Kennedy Krieger Institute's pediatric patient's share their stories of recovery, perseverance and gratitude. We're honored to share the inspiring story of Chris, Howard. His story represents more than 24,000 patients and families from all over the U.S. and the world whom we serve each year. Our goal is to transform these individual's lives through compassionate, innovative patient care, treatment, education and community support.
Meet Chris, a patient and mentor at Kennedy Krieger with a spinal cord injury. Chris obtained his injury in a head-to-head football collision at the age of 16. When Chris was first injured, he was paralyzed from the neck down. Since coming to Kennedy Krieger in 2009, Chris gained the strength to take his first step, and continues to see movement everyday. With the help of a robotic gate trainer, Chris is taking strides to re-learn a stepping pattern. While Chris continues to come back for therapy, he has become a mentor for younger spinal cord injury patients, and reminds them daily to never lose hope. Chris is getting stronger everyday, and for him, that makes recovery less difficult.
With more than 20 locations located in Maryland, the non-profit Kennedy Krieger Institute has been providing specialized research, education and healthcare services to children and families for more than 80 years.