LI FE O N WHE E LS
BROKEN BODY, AMBITIOUS MIND Written by: ROSA WALSTON LATIMER
“When I was sitting in jail in subzero temperatures in Northern China at 17 years old, I could have never fathomed I would be laying in a hospital bed in the ICU back in China almost 15 years later… .” This paragraph, the beginning of the “About Me” page on Ali Ingersoll’s website (http://quirkyquad.com/), begs for more of her story, which the 38-year-old C6 quadriplegic openly shares. In her “Quirky Quad Diaries,” also on her website, Ingersoll takes an uninhibited approach Ali Ingersoll in the garden outside her community in North Carolina. to share the good and bad experiences of her life in a wheelchair. “I intend to share all aspects of life as a quadriplegic with you as well as the crazy exploits of my life before I broke my neck,” she said. “I usually approach life with a dark sense of humor and make the most out of every situation whether that be intensely terrifying or insanely comical.” Ingersoll‘s life before her spinal cord injury was, by any measure, adventurous and exciting. Highlights included trips into the Amazon rainforest with her family and hiking in the Australian Outback with “nothing but a map and a compass.” She fondly remembers spending Christmas with her family camping on “remote deserted islands in the Bahamas and spearfishing for dinner.” Her father’s work took the family all over the world, exposing a young Ingersoll to many different cultures. “After high school I moved to China to live on my own,” she said. “That may have not been the smartest decision, but I was a teenager. I learned Chinese, taught English, started kickboxing and worked for a Chinese newspaper as a food taster.” And, by the way, the “jail time” in China when Ingersoll was 17 years old stemmed from failure by her traveling companion to ensure they had proper identification documents. After attending university in the U.S., majoring in entrepreneurship, Ingersoll returned to China for a time and wrote business plans for pharmaceutical companies. Returning to the United States, she worked with a nonprofit political organization that focused on helping undeserved community kids have an opportunity to interact with politicians. “In 2010, I was 27 years old and living at our family home in the Bahamas where I was embarking on a new life adventure to become a financial day trader,” Ingersoll said. “I had no idea the next
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adventure in life would leave me paralyzed from the chest down with a broken neck from a shallow water dive.” Ingersoll also had no idea how the numerous wilderness survival trips she enjoyed during her teens and mid-20s would prepare her for what she calls “the hardest journey” of her life – living life as a quadriplegic with paralysis from the chest down. “After my accident, my father told me I had broken my body, but not my brain, and he encouraged me to get to work as soon as possible,” Ingersoll said. “Even in the ICU and during my intensive rehab program, I continued my work as a day trader.” For the next six years, Ingersoll seemed to experience any medical complication that could possibly happen. “I experienced cervical cancer, pulmonary embolisms and pressure sores that kept me in bed for months.” The most serious setback was a severe spinal cyst that required surgery not available in the U.S. “When I was 29, we discovered a massive cyst on my spinal cord that was ascending upward and starting to kill me.” My dad did a tremendous amount of research, and learned the surgery and subsequent rehab were available in China. So, once again, I went to China!” Ingersoll describes the 2 ½ - 3 years following her surgery as “a lonely existence but a stable existence.” Her parents stayed with her in China, and her two older brothers and an older sister made regular visits. “That situation was not sustainable, and I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, to be nearer to my family.”
Ali Ingersoll with her mom, Ursula, on an accessible boat hosted by Shake a Leg Miami Sailing School.
