Spinal Cord Injury Awareness

As many of you may know, recently there has been a lot in the media about spinal cord injuries (SCI's).  Two Minnesota Hockey players were recently injured in their hockey games that resulted in spinal cord damage. One of which was much more severe than the other.

 Jack Jablonski was checked from behind in the middle of a game which sent him head first into the boards. The outcome was damage to the spinal cord at the c5 level, leaving him a quadriplegic.  Because of this accident there has been a huge evert to make sports safer, and injuries less common.  About a week ago I had the pleasure of teaming up with three other guys that had suffered injuries similar to mine.  We shared our stories with the Wayzata Bantam B1 boys hockey team to spread awareness about SCI's.

We told them all about how life was before our accidents, how it affected us, and how we live our lives today.  We allowed the team, coaches, and their parents to ask any questions that came to their minds.  It's really interesting how little people know about SCI's, how curious they are about them, but how nervous they are to ask questions.  I used to be the same way before my accident, but now I really enjoy when people ask questions about my situation, and I'm not as nervous to ask others about theirs.  Most people don't know what it really takes to live with a SCI.  There is a lot more than just the lack of mobility below the injury line.  In my mind, not being able to move my legs is actually one of the easiest parts to having a SCI.

All in all it was a great afternoon sharing our stories and meeting new people. I truly believe that everybody that came to listen had an amazing experience, I know that I did.  If you would like to read more about what they are trying to do to make sports more safe, you can check out the article that was in the Access Press.  Here is the link below.

http://www.accesspress.org/2012/02/hockey-safety-promoted-in-the-wake-of-serious-accidents/