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My name is Adrian Imperial. One day in September of 2017, I was living life like every normal 28 year old. I liked to hang out with my friends. I had a girlfriend I had been with for years. I had a car I loved driving. I enjoyed working out every day.
One night I was hanging out with some friends on a second floor balcony. I can’t tell you how I fell. All I know is I woke up in the hospital with a broken neck (C6 + C7 vertebrae). In one of my early surgeries, a fistula developed in my throat and I spent the next two years in the hospital as my body struggled to heal. I couldn’t eat or drink because everything I swallowed ended up in my windpipe. I spent a lot of time with a trach and I was fed through a PEG tube (imagine not being able to eat tacos!). To date, I’ve had 32 surgeries--more surgeries than years in my life.
I’ve lost a lot in the past three years. Use of my fingers and legs, my sphincter (yes, that one), my independence--even my girlfriend. But I’m not here to tell you a sad story.
I have been working hard to recover. I have been doing physical therapy and working to regain three years of muscle atrophy. And what I’ve come to learn is that no amount of therapy is going to give me back full control of my body. I’m 31! I want a shot at having my own life, my own independence, a job, my own family. I’m my parent’s only living child. I don’t want them to have to worry about me for the rest of their lives. I want to take care of them. I want to be able to take care of them.
I finally have a chance. See, my neck was broken, but my spinal cord wasn’t severed. I don’t have control now, but the doctors think I should be able to have control, at least of my lower extremities, with a little help in the form of a spinal cord implant. But, it’s new technology, a recent innovative procedure, and it’s expensive.
Simply, I am asking for your help paying for this procedure. I would love to stand up at my 32nd birthday (coming up in March!), to thank them for all of their support. It’s such a small wish and while I have many wishes beyond it, none of them will be possible if I can’t start here.
Please help me have a shot at a different future, a future where I can not only have my own life and family, but one where I can take care of myself and my family.
A future where, just maybe, I can stand up and thank you for making it possible.
One night I was hanging out with some friends on a second floor balcony. I can’t tell you how I fell. All I know is I woke up in the hospital with a broken neck (C6 + C7 vertebrae). In one of my early surgeries, a fistula developed in my throat and I spent the next two years in the hospital as my body struggled to heal. I couldn’t eat or drink because everything I swallowed ended up in my windpipe. I spent a lot of time with a trach and I was fed through a PEG tube (imagine not being able to eat tacos!). To date, I’ve had 32 surgeries--more surgeries than years in my life.
I’ve lost a lot in the past three years. Use of my fingers and legs, my sphincter (yes, that one), my independence--even my girlfriend. But I’m not here to tell you a sad story.
I have been working hard to recover. I have been doing physical therapy and working to regain three years of muscle atrophy. And what I’ve come to learn is that no amount of therapy is going to give me back full control of my body. I’m 31! I want a shot at having my own life, my own independence, a job, my own family. I’m my parent’s only living child. I don’t want them to have to worry about me for the rest of their lives. I want to take care of them. I want to be able to take care of them.
I finally have a chance. See, my neck was broken, but my spinal cord wasn’t severed. I don’t have control now, but the doctors think I should be able to have control, at least of my lower extremities, with a little help in the form of a spinal cord implant. But, it’s new technology, a recent innovative procedure, and it’s expensive.
Simply, I am asking for your help paying for this procedure. I would love to stand up at my 32nd birthday (coming up in March!), to thank them for all of their support. It’s such a small wish and while I have many wishes beyond it, none of them will be possible if I can’t start here.
Please help me have a shot at a different future, a future where I can not only have my own life and family, but one where I can take care of myself and my family.
A future where, just maybe, I can stand up and thank you for making it possible.
Organizer and beneficiary
Benjamin Hernandez
Beneficiary