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Sips For Soldiers for Operation Backbone
EAT, DRINK AND BE GIVING!
You are cordially invited to attend the 1st annual
Benefiting
OPERATION BACKBONE
Join the mission, Lets support the ones who support us, 24/7- 365, by raising money for Operation Backbone.
The W Hotel
A night of music and dancing with DJ Flip!
Silent Auction
Cocktail Attire
PLEASE DONATE AT
Backbone Special guest active Duty Spec OPs ARMY soldier, in the Backbone pipeline:
In 2009 I was deployed to Afghanistan. In December that year I was injured on a dirt bike during a mission
-After surgery I was in a wheelchair for four months. While I was in the hospital, I noticed that I started having numbness, pain and tingling sensations in both my arms. I also noticed that I started developing atrophy in my left tricep and it was significantly smaller than my right arm
- In 2012 after returning from Afghanistan, I was sent Jumpmaster School. During the last week of the school, during one of my jumps, I landed on the Tarmac. When I hit the runway, I felt an unbelievable pain shoot down my arms and my back. My arms went completely numb. I knew I had reinjured something.
- I had four compressed vertebra in my neck and wedge compression fracture in my lower back. I also had a halo (bruise) around my spinal cord. My Neurosurgeon told me that the halo around my spinal cord showed that the injury was several years old.
- I still had issues with numbness and the atrophy and excruciating neck and back pain and I could not sleep more than short naps at a time. My wife was in tears at times seeing me in the pain that I was in and she not being able to bring comfort to me.
- Finally in March 2015 I contacted my SOCOM, I was told me about a program called Operation Backbone founded by a former Navy Serviceman Mike SFormo and he would contact him for me. It wasn’t a day later the Mike contacted me and told me about his program.
- I was flown up to Buffalo where they did detailed X-rays and MRI’s on me. I meet that weekend the Neurosurgeon and he did a consultation with me that day. I was told that I had a crushed spinal cord above the location where the previous surgery was conducted and below I had a bone fragment that was actually in my spinal cord. The doctor told me that injuries that he had seen similar to this that I should be paralyzed from the neck down or be dead. He figured the only way I was still walking was from me being in good physical shape. Soon after they performed the surgery on my neck which was a huge success and I am now currently back doing physical therapy hoping to soon return back to my unit.
- I was broken and all I wanted was to be fixed and return back to serve alongside of my brothers. I believe that if they had taken the time to listen in the beginning, all of this could have been avoided. Guys like me want get fixed and return back to their families and units, and continue serving along their brothers to fight and protect this wonderful country we live in.
- I am thankful for Operation Backbone. It has restored hope in me again that there is an Organization out there with people who care. There are days that I find that this is a surreal feel to me. I wonder if this is really happening. Because of how long this struggle was for me and how it kept dragging, I started to accept that I would be no good to the society. Now, I am a much happier soldier, husband and a dad, knowing that there is an organization that is out there that cares for soldiers and want to help them find peace and a quality of life.
Thank you Mike! you saved my life. Thank you Backbone!!
FAQs
How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
Lorenda Wyant 214-704-0661
