The spinal cord injury and overcoming obstacles: I turned a bullet to the chest into a charity
My name is Arthur Renowitzky, and I am the Executive Director of the Life Goes On Foundation. I grew up very athletic playing sports in the San Francisco Bay area. While I was in college, at the age of 20 years old I decided to go out to a San Francisco nightclub. The date was December 2, 2007. On that day, my life changed forever. As I was leaving the club and walking to my car, a stranger ran up and shot me, stole my wallet and ran off. I woke up from a coma three weeks later, a day before Christmas Eve, to learn I would never walk or talk again. I promised myself if I ever got my voice back I would do something powerful with it, and never take it for granted.
That day came and when I got my voice back I decided to start a non-profit organization called Life Goes On. As soon as I was released from the hospital, I worked tirelessly to build this foundation from the ground up to help people in the same situation and spread Spinal Cord Injury awareness. I now play wheelchair basketball for the Sacramento Kings wheelchair basketball team, which is a huge passion of mine, and I want to spread more awareness about adaptive sports and also shed light on my goal to walk again.
I am a complete T2/T3 Spinal Cord Injury but I still walk with the aide of my ReWalk Exoskeleton device. The first time I tried out the Exoskeleton and took my very first steps years after my injury, tears rolled down my cheeks. They weren't sad tears, but tears of happiness. I forgot how good it felt to walk again.
My favorite quote is, " it's hard to be a person that never gives up" and "life goes on". I owe a lot to all of my support and recovery to my family, friends, and my supporters across the world who push me to be better and stronger everyday.
