Thanks for reading My Brother’s Keeper! I’ve done a lot of research on spinal cord injuries and quadriplegia over the past four years I’ve been working on this story. It’s always been important to me to get as much correct as I can – not just the facts, but the feelings as well. In addition to medical websites, I have learned from real people who sustained similar injuries to Kevin and have shared their experiences on YouTube, podcasts, blogs, and books. The personal details they’ve provided make all the difference in adding that human touch to my writing, so I want to give credit where credit is due. Thank you to the following people and sources for their willingness to share and educate. Click on their names to visit their websites or channels.
Jordan Bone
Jordan’s YouTube channel is the first one I came across when I started researching for this story four years ago. I also read her memoir, My Beautiful Struggle, which was helpful in detailing the personal experience of sustaining a life-changing spinal cord injury in a car accident.
Arash Bayatmakou
I read both Arash’s blog and book, Little Big Steps, about his recovery from a spinal cord injury. Although his circumstances were different from Kevin’s, it was helpful to get the perspective of an athletic and outdoorsy young man who, like Kevin, led an active live prior to his injury.
Christopher Sotelo
Christopher has a series of video blogs called “The Vent,” in which he talks about his experiences as a spinal cord injury survivor, from his initial hospitalization to rehabilitation to dating as a quadriplegic. He is a charismatic storyteller, and his videos are entertaining and surprisingly funny. I’ve borrowed some ideas from them, like Kevin’s hallucinations and hatred of the “Shamu swing.”
Roll With Cole and Charisma
Cole and Charisma are an inter-abled married couple. Their cute, entertaining, and well-made videos show what it’s like to live as or with a quadriplegic.
Mason Ellis
Mason has the most educational YouTube channel I’ve come across in my research. In his videos, he demonstrates daily life skills and adaptive equipment for quadriplegics.
The Quad Podcast
When I went searching for podcasts about spinal cord injuries, this was the first one I started listening to and is still my favorite. The host, Bob Ness, has been a quadriplegic for over thirty years and is full of experience and advice. I’ve learned a lot from listening to his conversations with fellow quads.
Life of a Quadriplegic
In this podcast, Austin Charters shares his experiences from sustaining a spinal cord injury as a child to living with quadriplegia as an adult.
Rachelle Friedman Chapman
Rachelle is both a quadriplegic and a mom. I followed her channel for her videos about parenting a young child from a wheelchair.
Chris Norton
Chris is the subject of the Netflix documentary 7 Yards, which tells the story of his rehabilitation from a spinal cord injury he sustained in college and his quest to walk his wife down the aisle at their wedding. He also wrote a book, The Seven Longest Yards.
You may recognize some of these names as characters Kevin has encountered in the hospital or rehab center. I’ve been naming characters after people who inspire or motivate me for many years. Once again, I’m grateful to these individuals for their openness and grateful to you, the readers, for following this story and giving feedback. Thank you!
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