VALHALLA, N.Y. (PIX 11) — An Orange County man who faced daunting odds of never walking again has defied expectations and is not only back on his feet but thriving in his newfound mobility.
Michael Dennedy reunited with the medical team that helped him through his recovery journey at Westchester Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon. Dennedy’s life was devastated last Christmas after suffering a life-altering fall, when he fell from a ladder while adjusting lights on his roof.
“I actually slipped and was about to fall off my roof and I decided to jump, landed on the ground,” said Dennedy. “It was totally frozen and from that point on I couldn’t move.”
The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down with doctors giving him a mere three percent chance of ever walking again. Dennedy, however, stayed resilient and determined to regain his mobility.
“They say there is a very, very high probability that you’re going to be walking assisted and you might feel depressed, you might want to have suicidal thoughts,” Dennedy said. “This is something that you can kind of have a little more control over so that’s what I kept focusing on.”
He says he was airlifted to Westchester Medical Center after the fall where he underwent a six-hour spinal surgery. He then spent months going through grueling physical therapy in hopes of one day walking again.
“It’s basically the second most severe type of injury you can have,” said Dr. John Wainwright of Westchester Medical Center. “He did miraculously compared to the vast majority of spinal cord injury patients.”
Dennedy said he left the hospital in January and by April, he was able to walk long distances. He strolled around the hospital Wednesday while talking to staff, stronger both physically and mentally.
“You have to train yourself again to do things and I would say there were times I felt a little down, but at the same time there was just this internally growth mindset and drive to just keep pushing," Dennedy said.
He tells PIX 11 he’s grateful to have survived his fall and for the chance to walk another day.
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