12-year-old Judah was riding his dirt bike near his house in Grimshaw, Alberta, in June 2020 when he was hit by a car. He had multiple injuries, including broken bones, brain damage, and a complete spinal cord injury. “It was a miracle he survived,” says Odessa, Judah’s mom.
After a few months in the hospital and rehab at the Glenrose in Edmonton, he returned home, slowly integrating back into school via online learning. Finally, seven months later, Judah returned to class. Judah says that the school was already “pretty accessible,” and he was assured that people would be there to help if he needed something. Judah’s school even facilitated a few adaptations for him.
While Judah did not have significant challenges with accessibility in school, his social life transformed drastically. Judah admits that “the kids were mostly okay, but they’re teenagers, so they can be mean sometimes.” Then, after a moment of silence, he adds with a smile, “but I can deal with that!”
But participation in sports was an entirely other experience. Judah says he was treated as a “fragile object” and felt excluded, adding, “They didn’t think I could compete anymore.” But Judah continued to adjust, getting involved in wheelchair basketball and other adaptive competitive sports.
When Judah’s parents reached out to SCI-AB, they were immediately connected to peers in the community. They visited with other SCI clients to get ideas about how to make their home more accessible. “I thought it was pretty cool,” Judah says of SCI-AB’s support, which also included connecting the family to resources in the community, and assistance finding used adaptive equipment, such as an FES bike and a standing frame.
Judah says he needed to learn to be careful with his lower body, as further complications and damage are genuine threats. “He had to mature fast; he had no choice. It was either adapt or spend all day in bed,” says Odessa. One of the consequences of being injured so young is that Judah went through a massive growth spurt right after his accident, and he has scoliosis now, “which he hates,” says Odessa.
Asked to reflect on SCI-AB’s motto, Adapt, Adjust, Thrive, Judah says, “I adjusted my life from running and walking to rolling and wheeling… I go hard at everything, exercise a lot, and never give up. Thrive is like a beginning of a tunnel. You just began your journey through spinal cord injury, and it is extremely dark, and it seems like the worst thing to ever happen to you. But it becomes better if you never give up and continue going… and slowly, I move towards the light at the end, which is the prosperous life I can have. If you are not willing to get out of that bed, I don’t know how you can be helped because I believe that just because you are paralyzed doesn’t mean you are less of a person, something that I did a couple of years ago that was boring, now—it feels amazing. It takes years; nothing comes in the short term; the journey is so much more than the injury.”
Judah’s mom, glowing with pride, says, “He was determined to be as athletic as he was before; he is so amazingly disciplined!”
When asked what he would say to a newly injured person, Judah says, “It might not feel that way now, but it will get better.” Odessa agrees and admits that she was skeptical when she first heard that. But, in time, and with more time spent with his peers, it did get better. Odessa says, “It was hard for him to connect with other peers in the beginning, but now he actually wants to. He has accepted that he can learn from them.”
Odessa concludes by saying that it might feel like an SCI is a life-destroying event, but it isn’t. In reality, an SCI is a “life-changing event.”
In the picture above: Judah and his family. |