Transcription:
Life After Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation

Prakash Chandran: Welcome to Picking Our Brain with Shepherd Center. I'm Prakash Chandran. Today, we'll be joined by Ben Trockman, a former patient of the Spinal Cord Injury Program at Shepherd Center. And we'll get to know more about what he went through, his recovery and what he's doing now. Ben, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate your time. Why don't we get started by you telling us a little bit about yourself.

Ben Trockman: Pleased to be with you today. So currently, I serve as a diversity and inclusion specialist for Old National Bank headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, where I currently reside. I'm also an elected city council member for the city of Evansville. So by day, a banker and by night, a city councilman.

Prakash Chandran: Wow. A city councilman. How exactly did you decide to take that route?

Ben Trockman: You know, Prakash. I really enjoy my career in banking where I work on disability inclusion issues. In fact, it's very fulfilling and I get to help individuals with disabilities find careers and become more empowered. But something I've always been interested in as local governments and finding ways to help build our community better and stronger. And so it just made a lot of sense to me when the opportunity opened up to become and run for city council. And to just to elaborate a little more, I am a very competitive person. And so I played baseball and other different types of sports before my injury. And so getting into politics and government, running a campaign, it all adds up to competition. So not only can I give back to my community but I can also play politics, which is very competitive and a lot of fun.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, I can definitely imagine that. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to maybe talk a little bit about your injury. You know, you were 17 when you became injured and entered into the spinal cord injury program. Maybe talk to us a little bit about what caused your injury and what your injury was specifically.

Ben Trockman: Sure. Going back to competition, my family and I were very much into dirt bikes and motocross, and we loved high speeds and getting out in the woods and having a good time. And so that's what happened with my injury. It was just one fateful day, I suppose, that I was involved in an accident. Just something a little crazy happened, and I suffered a C1-C2, vertebrae accident, stopped breathing at the time. My dad did CPR for about half an hour before Lifeline could arrive. And I've learned life and how to live life as a quadraplegic ever since. And it sure is challenging, and it's sure is frustrating. But we still have the opportunity at a great life and have had support from family and friends. And so, you know, even having a high level injury, still able to succeed and find different ways to contribute and compete just like I did in motocross and baseball still to this day.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, that is absolutely amazing. And I can tell you that your attitude is a really big reason around why that is. You know, I'd love to learn a little bit more about what the rehabilitation process was like for you. Is that something you could talk us through?

Ben Trockman: Rehab, the rehabilitation process is 100% one of the most important things that you can do after your injury. You know, there's times that you can feel down and feel low. But you've got to get back in the game and you got to take care of your body. You know, in the world right now, we talk about mental health. It's such a big issue and you have to treat mental health issues as well. Your body is no different, especially after a spinal cord injury. And what I would say is that, you know, my injury happened when I was 17, you know, very early on in life, I suppose. But if you want to be healthy and continue to participate in life, have a career, have a successful life, have kids, you know, whatever it might be, that journey through therapy and through rehab is so important. I learned a lot of great things at Shepherd and I visited other therapy clinics as well, where therapy has been so incredibly important.

I'll tell you the one thing that I think is one of the most important things that I accomplished in my time at Shepherd's Center. After my injury, I had a lot of anxiety. I had a lot of insecurity about myself. And my physical and occupational therapists kept pushing me. I mean, I was at the point where I didn't even want to get out of bed, because I was just a little too anxious and a little too scared and I didn't want to change. And my physical therapist and occupational therapist, I can still remember it like it was yesterday, they busted my chops until I got out of that bed and made it down the hallway and made it into therapy. And it's the same for anyone getting into rehab. It's a slow start. You know, you might, you know, start with a little movement, might start with a little progress. But step-by-step, day-by-day, one action at a time, you can make a difference. And it's so important. Because if I was still in that bed, I wouldn't be talking to you today. I wouldn't be sharing about my career at Old National or city councilman or anything. But so important to take care of yourself and to focus on your health. And so that was something that was instilled to me at Shepherd, is taking those little steps one at a time. You may not see the great results right away, but they sure are important.

Prakash Chandran: Absolutely. You know, just imagining what you were going through in the very beginning, it's completely understandable to not want to get out of bed. But it sounds like the people there at Shepherd, specifically your physical and occupational therapists, really were instrumental in helping you take those initial steps forward and on the road to rehabilitation.

Ben Trockman: One-hundred percent. It's all about attitude. It's all about determination and spirit and that spirit at Shepherd, that spirit that they instilled in me and my family and my friends, that confidence that it was going to be okay as long as we took that next step, that was incredibly important in my journey to recovery and my journey to really getting back to who I always was. I lost myself there for a little while, just because of some anxiety, because of, you know, uncertainty. Having that positive spirit and that positive environment at the Shepherd Center, I couldn't be without it.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah. Do you remember any resources specific to the spinal cord injury program that you could share with our audience that, you know, felt like led to the most progress in your rehabilitation?

Ben Trockman: So I think one of the most important pieces and something that probably newly injured people and their families don't understand is how important it is to learn what life is like with a spinal cord injury, the adjustments that you have to make, the new things you have know about how your body will react and the support that you need. And there were classes and trainings for family members and for the individual like me that Shepherd offered that I guarantee you that I would not be happy and healthy and able to live my life today without. They equipped, Shepherd equipped my family with really great knowledge and resources to allow me and us to come back home and to live healthfully. And I really think that is something that is probably not talked about enough when it comes to thinking about adapting to your new life. You know, you want to get new services, you want to get back to therapy, you want to get stronger. But the first thing is first and that is getting comfortable with who you are and knowing how to take care of yourself with a new injury. And again, that was invaluable resource that Shepherd provided, and I know that my family and myself wouldn't be here today without it.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, that's amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that. You know, I see here that you've created a program called Achieve Ability. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that is and why you decided to start it?

Ben Trockman: Heck yeah. Thank you for asking. So in my career at Old National, I helped empower and connect individuals with disabilities with leaders at Old National for a 10-month long mentoring relation ship. That's the idea of the program, is that I recruit individuals with disabilities, folks like myself years ago with different injuries, whether it's spinal cord injury or autism or deafness or blind or whatever it might be, cerebral palsy. And I connect them with a mentor at Old National, a leader, for 10 months where they create a friendship, a bond, a relationship with the hopes that we will empower, we being the Old National leader, will empower that young person to become better connected in their life to become better, to have more confidence in themselves.

What I know is That individuals with disabilities are like anyone else in their career and they want to be successful, and they want to be connected. But what we also know is that individuals with disabilities are severely underemployed because of stigmas, because of the uncertainty of how are we going to hire this person or how are we going to support this person. And so the mentorship connects our leaders at Old National, within our financial institutions, with mostly college age individuals to create relationships to knock down those barriers in people's minds, to get young people connected with mentors that can help them, again, better empower themselves and become connected with our business or to become connected with a non-for-profit or other businesses in the communities that Old National serves. So the program has been incredible. We've had over a hundred participants in the last five, six years. And we're learning how to become more inclusive at Old National Bank, one day, one person, one relationship at a time.

Prakash Chandran: That just sounds amazing. And one thing that I just note is your attitude and enthusiasm and joy for the life that you have and the life that you lead now. And there's an element of confidence that you speak with that is just very impressive given everything that you've been through. You know, others are going to be listening to this that might be at the beginning of their rehabilitation journey, they kind of have these new spinal cord injuries. If there's one piece of advice that you could share with them, one thing that you could leave them with, what do you think that might be?

Ben Trockman: My advice to someone or family members, an individual that has just suffered a spinal cord injury is to quite simply take one day at a time. It was written on my whiteboard in my room at Shepherd, room 311. I don't know if it's still there or not. I haven't back in a while. But what we all need to know is that all we can control is our attitude and our spirit and our thoughts. But you can't change what's going to happen yesterday and you can't change what's going to happen tomorrow. If you focus on one action, one thing, one day at a time and try and keep it positive, you can make great progress.

Prakash Chandran: Well, I think that is advice that we can all learn from. And, you know, just before we close here today, you know, Let's say that someone is listening to this and they are a friend or a family member that has a loved one or relative that has recently suffered a spinal cord injury, how can they be supportive?

Ben Trockman: Be there. I think being present is so important. I can tell you that the brightest moments that I had within the couple of months after my injury were the letters that I received that I could hang on my wall, were the text messages, were the comments on my website that were left. Of course, when my injury happened, Facebook wasn't around. So Facebook's a little bit easier these days to use, but just letting people know that you're thinking about them and that you're following their story. You know, send a present. Man. I have an obsession with Cheetos and white grape juice after my injury. Not sure where that came from, but man, I got so many boxes and bags of Cheetos and white great juice. It was pretty amazing. ,And you know, just to know that people are following you, that are caring about you, that are rooting for you, that's the best that anybody can ask for and wish for. And so that's what I would suggest, is just be present and be engaged.

Prakash Chandran: I love it, Ben. Well, any final thoughts that you'd like to share before we close here today?

Ben Trockman: None at all. It's been a pleasure to be with you.

Prakash Chandran: Thank you so much for your time, Ben. That's Ben Trockman, a former patient of the Spinal Cord Injury Program at Shepherd Center. For more information about Shepherd Center, please visit shepherd.org. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you.

This is Picking Our Brain with Shepherd Center. My name is Prakash Chandran. Thank you so much, and we'll talk next time.