Ron's Birthday Rehabilitation Startup Fund
Donation protected
My Vision
I was injured at the age of 20 about 12 years ago while I was commanding a tank in combat during the Second Lebanon War. When my tank collided unexpectedly with a massive concrete structure, the heavy blocks came falling through the open hatch above my head on to my spine, leaving me paralyzed and in need of a wheelchair ever since. What can I say? Life is crazy and shit happens that can alter the course of our lives unrecognizably. The truth is that you don’t have to fight in a war for this to happen; as it can happen in a car accident, falling off your bicycle, or while slipping on the wet floor in the kitchen. And without sounding too morbid, if these incidents never happened, it’s only a matter of time until aging will take its inevitable toll on our bodies. The unfortunate truth is that whether for us, our parents, our family and our friends, disability is only a matter of time. When this happens, we would want to have the most dedicated and effective care possible so that we can live our lives filled with possibilities, hope, joy and freedom.
When my body suddenly lost most of it’s basic functionality, I found myself grappling with a medical system and doctors that automatically said, “This is what you got... you better get used to it”. What am I supposed to get used to? To my inability to move my body? My constant pain? My needing someone to chaperone me everywhere I go? To get used to being constantly asked by everyone “are you ok? how are you feeling?” Is this really how I’m expected to live my life for the rest of my days? I couldn’t accept this predefined future and I embarked on a journey after the doctors, treatments and specialists that will empower and enable me to live the fullest and biggest life that I could live in the face of my disability. I traveled around the world and tried incredible therapies and completely ineffective ones. I’ve found extraordinary specialists who told me explicitly “we can help you improve your condition”. I adopted perspectives of thought and attitudes that enabled me to live my life to the richest and fullest potential - and the best is yet to come.
I won’t lie... I’m a bit of a bulldozer and when I encountered walls, I knocked them over. However throughout my journey, I could not bare to ignore the countless people living in constant pain and inability to experience themselves and life in a way remotely similar to how I lived mine. No-one ever told them that they can. On the contrary; everyone told them that it’s impossible. What if I told you that was never true and that the world of rehabilitation has been yearning for a transformation for a very long time. I am a stand that people with any kind of disability could live a life free of pain, free of suffering and full of possibilities with the utmost ability to move their bodies and to love life. A high quality of life is our birthright regardless of injury or illness. The pain is immense, the need is inarguable and the solution is inevitable. I am thus excited to declare the beginning of that transformation now. NUA.
Background - What if?
Even with the incredible advancements in modern medicine, there are many diseases and conditions that are yet to be cured. Central Nervous System (CNS) trauma and diseases are considered among the most significant type of conditions, radically affecting the quality of life for countless numbers of people around the world; the cures to repair these conditions are yet to be discovered.
People suffering from such conditions like Stroke, Spinal Cord Injury, Traumatic Brain Injury, Multiple Sclerosis, ALS, Cerebral Palsy, herniated disks and others, undergo rehabilitation programs at hospitals that teach them mostly how to continue on living with their disability; paralyzed, depressed, alienated from society and above all, hopeless. Why? (you might ask)
In the absence of clear medical solutions for these problems, it seems almost futile to invest money and time at a problem that can’t be solved. Nevertheless, people are in a state of suffering and this conundrum created the medical term “Maintenance Therapy”1 where a minimal therapeutic regimen is prescribed in order to maintain the current state of the individual from deteriorating. In truth however, with age, the state of these conditions only digresses and Maintenance Therapy is not intended to improve anything. This paradigm of thought leads doctors, therapists, patients, families, friends and society as a whole to approach chronic disabilities from the view point of “this is it and it’s not going to get any better.”
From this view, the possibilities for a person with a disability to live with a high quality of life and to live a life that they love is quite limited. However, what if there was another point of view? What if there are possibilities to significantly increase the quality of life for people with chronic disabilities? What if their physical condition could actually even be better and stronger with less pain than before?
The therapies, specialists, know-how, technology and capability is available to actually improve peoples’ physical condition and impact their quality of life, however no-one has yet combined them together to make it accessible. Under this new view, the way that rehabilitation is done in the world will be redefined and a new world of possibility will become tangible for the lives of people suffering from chronic disabilities.
This will be the ULTIMATE birthday gift and I will appreciate it beyond belief!!!
I was injured at the age of 20 about 12 years ago while I was commanding a tank in combat during the Second Lebanon War. When my tank collided unexpectedly with a massive concrete structure, the heavy blocks came falling through the open hatch above my head on to my spine, leaving me paralyzed and in need of a wheelchair ever since. What can I say? Life is crazy and shit happens that can alter the course of our lives unrecognizably. The truth is that you don’t have to fight in a war for this to happen; as it can happen in a car accident, falling off your bicycle, or while slipping on the wet floor in the kitchen. And without sounding too morbid, if these incidents never happened, it’s only a matter of time until aging will take its inevitable toll on our bodies. The unfortunate truth is that whether for us, our parents, our family and our friends, disability is only a matter of time. When this happens, we would want to have the most dedicated and effective care possible so that we can live our lives filled with possibilities, hope, joy and freedom.
When my body suddenly lost most of it’s basic functionality, I found myself grappling with a medical system and doctors that automatically said, “This is what you got... you better get used to it”. What am I supposed to get used to? To my inability to move my body? My constant pain? My needing someone to chaperone me everywhere I go? To get used to being constantly asked by everyone “are you ok? how are you feeling?” Is this really how I’m expected to live my life for the rest of my days? I couldn’t accept this predefined future and I embarked on a journey after the doctors, treatments and specialists that will empower and enable me to live the fullest and biggest life that I could live in the face of my disability. I traveled around the world and tried incredible therapies and completely ineffective ones. I’ve found extraordinary specialists who told me explicitly “we can help you improve your condition”. I adopted perspectives of thought and attitudes that enabled me to live my life to the richest and fullest potential - and the best is yet to come.
I won’t lie... I’m a bit of a bulldozer and when I encountered walls, I knocked them over. However throughout my journey, I could not bare to ignore the countless people living in constant pain and inability to experience themselves and life in a way remotely similar to how I lived mine. No-one ever told them that they can. On the contrary; everyone told them that it’s impossible. What if I told you that was never true and that the world of rehabilitation has been yearning for a transformation for a very long time. I am a stand that people with any kind of disability could live a life free of pain, free of suffering and full of possibilities with the utmost ability to move their bodies and to love life. A high quality of life is our birthright regardless of injury or illness. The pain is immense, the need is inarguable and the solution is inevitable. I am thus excited to declare the beginning of that transformation now. NUA.
Background - What if?
Even with the incredible advancements in modern medicine, there are many diseases and conditions that are yet to be cured. Central Nervous System (CNS) trauma and diseases are considered among the most significant type of conditions, radically affecting the quality of life for countless numbers of people around the world; the cures to repair these conditions are yet to be discovered.
People suffering from such conditions like Stroke, Spinal Cord Injury, Traumatic Brain Injury, Multiple Sclerosis, ALS, Cerebral Palsy, herniated disks and others, undergo rehabilitation programs at hospitals that teach them mostly how to continue on living with their disability; paralyzed, depressed, alienated from society and above all, hopeless. Why? (you might ask)
In the absence of clear medical solutions for these problems, it seems almost futile to invest money and time at a problem that can’t be solved. Nevertheless, people are in a state of suffering and this conundrum created the medical term “Maintenance Therapy”1 where a minimal therapeutic regimen is prescribed in order to maintain the current state of the individual from deteriorating. In truth however, with age, the state of these conditions only digresses and Maintenance Therapy is not intended to improve anything. This paradigm of thought leads doctors, therapists, patients, families, friends and society as a whole to approach chronic disabilities from the view point of “this is it and it’s not going to get any better.”
From this view, the possibilities for a person with a disability to live with a high quality of life and to live a life that they love is quite limited. However, what if there was another point of view? What if there are possibilities to significantly increase the quality of life for people with chronic disabilities? What if their physical condition could actually even be better and stronger with less pain than before?
The therapies, specialists, know-how, technology and capability is available to actually improve peoples’ physical condition and impact their quality of life, however no-one has yet combined them together to make it accessible. Under this new view, the way that rehabilitation is done in the world will be redefined and a new world of possibility will become tangible for the lives of people suffering from chronic disabilities.
This will be the ULTIMATE birthday gift and I will appreciate it beyond belief!!!
Organizer
Ron Weinreich
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA