For this United Spinal member, even the sky is no limit.
By Mark Magrahan
She’ll never forget the date. How could she? It was June 25, 1993, when, Kim Walters says, “My life changed forever.” Another car forced hers off the road. After flipping six times, it came to a mangled stop. Kim didn’t know which was in worse shape: her or her car. She had a broken neck (C-5, 6) severed spine, fractured in 32 places, broken ribs, pelvis, internal bleeding and lung problems. But she never lost consciousness.
This is a metaphor for how Kim has lived her life-conscious and thinking. “Using your mind can save not only your life but also your quality of life,” Kim says. “As long as you have your mind, everything else is a bonus”
Tough and Independent
The United Spinal Association National Service Officers have been working with Kim for years but I did not get to meet her in person until January 2008 when we met at the Bath, New York, Veterans Hospital. I wanted to interview her and do a story on this interesting lady and offered to drive to her home. Kim insisted we meet at Bath VA to save me the trouble of driving to her home, which was about 30-miles of snow covered roads away. Independence, I learned is what Kim is all about. The reckless driver, who was never caught, may have destroyed her car and left her a quad with Harrington rods to support her back, but mentally and spiritually it made her tougher and more determined than ever.
After Kim completed 17 weeks of intensive rehab at Strong Memorial in Rochester, New York, she realized that with her severe disabilities, she needed two major tools to live independently: assistive technology (AT) and sheer determination. As Kim likes to say, “I didn’t waste any time and used all available resources including the VA, Strong Memorial Hospital, State, Federal funding programs and the United Spinal Association’s programs and publications…
“Oh yeah, one other thing: people,” she adds. “Don’t be afraid to ask for help from family, friends and anybody else who is willing. You can only be so independent without help from others who you’ll need, especially the first year after an injury. Later this dependency decreases. Depression, often extreme depression, when you’re first injured is a major part of this injury that is overlooked by many,” Kim states. “The quicker you learn to deal with people and overcome depression the quicker you will become independent and regain your self-esteem.”
Up and At ‘Em
Kim started driving again in February 1994-only eight months after her accident. By then, she was living alone with an aide coming in occasionally. Eventually she found she was able to do without the aide. Unfortunately she was unable to get her job back at Corning, Inc. Determined to do something, she was hired by the Bath VA Medical Center, working there for several years until she decided to go back to school at Corning Community
College for a degree in accounting. While in school she also volunteered at Bath VA and was an advocate for her local independent living center.
Now this is where this story gets really interesting. Kim has always loved sports, one day in 2005 while driving by a skydiving school, she thought, “Why not? How many SCI (spinal cord injured) sky divers are out there?” Being an Army veteran she didn’t go to airborne school so this was her opportunity. She enrolled in Free Fall Adventures in Williamstown, New Jersey. and went through all the drills and training just as a non-SCI person would. She met a great instructor named Range Luda who worked with her allowing her to fulfill her quest to become one in only a handful of SCI jumpers in North America.
After several jumps she realized this was the freedom that she has longed for and committed to working on her professional restricted skydiving ‘Type ‘A’ license. Type A license allows people with or without disabilities to jump in tandem attached to another jumper. For those of us who are not Airborne Rangers or skydiver neophytes, type-A license takes 25-jumps, type B-50, type C-200 and type D-500 jumps. Kim must jump tandem due to her limited lack of “landing gear” in which the tandem partner uses their feet to land both jumpers.” There’s a lot more to skydiving than just jumping out of a perfectly good airplane” she says with a daredevil’s smile. “Jumping takes guts, but that free float on the way down is like nothing you could ever experience or imagine unless you’ve done it. Total freedom, wings-call it what ever you want. I call it fun!”
“When I exit that airplane at 13,500 feet and free fall around 120-mph it’s a real rush,” she adds.
I’ll take your word for it, Kim!
Elite Club
The only problem Kim has ever encountered during a jump was a very cold day in which the temp was minus-50 degrees at the altitude she jumped. Kim states that there are less than 10 spinal cord injured skydivers in North America, so she’s in an elite club. She encourages United Spinal members to become more active in this sport and would love the company if any of our readers feel inclined to get their “wings.”
Kim is also active in a host of slightly less exuberant sports, such as wheelchair basketball, bowling, weight-lifting, softball and self-training. With all these activities she still managed to win the title of Ms. Wheelchair New York contest, and has won an award from the New York State Assembly for her work in Advocacy. Kim is currently working on a book on SCI rehabilitation, and is seeking a publisher. She is going back to school to work on her Masters and someday wants a PhD. Lofty goals, but if anyone knows lofty, Kim knows lofty.
This lady is a real inspiration not only to SCI/D people but for all people. I can’t think of many who have done so much with or without an SCI injury. Kim is an excellent motivational speaker. She has done many motivational speaking engagements on what it takes to overcome, rehab and just live both before and after a spinal cord injury. If you are interested in having Kim speak to an organization please contact her at: buddy3@stny.rr.com.
Good luck, Kim. I’ll be watching the skies for you from my lawn chair!
Mark Magrahan is Regional Service Director for the Buffalo office.
