I recall waking up, and there was a sheet over my head and everything. I could tell it was a white
sheet. My ears were ringing, and I just said, “I got to get up,” and I said it three times.
And I heard this voice... he said, “No, April. Just, just lay still. Don't move.” And I could
hear the sirens. And then, next thing I knew, I said, “I can't breathe,” and I blacked out.
August 9 of 2013, I was a victim of domestic violence, and I was shot five times.
With that, I flatlined three times. I had chest tubes on both sides,
and everything was close range. The first shot, he tried to shoot me in the face,
and I was able to block the gun off, and it went off behind my head.
I took a step, and I immediately blacked out at that point, and I fell to the ground,
and he just stood over me, and he just unloaded. Thank goodness he was a bad shot, though.
So, then I woke up the next morning, or the next day, and the doctor said,
“Do you know where you are?” And I said, “No” because I was at UK, and I think I was
there for probably two and a half weeks. I never asked why. I never cried about it.
I think even though I never heard the gun go off, I never felt the bullets go in,
the pain was something I never want for anyone to experience. However,
I continued to push forward because I was still alive, and I
wanted to live the best life that I could. So, after that, I went over to Cardinal Hill.
And that's when I learned that I was paralyzed because I had never heard that word before, or if
I did, it just never registered because I was so highly medicated. So, I went to therapy with a PT
therapist and, you know, had a lot of fun and pushed myself. Over a period of time, I just,
you know, I started thinking, "OK, I've got to, you know, take care of myself. I’ve got to get
in better health." But I had picked up some weight from just, you know, not moving around, and so, I
decided to look around and try to find a trainer. And ever since then, we've been at it. This is,
I guess, next month will be two years, and I've lost 180 pounds. My core is stronger than
it was before I was injured. So, then I was at the PT clinic where I
was with PT students, and I was a mock patient for the clinic. I was telling my story, and the
PT that was there, she was like, “I'm going to do something different.”
And she says, I'm going to have you to stand using the parallel bars. I said, “OK.”
So, we went into the parallel bar. She has great upper extremities, arm strength... and the
students were on the side, so I stood her because they were looking at me like “I wouldn't have even
thought to do that.” And so, I just supported her legs, and she literally popped up into standing...
using her arms a good bit, but the first time she was up two or three minutes. That's pretty
unheard of for someone who hasn't done it. Is this where you say, squeeze your buttocks
and push forward? Yeah, right there. Look at that. There you are.
Nice job.
It showed me the abilities that she has and the drive she had, and she was super excited.
So then then we stopped, and she sat down, and I said, “You know, what do you want to do with this?
Have you had goals?” She goes, “Oh, I've been in talk with ReWalk, but no one here in the community
does it.” And immediately I was thinking, “You could be in some type of bracing or exoskeleton,
but I didn't even say the word first. She goes, “Oh, I have a number of somebody.” So, she was...
she had saw it but didn't have an avenue.
Even though she said it, you know, I guess it's just never registered in my head at that point until December came along, and I got a phone call,
and we started working and not, you know, just kind of talking about things, how things could
happen, what was going to be needed, what I needed to do and everything, and just making sure I was
going to be a good candidate to be able to use it. And next thing I knew, I had a phone call with a date. So here we are.
[APPLAUSE]
Good. How do you feel? So, I believe the first step for me is going to be full of anxiety because I'm going to
want to step before they tell me to step. As a little girl, my dad always told me, "You can
be anybody you want to be. You can do anything you want to do." And throughout the last 9 years,
you know, there's people saying, "Oh, you can't do this, you can't do that." Whatever, I'm going to
prove you wrong every time, so...that's the worst thing you can tell somebody that's determined.
I can't find the words to explain what this feels, but I can tell you the emotion is 150%.
I think it's tears of joy from pain, resilience and success.
And it's just going to keep pushing me forward.
So, I'm determined to be successful in this. I'm determined to let others hopefully have
that same determination and to see the light instead of staying in the dark. So, hopefully
this is going to encourage others to, you know, look towards that light and want to get up.