since then I have graduated high school, went to college - which was difficult with my injury being so new and only being 18 years old at the time of going to college. I was not able to keep up and then I spent a couple years trying to just survive, than I got into dispatching for a little bit and I loved helping people but I had no vehicle to get to and from work...

Vicki Shavers
SCI Heroes

Vicki Shavers

I was driving my pick-up truck, and we were turning left into our driveway. We had come to a complete stop to wait for oncoming traffic to clear. Our brake lights and blinkers were brand new and properly functioning. We saw in the rear view mirror a school bus approaching. The next thing we knew the bus collided with the passenger side rear end of the pick-up truck. The impact pushed us nearly 50 feet into our neighbors yard. My wife was in the front passenger seat. Since most of the impact...

Austin Somerville
SCI Heroes

Austin Somerville

On May 15, 2020, at the age of 16, I was in a hot tub at a friend’s birthday party. The parents of the home allowed someone to dispense dish soap in the swimming pool and hot tub which created about a foot of bubbles above the surface of the water. Someone splashed soap suds onto my face that I could not wipe off. In a mindset of clearing off my face somehow, I turned and slithered head first into the camouflaged pool.It was evidently very shallow because I hit the bottom and broke...

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DISCLAIMER:

Walking With Anthony receives thousands of grant applications every year from individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) in desperate need of help. Although we are not able to directly support every individual, for your participation you will receive valuable resources regarding mentorship, mental health, community, advice, and education to help you on your SCI journey. 30 stories will be chosen to share on social media, and those individuals will also receive $200 of wellness supplements to aid in their recovery.

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