DALLAS — Kiel Eigen was a highly competitive athlete when he was 13 years old.
At 14, he sustained a football injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Today, the 24-year-old has completed a list of accomplishments that include graduating from high school with honors and earning a Bachelors of Arts degree from King’s College.
The Old Forge native will share his inspirational story of relearning how to live with a disability at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 22 in the Lemmond Theater in Walsh Hall at Misericordia University.
The free event is hosted by the Misericordia University Interprofessional Education Connection.
A spokesperson with Quantum Rehab, a division of Pride Mobility Products, Eigen has traveled the country telling his story of turning a tragedy into triumph.
Eigen was an eighth-grade football player when a face-to-face collision with a player from the opposing team permanently injured his C5/C6 vertebrae in his neck.
The teen was air lifted to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia where physicians “fused his C4, C5 and C6 vertebrae together,” according to the news release.
After spending 13 days in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, he was transferred to Allied Service’s inpatient facility in Scranton for 47 days of continued physical rehabilitation.
He had to relearn daily tasks such as brushing his teeth and using utensils. He learned to walk with the support of leg braces and a walker, which enabled him to walk across the Old Forge Area High School stage to accept his diploma.
Eigen’s unbrandish determination has opened many doors for the young man, including receiving the Patricia Foy Memorial Award for Courage and hosting an hour-long webinar named “Living with Spinal Cord Injury,” according to the news release.
He is also a member of the Lackawanna County Disability Action Committee.
