Inspiration Showcase: Guest Mark Wright shares his incredible life and journey. Joining Mark is occupational therapist Sonja Gosser who was an integral part of his rehabilitation team perspectives on assistive technology that Mark uses.

Episode Two Transcript
Transcribed by: Cameron Scott

VR Workforce Studio: inspiration, education, and affirmation at work.

Welcome to the VR Workforce Studio!  I’m Rick Sizemore, your host. And this is Episode Number Two.  We are delighted you’ve joined us!  We have an amazing story in our Inspiration Showcase today with Mark Wright.  We first met Mark in Episode Number One when we started talking about his incredible life and journey.  He is on deck with occupational therapist Sonja Gosser who was an integral part of his rehabilitation team and here to give us the professional’s perspective on some of the assistive technology that Mark uses.  Truly, these devices are leveling the playing field for individual with disabilities so they can work and lead more fulfilling lives. Up next, Mark Wright and the road back to the trucking business.

Mark Wright owns and operates a successful trucking business in Central Virginia.  Mark, welcome to the podcast! Let’s start at the beginning with you and the early days as a truck driver.

WRIGHT: I had my own business with the post office contract ever since 1996. And I drove a truck for another contractor and I was asked to manage his contract which was 15 people. So, I stayed pretty busy.  And I just love the trucking business.  So, even though, I worked a lot of hours, it didn’t seem like it because that was what I was made to do.

You were physically active during the early days, right?

WRIGHT: I love outdoor sports. So, I was snowboarding, whitewater rafting, zip-lining…

MAN IN BACKGROUND: [You actually were a personal trainer too, weren’t you?]

WRIGHT: Yeah, and a personal trainer for the ‘Y’.

So, what happened?

WRIGHT: I was working at the ‘Y’.  And my heart just stopped. And so, they revived me.  And when I went to the hospital, they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me.  And they were saying my heart was like a 16-year-old’s heart, and they put me through all this stress.  And so, for insurance they put in a pacemaker. And a year later, I got up to use the restroom.  And on the way back from the bathroom, the defibrillator went off, and I hit the ground.  Well, the floor which was a hard-wood floor, and broke my neck.  So, I lived by myself.  So, I stayed there for nine hours before someone found me.  And, from there, I was phoned to Charlottesville.

Mark, what went through your mind during those nine hours, which must have seemed like an eternity, as you waited for someone to come and help you after the accident?

WRIGHT: You know, my dad, which he has passed now.  He died when I was eight years old.  But, I was riding a bike and trying to do tricks, and I fell off of the bike and hurt one of my arms.  So, my dad was outside with my other brothers.  I’m the youngest of seven.  And he was like saying “Mark, come over here and help move this wood.â€Â  And I said, “Dad, my arm is hurting.â€Â  And he said, “Well, that’s why the Lord gave you two arms so, in case, one gives out!†So, taking that and laying there for nine hours, you know, he came to me and he was saying, “Even though you don’t have your hands or your legs, you’ve got the most powerful organ in your body, your brain!â€Â  So, that still works.  So, instead of moving things with my hands, I had to move things with my mouth.  So, I use my “brain†to get things done.

So did the road back to the trucking business begin in the hospital?

WRIGHT: I had a spinal cord doctor named Dr. Stillmack [?], and he kept telling me about Woodrow Wilson.  And when I came to Woodrow Wilson, I ran my chair by sip and puff.  When I left Woodrow Wilson, I was driving my chair with my joy stick.  So, that was an amazi