OSCI Founder Reflects on the 10-year Anniversary
As the founder and executive director of a small nonprofit, I have reaped so much joy and satisfaction from watching Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Connection grow over the last decade. This month – November 25, 2024 – will be 10 years!
Eleven years ago, on November 3, 2013, while I was traveling through Guatemala, I was hit by a truck as a pedestrian. When I came to, I was looking up at the sky, gasping for my breath and I could taste blood in my mouth. My first thought was, ‘is this how it ends?’. I heard shrieks from onlookers. I mustered strength to look over my body as I lay on the ground and I could see my right leg was contorted way out of whack. My second thought was, ‘Oh damn, that’s not good.’ I collapsed back to the ground. My third thought was, ‘Just keep breathing!’.
This was the beginning of my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad November 2013. Thank god for my friends at Medical Teams International who ushered me safely out of Guatemala and back to the States. Unfortunately, my troubles had not ended. I had emergency hip surgery but afterwards descended into a dark slurry of high fevers, delusion, whole body aches and weakness. The curtains of The West Livaudais Show, as I knew it, were coming down. The intermission was dark and silent, but fortunately, the medical industrial complex pulled its head out of its ass, and righted my ship. When the curtains were drawn and I came to a second-time, I was in the ICU in the United States; and this time I was paralyzed. I had nearly succumbed to an epidural abscess in my spine due to a hospital-acquired infection.
And this, my friends, is how my adventure with spinal cord injury began.
I frequently share with others that I have been very unlucky, and very lucky. Such is the case for many people. In my journey, I have come to realize that the difference-maker for so many people is not how the chips fall, but whether they can bounce after such a hard fall.
No one wishes to have a spinal cord injury. It’s not something anyone anticipates or plans for. There is no cure and the trek out of this deep, dark crevasse is nothing but straight up, step by step. Adversity can crush anyone. It can also transform anyone into their greatest actualized self, no matter what the circumstances.
The difference-maker, as I have come to believe after ten years as an executive director of an organization that believes in people at one of their worst moments, is whether they can match the adversity of spinal cord injury with the spark of their life and a strong, supportive community. No one makes it through this adversity without some form of help from those who believe in them.
Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Connection believes in everyone living with a spinal cord injury, and it exists for those who come up short, who may need to jumpstart their spark of life or just don’t have a strong, supportive community.
The struggle of adversity in the context of community is the good soil where hidden talents can flourish. Over these 10 years I have discovered that I have a vision; I have a knack for threading the needle of strategy and positioning the needs of my community at the table. And the punchy chip on my shoulder has softened into an earthy, aromatic note of grit and resilience.
In the last 10 years, I have made my share of wrong decisions, but to this day, I am proud of an extraordinarily good decision that has contributed to the strength of the organization and our ability to grow programs and community amidst the storms. That decision was to invest the entire life-force of this organization into the work of pursuing health equity for people living with spinal cord injury.
You can join me in celebrating Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Connection by sharing this post and to help make our transformative work known. Help us celebrate 10 years by starting a $10/monthly donation to support newly injured folks and their families who are grappling with the life-changing implications of their injury.
