Theo St. Francis

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In August of 2013, I broke my C6 vertebra during my MIT Pre-Orientation Program in Ocean Engineering. I received emergency care and spinal-fusion surgery at Mass. General Hospital before being transferred to Spaulding Rehab. just outside Boston. I learned quite a bit there, and at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, about how to work with my paralysis, to get in and out of bed, to use a wheelchair, and generally to manage in a body where my hands and everything chest-down no longer listens to me. My time in those rehab hospitals was invaluable.

Now, however, I am done managing. I am overcoming.

I believe I have the ability to live without a wheelchair and as such I am doing everything I can now to regain the motor control that I lost. Progress with spinal cord injury (SCI) is slow, but through an enormous amount of concerted effort and determination, I am recovering muscle function.

Sadly, the insurance industry is woefully behind in what it considers “medically necessary” treatment and therefore the best therapies for me are uncovered. Because we are pursuing so many different forms of rehabilitation, and with such intensity, the cost of recovery is an extraordinary financial burden. I am asking for help in covering those costs.

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