Richard Bell

Date of Injury: November 10, 2002

Type of Injury: Spinal Cord Injury, C5/6

Current Home: Los Angeles, California

Occupation: Pushrim – Co-Founder

Website: www.pushrim.com

“We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.” – Anaïs Nin

On November 10, 2002, I got up to go to my mom’s house for breakfast. It was drizzling that morning, but I decided to drive my convertible anyway. I lost control on a freeway ramp and rolled onto a transition road and hit a truck. I knew right away that I was paralyzed. I was on life support for 3 months and spent another 3 months at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Hospital in Downey, CA. Therapy was lost on me because I could not move my arms yet. Once I got home, I spent the following months trying to reach for things until I could move my arms more and more.

One day, fellow RIDER Bobby Rohan stopped by and gave me some forks that I could actually use to feed myself. He also encouraged me to not spend my days in a power wheelchair. So, I got a manual chair with power-assist. That helped me immensely.

I met fellow RIDER Ray Pizarro at the Abilities Expo and he told me about a gym for people with spinal cord injury. We would meet up there and share pointers, ideas, and techniques with one another. One year at the Abilities Expo we were talking and trying to figure out a way to create a forum where we could make our knowledge base accessible to everyone who is injured. Prior to my injury, I was a Regional IT Manager. So naturally we decided to create a social networking website for Spinal Cord Injury victims.

We came up with the name Pushrim. It took a while to actually create the site. However, it didn’t take long for it to start growing just by word of mouth. Now we have over a thousand members from just about every country on earth. Our members have done a terrific job adding all kinds of content, stories, techniques, photos, and videos. Pushrim is still in it’s infancy, but we strive to reach as many as possible, so that people who’ve overcome such a profound tragedy will know that they will not have to suffer alone. And that there is indeed life after injury.