{"id":234804,"date":"2020-11-18T15:38:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T21:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=234804"},"modified":"2020-11-18T00:54:53","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T06:54:53","slug":"inspiring-organization-quadriplegic-driver-people-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/inspiring-organization-quadriplegic-driver-people-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspiring: Organization founded by quadriplegic race car driver serves people with disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sam Schmidt was an IndyCar driver in the prime of his racing career when a terrible accident left him without the use of his arms or legs. According to a recent People.com\u00a0article<\/a>, “On Jan. 6, 2000, Schmidt<\/a> was taking part in a test session for the Indy Racing League at Walt Disney World Speedway when he ‘hit the wall’ in a violent collision, leaving him a quadriplegic (paralyzed from the shoulders down).”<\/p>\n

As is often the case with traumatic brain injury or traumatic spinal cord injury patients, Schmidt’s medical team immediately prepared his family for the worst. Schmidt told People, “[The doctors] didn’t give me much of a chance to make it through the night, let alone the weekend.”<\/p>\n

When Schmidt<\/a> survived the initial injury, his wife was told to “put him in a nursing home because he’ll never get off the ventilator.” She refused, and three weeks into his stay at a St. Louis rehabilitation facility he was off the ventilator.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0People with disabilities do \u2018live boldly\u2019 \u2014 and they\u2019re not better off dead<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In those first weeks and months, Schmidt found motivation in his children \u2014 but he also found it in his own father, who years earlier when Schmidt was just 11, had also suffered paralysis from his own racing accident. Schmidt described his father as his “inspiration” and “hero.” After significant rehab, Schmidt’s father was able to regain use of his legs and one arm. Schmidt himself remains to this day a quadriplegic.<\/p>\n