njury changed my life - but it doesn't define me! ❤️ - video Dailymotion

Follow For Daily Videos. Support the channel if you are interested!

Transcript

00:00My name is Cruz and I am a quadriplegic. I broke my neck almost 17 years ago and now I am paralyzed

00:06from the chest down. This is how I use my phone at night. I can scroll, I can type. My cell phone

00:11is mounted right here above my head. I can also hang this. There's a little fish hook on the tip

00:16of my mouth stick that allows me to free up my mouth so that I can sleep like this and then if

00:22I need to wake up and grab this, I can grab it just like that. He reveals what led to this

00:28life-changing injury. I broke my neck when I was freshly 19 years old. A friend of mine

00:34unfortunately passed away. After attending the funeral, a bunch of friends and I went to the

00:38beach to reminisce. A friend of mine had his skimboard. It's kind of like a small surfboard

00:43that you throw down and you run and you jump and you skim across the water. It's important to wear

00:48protective gear like a helmet when using a skimboard. And I did that, jumped on this board, went down

00:53into the next oncoming wave, fell off the back of the board, hit my head on the sand, immediately

00:58shattered my C4 vertebrae and was immediately paralyzed from the neck down. I was knocked out

01:04for a couple of seconds. I woke up face down in the water. I wasn't freaking out. I think I was

01:08dazed from being unconscious. My first thought was, I can't move. I'm about to drown and go see my

01:16friend Gene who had just passed away. His friends on the beach didn't understand what was happening.

01:20Immediately after having that thought, a wave flipped me over. I got a breath and it kind of

01:25brought some life back into me. Another wave put me up on the beach. A friend of mine saw that I was

01:30not around and he dragged me up the beach. Everything gets kind of spotty after that. I remember my

01:36friend standing over me with just this horrified look on his face and I was saying to him, I don't

01:41want to be paralyzed. I don't want to be paralyzed. Being unable to move must have been terrifying.

01:45I remember being on the stretcher. I remember being in the ambulance, talking with the EMTs and

01:52paramedics, asking them if I was going to be paralyzed. I remember seeing my dad's face as

01:57I was rolling into the hospital. And then I underwent an eight-hour neck surgery, a spinal

02:03fusion, where they fused my C3 to my C5 and removed my shattered C4. Spinal fusion surgery is considered

02:10a major and complex operation. It was a crazy time. First couple of weeks are very blurry.

02:15I was then airlifted to Atlanta, Georgia to the Shepherd Center, which is a top rehab facility

02:21for brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. And I spent the next two and a half months there.

02:26In spite of his injury, he has dedicated himself to becoming an incredible artist.

02:30I can't use my arms. So now I paint with my mouth using a mouth stick like this. I've painted this

02:36with my mouth. I've painted this with my mouth. I also painted this with my mouth.

02:44I did this painting this evening. It took me about three or four hours. I probably have

02:52two more sessions of similar time. So two more days of painting to actually complete this.

02:59He even sells his art online.