Disabled Athlete Puts Adversity On Ice
He’s too busy being a single father to two sons, working as general manager of sales and marketing for an adaptive mobility company, speaking at schools, and playing goaltender for the U.S. sled hockey national team.
Brandon’s life changed on September 10, 2002. He was on a ladder trimming a tree when he fell 15 feet to the driveway, landing flat on his back. The fall caused burst fractures in several vertebrae, resulting in paraplegia. In the months of recovery and rehabilitation that followed, Brandon realized giving up wasn’t an option; his two boys, 11-year-old Scott and six-year-old Trevor, depended on him.
“If I couldn’t find the strength within myself to recover, I knew I must do it for them,” Brandon recalls. “They needed their Beach waterfront real estate Florida father back to as close to normal as possible, and quick.”
Following the accident, Brandon, a native of St. Louis, was sent to DePaul Hospital, where neurosurgeon Dr. Danial Scodary implanted titanium rods in his spine. He was then transferred to St. Johns Mercy for more surgery and rehabilitation. After a month of rehab, Brandon underwent five more months of out-patient therapy three times a week. He has developed a close relationship with his doctors, particularly Scodary.
“I owe a lot to him,” Brandon says. “He has been a godsend to myself and my family.”
Less than a month after his injury, Brandon, who had played roller blade hockey for years, was introduced to sled hockey by his physical therapist, Kathy Griffith.
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