hello thanks for having me guys my name
is Jerry an IM n SC it3 Asia a complete
paraplegic now what does that mean that
means that I am paralyzed at the
mid-back level my spinal cord is severed
and I’m completely paralyzed from the
chest down it’s crazy how did that come
to happen well how did it come to happen
that I’m here I am here today because I
can do things I can do anything and I’m
here to tell you how I can do anything
but first it starts with the story
starts with a story on how I got in the
wheelchair let me tell you pretty much
just jumped and landed into it but how
it really started was I was on the top
of a 2,000 foot mountain ridge in Hawaii
just an island change in the Pacific
Ocean and I was preparing for a pretty
big stunt growing up I wasn’t super
unfamiliar with stunts like most of you
I grew up in a pretty loving family my
father and mother taught me a lot of
things a lot of what I had to do with
was risk management risk versus reward
and they taught me how to differentiate
the two but also how risk and reward can
make a fulfilling life and that’s all
they wanted was for me to be happy and
to lead a fulfilling life and early on i
discovered that when faced with danger I
got this certain adrenaline rush that
was something like I’ve never imagined
before and it just kept on getting
bigger and bigger and it kept me wanting
more and more and so
oh that was what was going to be my
passion was this adrenaline and my
parents really helped me find that
adrenaline rush and that passion that I
was looking for because my family was
into skydiving just like my grandfather
who started a drop zone in the 70s which
taught people out of skydive one of them
me and my father and then eventually
myself it was easy to see where my life
wouldn’t be going it was that of the
extreme growing up at a young age to via
skydiver I encountered many obstacles
and many challenges most of which i
concurred with persistence and the idea
that I was invincible when you’re young
you know how it is when you’re on your
bicycle you’re doing the jumps like like
as if there were no such thing as broken
bones or Falls or crashes and it wasn’t
until that this moment when I was on top
of the ridge that I was about to
experience what was going to be the
it was August 25th 2009 I was 18 years
old but this wasn’t my big first stunt
growing up and having met along those
challenges and that a disability I had
thousands of skydives I was an
accomplished skydiving instructor I was
an accomplished skydiving athlete and
competitor and this was something that
was not even the most dangerous thing
that I’ve ever done today’s stunt was a
ground launch cut away to base jump
that’s what the title with the YouTube
video that I had in my mind that I was
going to post later about this now what
is this ground launch cutaway debate
soon well essentially the stuff called
for two parachutes called for some
special ingenuity in which what I was
going to do was lay out one parachute
behind me and start running down the
mountain this parachute is going to
inflate and glide me away from the
mountain when I reached an appropriate
altitude I was going to release that
parachute in the sky diving turn we call
it cutting away I’m going to release
that hair should go back in a free fall
for a momentary second and they opened
up a secondary parachute before you back
the ground super exciting and when I was
up there thinking am I really going to
do this absolutely and there was I was
up there with my friends and the
conditions were just about right my
friends doing a more simple less scary
simply flying away from mountain and
landing the parachute without the
cutaway we’re all were eager to see my
stuff and how this is going to play out
so here we go the parachutes laid out
behind me I take a couple steps and I’m
flying
the hardest part please what i thought
was out of the way and this is what it’s
all about when you’re up in the air and
it’s hawaii and it’s flying and it’s
sunset it’s beautiful and it’s
everything that I’ve ever wanted in life
so I wanted to be I was doing this
amazing thing this adrenaline rush of
skydiving really feeling alive I’m doing
this extra stuff to gain this kind of
maybe notoriety and maybe some kind of
viral video and come of it and I’m
starting to focus i’m starting to relax
and i’m starting to get into the mindset
of what’s about to happen in which i’m
going to do this cutaway and i’m going
to go back and free fall and pull my
parachute well as i get ready and as i
get set something happens a sudden jerk
a pop I’m Spain violently this is
something that’s not good not enough
altitude to really do much of anything
panic starts to set in pretty quickly
and if you were to ask me what were to
happen to myself if I had been in the
situation I’d have responded with ok so
ground-launched cut away to base jump he
feels the pop of the staff snap and
start spinning that’s going to lead to a
fatality it’s going to lead to death
it’s got to and this is where it starts
to separate some people when I’m in that
moment I’m thinking two things well some
people are going to stop and women asst
maybe recollect some life memory or
think about the right things they’ve
done or something long things they’ve
done maybe kind of go over there some of
their demons for myself it was all about
life saving mode let’s not make this the
last thing you ever do so quick analysis
of what’s going on I grab the controls
try to stabilize the parachute as best
as possible I pure over the ground
coming up extremely fast the descent
rate is high get ready for it and bam
impact I can still imagine that moment
where you feel so helpless but the same
time you doing everything you can to
save your life regardless of what your
feelings are the impacts still the same
still harsh immediately knocked
unconscious my lifeless body or called
tomahawking down the mountainside
eventually I come to rest upon a treat
it keeps me from tumbling down the rest
of the way 20 seconds was all that it
was from the time that I launched off
the mountain and to the time I was back
on top of it half that time spent under
a fly in parachute and half the time
spent under a malfunctioned spin out of
control parachute the cause was my
ingenuity that I needed to accomplish to
make the stunt work left some gaps some
mundane details that I missed some
simple safety devices within the harness
that kept it from malfunction because
that’s what happened while the parachute
was supposed to release when I commanded
it via point and handle the attachment
point for the parachute on one side
released prematurely causing the
parachute didn’t collapse and spin it
really was the smallest mundane detail
that got me in this situation next
fast-forward to me starting to regain
consciousness the immense amount of pain
and fear of what had happened just
becomes instilled in me some nearby
hikers walk over and I never had been
hurt before I’ve never broken any bones
I’ve never you know experienced anything
so dramatic and I didn’t really know
what to think or what to say what to do
it’s pretty funny we have it on video of
this whole this whole thing on video and
the first thing that I say when these
hikers come by as they’re curious as to
what they’re going to come up on dead
body or unconscious body or myself which
is regaining consciousness I think you
guys shouldn’t help me on my feet I
don’t know if you saw me land but it
didn’t look at I betcha my friends down
there are worried about me and they’re
like no the whole experience was
traumatic and I had no idea what had
happened a whole way of medical problems
were to follow I slipped into a coma for
seven days before that helicopter
eventually picked me off the mountain
and some insane rescue mission and after
that what’s the coma my family and
friends flew in from the mainland of
Hawaii to see me because they had no
idea the long effect of a long-term
outcome of what was to happen it didn’t
know if I was going to come out of this
thing and on so they were all nervous as
to what might be the result the good
news was that I did come out of it I
spent seven days in a coma and my first
recollecting thought was that of the
doctor and the doctor is there and he’s
he’s telling me let me put two
perspective the medical phenomenon that
has happened I would have bet this is
him talking out of bed a year salary
that you would have been dead by the
time you got here you see broken your or
you’ve ruptured your aorta you’ve broken
your aorta which is the main vessel in
your heart system trying to explain some
medical term to me as I’m kind of trying
to process everything and he’s like
you’ve you’ve broken your yo-yo to your
main vessel yard and out of your salary
that you depend
by the time you got here you can’t live
with your aorta just bleeding out into
your body like that he’s like that’s
insane and even in the best-case
scenario to repair your aorta we call it
a coin toss to 5050 so let’s perspective
how lucky you are to be alive and it was
the happiest the happiest you can
imagine oh my god i’m here i’m alive
after all that crazy stunts that i just
did and all the crazy things that I’ve
done in my life I’m never going to do
anything like that again I’m never going
to skydive I’m never going to do
anything I’m so grateful to be alive
that I have the opportunity to be able
to see my friends and family again into
you know do things and it’s going to be
amazing like I can’t believe I escaped
away with that I’m so stupid that was
insane and then he says oh by the way
you also broke your back in seventh your
spinal cord and you’ll probably never
walk again how crazy so 18 years young
my whole life and I mean lost in an
instant it’s not like a deal
debilitating thing where it’s over time
it’s slowly it was one moment I was
normal and the next I was crippled so I
went from being extremely grateful to be
alive to beam not as much
I have a big problem now my whole life
has been flipped upside down depression
obviously was immense I mean immediately
I just kind of fell for being not
productive if you can imagine I was at
first I was active and the lifestyle was
rapid and quick and I was independent
and now it’s slow and mundane and not
independent I needed help for everything
simple things what was I gonna do and
every day that went on it just got worse
and worse I mean nothing was set up for
me like the world is not set up for me
every little step and curb toilet that’s
not accessible you know street that’s
not paved right you know it’s just like
what kind of useful life am I going to
have and then you’ll know if you’ve
gotten there and I know because I got
there and it’s it’s crazy it’s the most
depressant you can get and the analogy
is like you’re standing on a bridge and
it’s figuratively and it’s literally in
a sense where you could be standing on a
bridge and like so many times before
you’re thinking am I going to do this am
I going to do this what’s the problem
here well my life’s the problem how do i
fix this problem of life be the problem
how do I make it go away and it’s the
most craziest decision when you’re on
the edge and you’re looking over and you
think am I going to jump and then you
think to yourself at least I thought to
myself in this crazy world how will I
jump this done well eventually you kind
of start playing this situation around
and it just happens it as quickly as it
kind of comes and you think least I
thought I are going to jump
but i’m probably going to need a
parachute because i’m not going to let
it go down like this so now some more
ingenuity comes in if my ingenuity
coming into this that my ingenuity is
going to get me out I want to continue
doing the things that I want to do the
things that I’ve always wanted to do and
what makes my life worthwhile what’s
this adrenaline rush it’s this thing
that really makes me feel alive and what
am I worried about now I’ve just gotten
the deepest depths of my of my mind and
maybe the worst thing that could ever
happen what’s the worst that could
happen like you know say I want to
skydive again my parachute doesn’t open
and I die well I was just at the lowest
point my life anyways let’s just let’s
see what happens maybe I can make some
positive out of this negative let’s get
back up on the horse let’s get back up
in the airplane to this trying to figure
this out but how this is crazy no one
has really sky dived in a wheelchair at
least successfully this is the landing
gear that doesn’t work and I’m paralyzed
from the chest down so long story short
you know I’m here talking you guys and
it’s totally amazing that I can be here
talking with you guys and I’m looking at
a whirl you guys miss you to ask me what
my dream was before I did that’s done it
would be I would tell you wants to
travel the world and skydive and I’m
going to show you a video here in a
little bit it’s going to show you what
I’ve accomplished in what came of that
dark point in my life where it’s totally
flipped around to make it seem like I
can push through anything or now here I
am doing exactly what I’ve always wanted
to do I’m in Dubai I’m from America I’m
far away from home on travel the world
skydiving and talking you guys I’m super
thankful to be able to be here today
talking to you guys i hope you guys have
enjoyed this crazy story of my life and
how I’ve gotten there and we got a
little video showing you what I’ve
accomplished over the years so thank you
oh the murder even oh so you know I love
you know I
I’ll let you go on sir and is the author
all day and I believe in the society [Music]