Wazzup!!! My name is Patrick and I’m 14 years old. Just a little about me… when I was a little kid I was hit by a car and ever since then I’ve needed to use a wheelchair to get around. Lots of people in my position find every reason to hate life but that never has been, and never will be, me. I love being in a chair. As crazy as that sounds it’s 100% true. It has given me opportunities that most people only dream about. I live knowing one thing… Life is way too short to worry about what has happened. I can’t do anything about what happened to me. I just have to go with what I have and try to build off of that. I’m about as active a teenager as you will ever find. I spend 6 (count them) hours a week doin PT at this amazing place called Project Walk and in the four years I’ve been going there I’ve gone from barely being able to push my chair to walking across the gym :D I also play just about every sport there is. QUAD RUGBY ROCKS!!! In 2012 the paralympics are going to be hosted in London and guess who’s training for the US Quad Rugby team… your’s truly Another sport that I am absolutely addicted to is surfing. See my pictures to see what I’m talkin about. Its kind of funny to watch sometimes but whatever. My ultimate goal is to introduce adaptive surfing to the X-Games and be the first disabled person to surf Super Tubes at J-Bay (my friend beat me to Mavericks haha). Props to Life Rolls On… spinal cord injured athletes totally rippin it up....
Well I don’t bite so hit me up.

Rob was born and raised in Long Island, NY where he was an avid tennis player.  He is a graduate of Riverhead High School and attended Mary Washington College in Virgina where he majored in Business Administration.  During his time at MWC, he played on the tennis team, helped to manage the men’s soccer team and was employed as a Campus Recreation Supervisor.  After his graduation in 2000, Rob moved to Hoboken, NJ and worked as a custom software developer for Applied Business Systems.  Rob and his wife Mandy were married in September 2004 and bought a house in Sparta, NJ in January 2005.

On August 20, 2005, Rob was enjoying a boat ride in Rehoboth Bay, Delaware when he decided to go for a swim.  At approximately 8pm, he dove off the boat into water he didn’t realize was only 18 inches deep.  He vividly remembers his head hitting the sand, feeling a snap and knowing instantly that something was drastically wrong.  He was laying face down in the water wondering how long he would be able to hold his breath.  Within seconds, his brother-in-law turned him over so that he could breath and other family members stabilized him on his back in the water.  Rob doesn’t remember much from here on because he continuously drifted in and out of consciousness while his family kept him awake by slapping his face and calling his name. 

After a long wait for emergency services personnel, Rob was life-flighted to Christiana Care Hospital 2 hours from the scene of the accident where doctors revealed that he had broken the C4, 5, 6 vertebrae in his neck.  Rob received spinal fusion surgery on August 21 in order to repair the crushed vertebrae and release the pressure on his spinal cord.  After 5 agonizing hours, the neurosurgeon reported that the surgery went well and Rob’s spinal cord was not severed, just compressed and bruised. Despite the surgery however, Rob remained paralyzed from the shoulders down.  He stayed heavily sedated for the next five days while recovering in the ICU.  He was transferred to Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation on August 26, 2005. 

During his stay at Kessler, Rob’s treatment team concluded that he would never walk again and that he would only regain limited upper body control.  After 5 months of inpatient occupational and physical rehabilitation, Rob only regained the use of some of his upper body and could move his right leg only slightly.  His hands remained severely impaired as did his overall sense of balance and strength.  At the time of discharge on January 20, 2006, Rob could not sit up or roll over by himself and he was completely dependent upon his wife for personal care and movement. 

Rob returned to his NJ home where he was reunited with his wife, two cats and dog.  He continued his rehabilitation at Kessler on an outpatient basis three times a week but unfortunately made very little progress and became more and more depressed.  In May 2006 after feeling dissatisfied with the goals of outpatient therapy, Rob began supplementing his rehab with workouts supervised by a physical trainer who had been trained by Project Walk.  He immediately began to notice remarkable improvements in his strength and motor coordination.  In July 2006, Rob visited Project Walk’s headquarters in Carlsbad, California and completed a trial program.  In only two short weeks, Rob regained the ability to stand!  He and his wife relocated to California from September 2006- March 2008 in order to participate in the Project Walk program fulltime.  He is now completely off all prescribed medication (roughly 30 pills a day) and has learned to walk short distances with the aid of a walker. Rob still has lots of work ahead but he is finally hopeful that with the help of the skills he learned at Project Walk he will be able to walk independently someday in the near future.  Rob is currently working out at home with Project Walk’s “Home” program and hopes to work with a trainer soon.