Editor’s Note: In 1993, Anthony Orefice struck a telephone pole while drinking and driving on his friend’s motorcycle. Lucky to be alive, the 19-year-old suffered a T4, T5, and T6 spinal cord injury. After six months in the hospital, he returned to his residence in Southern California and began his new life as a wheelchair […]

Editor’s Note: At the age of 21, Luis Amaro was shot at several times while fending off two men who were attempting to rape his sister. One of the bullets hit his spinal cord injuring the T10 and T11 vertebrae. His sister was safe, but Amaro would spend the next few months at Jackson Memorial […]

Editor’s Note:  Ralph’s Riders was launched over 10 years ago by Mayra Fornos in the memory of her late husband, Ralph, who sustained a spinal cord injury while surfing. The foundation has been dedicated to helping people with mobility impairments lead independent, healthy lives ever since. Wheel:Life writer Betsy Bailey talked with the president of […]

Editor’s Note:  Emigrating from Cuba to Southern California, the Fornos & Reyes families spent many a weekend together at the Cuban community center in Culver City. After high school, Ralph Fornos and Mayra Reyes, who had become close friends during childhood, fell out of touch until they crossed paths again at a party during their […]

Editor’s Note:  When Franklin Elieh and Nick Struthers, both living with spinal cord injury, met while doing volunteer peer support work at a hospital in northern California, they discovered there was a major gap in service for newly discharged SCI patients. Panic and anxiety was a common reaction when families realized they would soon be […]