CHARLOTTE — Alex Martinez’s resilience and drive is nothing short of remarkable.
“I just try to do as much stuff on my own,” he told Channel 9’s Elsa Gillis. “If I could do it, then great. If not, I’ve got to work on it.”
The 18-year-old suffered a permanent cervical spinal cord injury four years ago in an accident at wrestling camp. He spent the months that followed at Levine Children’s Hospital and still comes back for weekly appointments.
“It was a whole lot of ups and downs,” he said.
But Alex has worked hard to regain independence, from putting on a shirt to holding a pencil, and never skipped a beat in school. In the fall, he’ll be heading to Clemson — the first in his family to graduate from high school and attend college. He says he’ll study engineering, which to patient advocate Mike Daly, is no surprise.
Together, they designed an adaptive showerhead with the hospital’s 3D printer.
“He came up with ideas, and I would come back and draw and take back what I did or we’d print a sample up, and he sent me back with notes,” Daly said.
Martinez says it’s about what he can do for himself and how he can improve. He credits wrestling, in part, with how far he’s come and plans to go.
“For me, wrestling has always helped me in ways that I thought it never would, say, a disciplined mindset and then just having the drive of not giving up,” he said.
Daly says they’re now working with the rehab team to create more adaptive devices for kids, depending on their needs.
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