Client Bios

In 2009 Jillian was hanging out with a few friends in a parking lot when one of her friends got behind the wheel while intoxicated and ran into her. The accident broke her C1 vertebrae, her hips, pelvis, femur, knee, and ankle, among many other bones. She was taken to The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey for 1 month, transferred to the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation for 2 months, and then to the Southern Ocean County Hospital for one month. She considers herself lucky to be alive after such as severe accident.

She is currently taking online classes at Ocean County College but she is excited to get back on campus as soon as she can. Before her accident, Jillian wanted to become a police officer or a nurse. Since both jobs require her to do physical activities she has to figure out something else that she wants to do, so she is an undeclared major for now.

At Push to Walk, Jillian works on stretching, balancing, and moving her weaker muscles. She uses the treadmill and does squats, lunges, and deadlifts. She likes that at Push to Walk she can work one-on-one with the trainers and that they have shown her that she has more movement than she thought she had. In addition to coming to Push to Walk, Jillian goes to another gym 4-5 times a week. She considers exercise to be very important and thinks that it should be a top priority for all people with spinal cord injuries to keep their bodies healthy and strong.

Jillian likes to stay active by playing tennis and playing catch with her dad. She has been playing softball since she was 8 years old, so even though she cannot play the game she likes to continue to catch and throw a ball whenever she can. Playing tennis is a little challenging because the person she plays with needs to hit the ball directly to her, but she doesn’t let the fact that she needs to do things differently stop her from doing anything.

While she faces challenges on a daily basis, she likes to use this quote to remind her what life is about:

“Challenges make life interesting, however, overcoming them is what makes life meaningful” –Mark Twain