In thier own words....

I've been doing extreme sports since I was 14 years old. Stuff like skydiving, base jumping, skiing, paragliding and flying airplanes. So at the time of the accident I was 18 years old and of course I thought I was invincible; not only because of my age but just that I had accomplished so many things in such a quick amount of time.

I was living and working in Hawaii as a skydiving instructor for 2 months. Life was great. Having fun and making great money for a kid. After work the staff would always do something new and exciting. Some days it was jumping off of high rise buildings in Honolulu, rock climbing, or scuba diving on the north shore. At that point anything the island had to offer I had pretty much done it.

On August 25th I had my usual work day of making a dozen or so skydives. After work the crew had decided to hike up this 2000ft mountain for some paragliding fun. I decided to hike up with two parachutes for a special stunt. My stunt was going to be: fly away from the mountain with one parachute and when I got enough altitude I would release the parachute and go into a freefall before pulling my secondary parachute. Unfortunately my system failed. My first parachute released too early for me to have enough time for my second parachute to inflate.

People who saw said I fell 100ft onto the mountains and then tumbled down another 50ft unconscious. I had severed my spinal cord, aorta, punctured a lung and kidney and shattered my back.

I was flown to a Hospital in Honolulu where they saved my life. Upon recovering knowing that I should have been dead, I thought about life in a wheelchair for the rest of my life and I knew with the lifestyle I had that it just wouldn't work out.

Friends and family got in contact with Pushing Boundaries where they specialize in getting spinal cord injury people moving again. Progress has been slow, but the fact that I'm working on recovering makes me feel better.

Since coming to Pushing Boundaries I have been working on my balance, standing up, crawling and electro-stim cycling on my legs. I also started walking on the Lokomat. Pushing Boundaries keeps me active and thinking positively. I have the greatest exercise therapists and top of the line equipment. It's just a matter of time before I'm back doing the things I was.

--J M

 

Before my diagnosis I swam competitively in high school. After high school I worked hard and played harder.  I had a water ski boat and was on the water all the time.  Winter was all about snow skiing.  I made at least 12 trips to the mountains a year. 

 

After the initial testing to rule out other disorders that took about 6 months, I was officially diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis the 1st week of January 1994. My original systems were: Blurred vision and loss of feeling in both hands. For the next nine years you would have never known I had MS by just looking at me. I started to use the cane I have now after a huge relapse in March of 2006 that left damage done to my nervous system and the communication to my legs in order to walk.

 

After returning from a stem cell transplant in Athens, Greece on September 22, 2009, I heard about Pushing Boundaries from my doctor.  The doctor highly recommended Pushing Boundaries after my stem cell transplant for rehab. I came to Pushing Boundaries the 1st of October 2009. I walked in and immediately knew it was the place to get me walking again. I haven't missed a day since.

 

After my very thorough initial exam, the exercise therapists quickly became associated with my limitations and instead of working around the problems; they focused on how to fix them. Each day that I walk out, I feel just a little bit closer to my goal of walking without a cane.

 

The therapists at Pushing Boundaries work you out hard. They push you right up to your limits and then keep you there for a few minutes.  I love it when they say, "You can rest when you get home!" It sounds brutal but they know when to push you and they will get the most from you that they can on that particular day.  It works and I've seen the results. Last week I walked 30 steps without the assistance of a cane! I will walk again; it's only a matter of time.

 

Before Pushing Boundaries, sometimes I felt alone in my thoughts that I would walk independently again. Now, I feel like somebody is on my side. The therapists know my goals, see my progress, and work with me every day to see that I'm getting there. It's a nice feeling to leave the place knowing somebody else experienced the same little tiny baby step towards my goal of walking. It confirms that you are not some crazy disabled guy with false hope. 

--T S

Visit this page often to see the incredible accomplishments our clients are making that would not be without the support from our community.