Better Thinking #89 — Joel Sardi on Life After a Spinal Cord Injury

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Joel Sardi about regaining the quality of life after spinal cord injury. Joel Sardi had a fall and broke his C2 & C5, T3, T4 AND T5 vertebrae, also breaking his sternum on the 31st of August 2014. The injury caused irreparable spinal cord damage. He underwent a 6 hour surgery after the accident where the surgeons were able to stabilise his neck fractures and prevent any further spinal cord damage by inserting a titanium cage and fusing C4 to C6. Joel is classified as a “C-5'“ Quadriplegic. The injury that night left Joel a C5 quadriplegic, meaning that there are still some messages getting through the spinal cord and the extent of his recovery is unknown. Joel is paralysed from the shoulders down, has no movement in his legs and his upper body can only activate his biceps, forearms and wrists. With the injury originally occurring in Adelaide where Joel was working, he was brought to the Royal Adelaide Hospital where he stayed for 10 days, before being airlifted to Melbourne's Austin Hospital. He spent the next 12 months at The Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Hospital where he underwent extensive rehab sessions to further improve his skills and learn to adjust to life as a quadriplegic before moving home in August 2015.

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