Why my wheelchair is not my purgatory

I awoke this morning to an MSNBC article about the efforts of one man to walk again after acquiring a spinal cord injury.

The article began with the words "It was only a chair, but it became his purgatory".

Make no mistake about this: I applaud the efforts and hard work of the individual in question. That's not at issue here, of course.

But to write an article saying that this man could have no life until he walked again is inaccurate. To write that a wheelchair is someone's purgatory (not a quote from the interviewed person) needs to be addressed. Why?

Because more damage is done to the perception of disability over bowls of Cheerio due to media coverage than anywhere else. Not only that, but this article ignores several facts that are well known in the spinal cord community.

There are scams out there for healing/cures. Read the message boards and see. (Not everyone gets into reputable treatment programs.) The problem is that believing that life is over after a spinal cord injury can drive people to do irresponsible things medically. Not all treatments are regulated, especially overseas. And not everyone can benefit from what's out there. The editor's note for this article reads:
Editor's note: Paralysis after a spinal cord injury brings wrenching decisions: Do you accept it as permanent and adapt, or do you refuse to resign yourself? It's not black and white, although some may feel more comfortable thinking about spinal cord injury that way - if you ain't walking, you ain't tried hard enough. C'mon. I wish reporters would read some medical stuff, because each spinal cord injury is unique. So what works for one person may not work for another and treatment varies. And there are many people who have worked as hard as this guy did and still are not walking.

I'd like to address another myth in this article: not all people with disabilities are miserable like this guy was.

The chair stood for all that was lost: A promising career, a vigorous life spent fishing the lakes of North Carolina, future plans conjured when things were perfect — plans that seemed impossible now.

Okay let's explore this. I know people in wheelchairs who fish on lakes. I've played tennis from a wheelchair, work and consider my life productive and meaningful. From a wheelchair. There's a whole world of people in wheelchairs out there who are living their life. It's ridiculous to present living with a spinal cord injury as a death sentence in this day and age.

I want to present the other side of this, because the article is just so full of inaccuracies. I don't know if it's because the reporter just interviewed this one man and knows nothing else about people with spinal cord injuries, or if the reporter really believes this life is over if you can't walk nonsense. I respect that some people feel that way, but it is dysfunctional to refuse to adapt and stay in bed, for example.

Apparently, it's a series of articles, so more to come. Hold onto your bowl of cheerios- and read a blog written by a person with a spinal cord injury instead of a mainstream news article written by a reporter without any perspective on the subject - except one person's- and writes as if he speaks for all of us.

Purgatory. For goodness' sake.

Again- nothing to take away from the efforts of this guy who managed to walk again or the people who helped him. But many of the assumptions that run rampant through this piece are wrong.