Decades after he was paralyzed in a crash in New York, Suheil Aghabi plans to come home by rolling 3,300 miles cross country.
Suheil Aghabi (also known as Gabriel Cordell) plans to roll 3,300 miles in his wheelchair from California to his hometown West Hempstead, where he was paralyzed in a crash in 1992.
Aghabi – who also goes by Gabriel Cordell – had just left his Long Island home on Oct. 17, 1992 and was on his way to his first professional commercial audition in New York City when a female driver ran a red light near the railroad crossing and slammed into his Jeep.
“I clenched as hard as I could to my steering wheel, because I knew I was going to get hit,” recalls Aghabi, now 42. The vehicle hit his Jeep on the rear driver’s side, forcing it to flip. “That’s the last thing I remember,” he says. “I woke up on the street with my steering wheel in my hand.”
Aghabi had grasped the wheel so hard that he ripped it out of the column as he was ejected from his vehicle through the soft top roof that was now wrapped around his body.
“Obviously, I wasn't wearing a seat belt,” says Aghabi, who was later told by his doctor that the lack of a restraint most likely saved his life, because his neck could have snapped if he remained inside the car when it flipped. Instead, Aghabi was thrown from the car, his body hit a nearby pole with extreme force, and his spinal chord was crushed.
“It was like someone swinging a baseball bat as hard as they could at my back,” he says.
Struggling to breath and with his entire body tingling, the 1988 West Hempstead High School graduate was rushed to Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, where his family soon learned he was paralyzed and he lay in bed for two days, waiting for the swelling in his body to go down before he could undergo any operation.
He was transferred to the Hospital for Joint Disease in Manhattan, where he underwent a six-hour spinal fusion surgery and remained hospitalized for nearly a month.
During the three months Aghabi spent at New York University’s Rusk Institute learning to become independent again he reached a low-point followed by a turning point. As anger began to take hold of him, Aghabi demanded to be transferred to a new room, away from patients who were terminal, but the only other room available was in the pediatric unit. It was here, surrounded by children with physical disabilities, that Aghabi quickly stopped feeling sorry for himself.
“I had 22 years of wonderful health,” he says. “These children had a strike against them from the day they were born. Right then and there, I knew how fortunate I was … You don’t need your legs to live.”
This realization spurred Aghabi to chase after his dreams even though he would not be pursuing them in a wheelchair. By that April, he was back in NYC, going on auditions and quickly became one of the busiest actors and the top commercial model on the East Coast among those in wheelchairs.
Then, exactly five years from the date of his accident, he followed through with his plans to move to the West Coast. He loaded up his car and left for California, where he’s been ever since.
But Aghabi would come to learn that overcoming his paralysis was easy compared to a more crippling disease he would face. Over the span of three and half years, what started out as an occasional drug use problem escalated into a full-blown cocaine addiction by the time Aghabi was in his late 30s.
“It was a conscious choice to check out of reality, because I was just tired, I felt beat up and did not want to try anymore,” he says. “I was pathetic, useless to society. I had nothing good to offer.”
It’s a daily struggle, but since April 2012, Aghabi has been clean, sober, and completely honest. “I no longer lie, fib or exaggerate,” he says. “I am transparent as Wonder Woman's airplane.”
This spring, he’s also hoping to inspire others struggling with disabilities and addictions by setting out on a 3,300 mile cross-country trip from Burbank, to his hometown West Hempstead, in his wheelchair
Aghabi, 42, (also known as Gabriel Cordell) is planning to roll cross-country from Burbank, where he currently resides, to his hometown West Hempstead, NY, where he was involved in a car accident 20 years ago that left him paralyzed. The 1988 West Hempstead High School graduate will depart on April 1 and expects to complete the trip in 70 days.
“I think I can average 50 miles a day, which is crazy because your arms and shoulders aren't meant for that much strain,” he recently told Patch.
Aghabi tried swimming and weightlifting, but eventually realized the best way to train for the journey, which will include inclines of 8,000 ft., was to hit the road and roll as much as he could. He’s been training on-and-off for six months, logging miles on the road and on the clay track at a nearby high school.
“I have arthritis, so I’m constantly in pain,” he says.
When people ask Aghabi what spurred him to embark on this challenge, he doesn’t have a simple answer.
He wants to challenge himself, to do something that hasn’t been done before and to make his parents proud, but more importantly, his goal is to be a postive role model and inspiration to others.
Recalling the young patients he met at NYU’s Rusk Institute as he was undergoing rehab months after his 1992 car accident, Aghabi says, “I never forgot those kids … and what they had to go through at such a young age. I knew my purpose in life would have to revolve around kids with disabilities, giving them a sense of hope and making them see that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish whatever you want."
Aghabi also hopes this message of the power of the mind will also resonate with people struggling to overcome addictions and conquer other inner demons.
“Being paraplegic is nothing compared to the daily struggle to be clean and sober,” says the recovering cocaine addict. “My addiction is so much more disabling than my paralysis.”
Inspiring Aghabi is Michael King, who completed a four-month, 5,605-mile journey from Fairbanks, AK, to Washington, DC, in 1985 in his wheelchair. Aghabi recently had a chance to speak with King, who answered many questions for him.
“It put me at ease that this person actually did it,” he adds.
The trip is not without its risks. “I could injure my shoulders or even be hit by a car,” Aghabi says, but his biggest worry right now is raising enough money to pay for the equipment and supplies needed for the journey. Although Sunrise Medical donated a brand new custom-built wheelchair, Aghabi still desperately needs to raise $9,000 to rent an RV and pay for the vehicle’s fuel. The RV would allow Aghabi’s small support staff and documentary crew to travel alongside him. It would also provide a place for him and his entourage of about five people to sleep and prepare affordable meals throughout the trip.
“The RV relieves me from having to find [and pay for] 70 nights of hotels and dining for at least five people,” he explains.
Aghabi is planning a fundraiser on March 15 in California, but anyone who wishes to donate can do so by clicking here or visiting his Web site rollwithme.org.
“I always knew I was going to do something in life that was extraordinary,” he says. “Being in a wheelchair was not going to be the thing that set me apart … but I knew that it would be the vehicle I was going to use.”
Source : Northridge.patch.com ( 10th feb 2013)
Suheil Aghabi (also known as Gabriel Cordell) plans to roll 3,300 miles in his wheelchair from California to his hometown West Hempstead, where he was paralyzed in a crash in 1992.
Part 1 in a series.
Aghabi – who also goes by Gabriel Cordell – had just left his Long Island home on Oct. 17, 1992 and was on his way to his first professional commercial audition in New York City when a female driver ran a red light near the railroad crossing and slammed into his Jeep.
“I clenched as hard as I could to my steering wheel, because I knew I was going to get hit,” recalls Aghabi, now 42. The vehicle hit his Jeep on the rear driver’s side, forcing it to flip. “That’s the last thing I remember,” he says. “I woke up on the street with my steering wheel in my hand.”
Aghabi had grasped the wheel so hard that he ripped it out of the column as he was ejected from his vehicle through the soft top roof that was now wrapped around his body.
“Obviously, I wasn't wearing a seat belt,” says Aghabi, who was later told by his doctor that the lack of a restraint most likely saved his life, because his neck could have snapped if he remained inside the car when it flipped. Instead, Aghabi was thrown from the car, his body hit a nearby pole with extreme force, and his spinal chord was crushed.
“It was like someone swinging a baseball bat as hard as they could at my back,” he says.
Struggling to breath and with his entire body tingling, the 1988 West Hempstead High School graduate was rushed to Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, where his family soon learned he was paralyzed and he lay in bed for two days, waiting for the swelling in his body to go down before he could undergo any operation.
He was transferred to the Hospital for Joint Disease in Manhattan, where he underwent a six-hour spinal fusion surgery and remained hospitalized for nearly a month.
During the three months Aghabi spent at New York University’s Rusk Institute learning to become independent again he reached a low-point followed by a turning point. As anger began to take hold of him, Aghabi demanded to be transferred to a new room, away from patients who were terminal, but the only other room available was in the pediatric unit. It was here, surrounded by children with physical disabilities, that Aghabi quickly stopped feeling sorry for himself.
“I had 22 years of wonderful health,” he says. “These children had a strike against them from the day they were born. Right then and there, I knew how fortunate I was … You don’t need your legs to live.”
This realization spurred Aghabi to chase after his dreams even though he would not be pursuing them in a wheelchair. By that April, he was back in NYC, going on auditions and quickly became one of the busiest actors and the top commercial model on the East Coast among those in wheelchairs.
Then, exactly five years from the date of his accident, he followed through with his plans to move to the West Coast. He loaded up his car and left for California, where he’s been ever since.
But Aghabi would come to learn that overcoming his paralysis was easy compared to a more crippling disease he would face. Over the span of three and half years, what started out as an occasional drug use problem escalated into a full-blown cocaine addiction by the time Aghabi was in his late 30s.
“It was a conscious choice to check out of reality, because I was just tired, I felt beat up and did not want to try anymore,” he says. “I was pathetic, useless to society. I had nothing good to offer.”
It’s a daily struggle, but since April 2012, Aghabi has been clean, sober, and completely honest. “I no longer lie, fib or exaggerate,” he says. “I am transparent as Wonder Woman's airplane.”
This spring, he’s also hoping to inspire others struggling with disabilities and addictions by setting out on a 3,300 mile cross-country trip from Burbank, to his hometown West Hempstead, in his wheelchair
Part 2 in a series.
“There's nothing you can really do that will prepare you,” Suheil Aghabi says
of the 3,300 mile trip he will soon embark on in his wheelchair. “All I
can do is prepare myself as best as can … and just do it.”Aghabi, 42, (also known as Gabriel Cordell) is planning to roll cross-country from Burbank, where he currently resides, to his hometown West Hempstead, NY, where he was involved in a car accident 20 years ago that left him paralyzed. The 1988 West Hempstead High School graduate will depart on April 1 and expects to complete the trip in 70 days.
“I think I can average 50 miles a day, which is crazy because your arms and shoulders aren't meant for that much strain,” he recently told Patch.
Aghabi tried swimming and weightlifting, but eventually realized the best way to train for the journey, which will include inclines of 8,000 ft., was to hit the road and roll as much as he could. He’s been training on-and-off for six months, logging miles on the road and on the clay track at a nearby high school.
“I have arthritis, so I’m constantly in pain,” he says.
When people ask Aghabi what spurred him to embark on this challenge, he doesn’t have a simple answer.
He wants to challenge himself, to do something that hasn’t been done before and to make his parents proud, but more importantly, his goal is to be a postive role model and inspiration to others.
Recalling the young patients he met at NYU’s Rusk Institute as he was undergoing rehab months after his 1992 car accident, Aghabi says, “I never forgot those kids … and what they had to go through at such a young age. I knew my purpose in life would have to revolve around kids with disabilities, giving them a sense of hope and making them see that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish whatever you want."
Aghabi also hopes this message of the power of the mind will also resonate with people struggling to overcome addictions and conquer other inner demons.
“Being paraplegic is nothing compared to the daily struggle to be clean and sober,” says the recovering cocaine addict. “My addiction is so much more disabling than my paralysis.”
Inspiring Aghabi is Michael King, who completed a four-month, 5,605-mile journey from Fairbanks, AK, to Washington, DC, in 1985 in his wheelchair. Aghabi recently had a chance to speak with King, who answered many questions for him.
“It put me at ease that this person actually did it,” he adds.
The trip is not without its risks. “I could injure my shoulders or even be hit by a car,” Aghabi says, but his biggest worry right now is raising enough money to pay for the equipment and supplies needed for the journey. Although Sunrise Medical donated a brand new custom-built wheelchair, Aghabi still desperately needs to raise $9,000 to rent an RV and pay for the vehicle’s fuel. The RV would allow Aghabi’s small support staff and documentary crew to travel alongside him. It would also provide a place for him and his entourage of about five people to sleep and prepare affordable meals throughout the trip.
“The RV relieves me from having to find [and pay for] 70 nights of hotels and dining for at least five people,” he explains.
Aghabi is planning a fundraiser on March 15 in California, but anyone who wishes to donate can do so by clicking here or visiting his Web site rollwithme.org.
“I always knew I was going to do something in life that was extraordinary,” he says. “Being in a wheelchair was not going to be the thing that set me apart … but I knew that it would be the vehicle I was going to use.”
Source : Northridge.patch.com ( 10th feb 2013)
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