Have been you or a liked one injured? Do you keep in mind what occurred subsequent?
Life instantly after a spinal cord injury is hectic and scary. We’re right here to interrupt it down for you.
On Tuesday, September 12 at 3 p.m., you joined us for a dialog with shopper Ambassador Josh Basile, Esq. from SPINALpedia.com and Kelley Brooks Simoneaux, Esq. from The Spinal Cord Injury Legislation Agency. They are going to be joined by Kasie Somerville, mom of Assist Hope Stay shopper Austin Somerville.
All three mentioned life instantly after a spinal cord injury. Josh and Kelley carry the firsthand expertise of somebody dwelling with a spinal cord injury, whereas Kasie brings the distinctive perspective of a dad or mum watching over their youngster after injury. This group will discuss all the things from stepping into an optimum rehab heart to advocating on your greatest care to studying easy methods to care for your self mentally and bodily to all of the methods their neighborhood rallied round them to supply assist and hope.
Josh Basile, Esq. is a C4-5 quadriplegic, energy wheelchair person, incapacity rights advocate, trial lawyer, inventor, and proud father. He’s a Assist Hope Stay shopper and Ambassador.
In 2004 on the age of 18, Josh was paralyzed under the shoulders in a seashore accident. Quickly after, he fashioned a 501(c)3 nonprofit to empower newly injured households.
Josh created the world’s largest paralysis video mentoring community by SPINALpedia.com with 29,000 movies searchable by bodily performance.
As a medical malpractice lawyer and disabilities rights advocate, Josh serves individuals with disabilities each within the courtroom and thru coverage initiatives.
As a neighborhood chief and changemaker, Josh works tirelessly to enhance the standard of life the folks with disabilities and to repeatedly break down present limitations to entry and inclusion, impartial dwelling, transportation, employment, and net accessibility.
Kelley Brooks Simoneaux, Esq. is an lawyer and incapacity rights advocate based mostly in Washington, D.C. She is the founding father of The Spinal Cord Injury Legislation Agency, PLLC, the place she represents people following a spinal cord injury.
Kelley dedicated her skilled life to serving to these with spinal cord accidents after she turned a T-12 paraplegic as a passenger in a automotive wreck when she was 16 years previous.
When Kelley isn’t within the courtroom, she is preventing for better accessibility in her neighborhood. After being denied a trip in an Uber as a consequence of her wheelchair, she started a nationwide marketing campaign known as Wheel2Ride, targeted on training and coverage change in accessibility and inclusivity for rideshares also called Transportation Community Suppliers (TNPs).
She additionally serves because the Director of Legislation and Advocacy for SPINALpedia.org, an internet video mentoring platform for people with spinal cord accidents and was appointed as a delegate to the Fairfax Space Incapacity Companies Board and the WMATA Accessibility Advisory Committee.
She is on the Board of Administrators for the ENDependence Heart of Northern Virginia, an impartial dwelling heart serving folks with disabilities in Northern Virginia, and Wheel of Happiness Basis, a nonprofit which gives wheelchairs and medical provides to underserved communities around the globe.
Kasie Somerville is the proud mom of 4 grownup youngsters—our shopper Austin Somerville is her youngest. In Might 2020, on the age of 16, Austin was injured in a swimming pool accident. He has quadriplegia from sustaining a spinal cord injury on the C5, C6, and C7 ranges.
Kasie has strongly and passionately cared for, researched for, advocated for, and cheered on Austin throughout day-after-day of his restoration.
Austin has been to a number of rehabilitation facilities over three years and three states. He’s now taking over a fair better problem as an accepted Clemson College freshman within the subject of bioengineering. Austin shall be dwelling in campus dorms, and Kasie will stay his care attendant and remedy attendant as their journey continues.
Kasie is captivated with relations and care companions realizing that there’s hope and assist in the face of tragedy, insurmountable odds, and lots of struggling. She believes that generally, it’s important to seek for it—however more often than not, it isn’t very far—and that struggling doesn’t need to be for nothing.
Kasie has been married to her husband, Brian, for 31 years.
The First 100 Days After a Spinal Cord Injury
WHEN: September 12, 2023
WHERE: On-line
ORGANIZERS: Assist Hope Stay
