Ceylin Arias/Staff Writer
Shane Mosko, a Worlds Ahead graduate, walked graduation without his wheelchair after a car accident left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Graduating with a double major in marketing and international business, Mosko used an exoskeleton, something he called as “perseverance,” to walk up the stage on Sunday, Dec. 17.
“I did it a lot for myself, to prove that I can do it, and also for my parents who I’ve put through hell and also for those who can’t,” Mosko said. “To show others that I am going to be fine, I am going to make it in life. It was the biggest accomplishment I have achieved thus far.”
The accident happened on Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012, when Mosko was only 20 years old. He wasn’t sure he would ever walk again.
That night, Mosko went drinking and bar-hopping with friends in Connecticut. They were “pretty drunk,” when they returned to his friends house, he said.
“[My friend] told me to stay at his house, don’t drive home. I told him ‘bro, my house is only a mile away, I’m good, I want to sleep in my own bed,’” said Mosko.
Mosko doesn’t remember much of the accident itself, but does remember his friend handing him his car keys and telling him to text him when he got home. He also recalls speeding and running through a stop sign, the roads empty at 3 a.m.
He ended up down the hill ‘bottoming-out,’ came up the hill, ended up on the wrong side of the road and woke up to discover he had lost consciousness in his bottom half, according to Mosko.
Not wearing his seat belt saved his life, he said. His new car, then only 6 days old, had caught on fire and burned out while he had been ejected from his car to an embankment 6 feet or so deep.
“Had I been wearing a seatbelt and not been ejected from the car, the lady who called the police would not have seen the flames…everything worked out the way it needed to be in order for me to make it out alive,” said Mosko.
After waking up from an induced coma 30 days later in a hospital bed Mosko recalls his mom asking him if he remembered what had happened. He didn’t.
As his mother explained the car accident, Mosko said he couldn’t come to terms with the fact he was now paralyzed from the waist down.
“Initially, I was shocked, but it didn’t take long to come at grips with what had happened because at the end of the day I was drunk-driving. I did it to myself so I had to be the one to blame,” Mosko said. “Once I became conscious, off the [medical] drugs, I told myself from day one these are the consequences of an adult situation you got yourself into. Blowing over the negative and being upset isn’t going to get you out of this.”
He then vowed to turn his life around, achieve what he put his mind to, get out and start working hard for it.
Two months after coming out from his induced coma Mosko attended rehab for his spinal injuries and learned how to bathe himself and how to change his clothes, things that used to be standard for him.
“It was initially pretty hard, this whole new life; going to the hospital, it showed me what I had versus what I didn’t have. The fact that I still have full use of my face, my smile, my hands, my fingers, my brain, I was still Shane, I was still the person I was before,” he said. “It showed me to take away the positives of what I have because going on to my legs and spinal injuries is only going to put me in a dark place and is not going to help me.”
Post-injury, Mosko decided to go back to school in Connecticut, where he was living at the time, and engage in the usual sport activities he had done prior to his accident such as skiing.
About 8-months post-injury he also attended a required class– 15 consecutive Saturdays– for a DUI charge.
Eventually, however, he decided to return back to his home state of Florida to attend FIU during the Spring 2015 semester to finish his degree.
Despite being paralyzed, Mosko said he never lost hope of walking again.
“Two weeks into my rehab I got to see somebody who was 4-years post-injury walking with an exoskeleton. Immediately I had this mental switch in my head that ‘alright, I’m going to be ok, I’m going to be able to walk. I’m going to be able to work on my recovery not being confined to a wheelchair.’ That really changed my whole attitude,” said Mosko.
With a new drive to achieve this goal Mosko began to use the exoskeleton device 6-months post-injury.
The exoskeleton, he said, provided him both mental and physical strength he wouldn’t have without it.
Throughout his entire recovery Mosko said he learned the willingness to fight and to not listen to others about what he can and cannot do.
He had a “complete level” spinal injury, he said, which meant he couldn’t move or use anything lower than his waist.
“My doctor told me ‘I’m not going to tell you that you’re not going to be able to walk again but I’m not going to tell you that you are,’” he said.
But, as time went on, Mosko started to feel in his legs again, and then, they started to function.
“That right there gave me so much hope but even for somebody who doesn’t have that function lower than their waist or is paralyzed from their chest down, don’t ever give up, never lose hope,” he said.
And with the way science and technology are constantly working together and accelerating in development, Mosko is hopeful he will be cured of his spinal cord injury in at least ten years or at some point in his lifetime.
“It is important to be as mentally sound and physically healthy as possible to qualify as a possible candidate for studies that may take in the future,” Mosko said.
After receiving the Worlds Ahead distinction, which Mosko said shows “how far I’ve come and the potential I have,” he’s also grateful for his advisor—Ira Turner— who Mosko says he would never have been able to get through his academic career if it weren’t for Turner.
Since his accident, Mosko also attributes his willingness to fight on his faith in God.
“When you get awarded a distinction like this it is like two split roads. You can either fall in depression and not go anywhere in life or you can excel, take on this challenge and make something out of it,” said Mosko.
His future plans include potentially working full-time for Ekso Bonics, the same company who provided his exoskeleton for graduation, but is mostly keeping his options open as of right now. He also hopes to open a foundation in the near future for people going through similar experiences as himself.
Featured image courtesy of Shane Mosko.
About Post Author
