If you go
› What: 13th annual Siskin Possibilities Luncheon.› When: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, March 22.› Where: Chattanooga Convention Center, 1150 Carter St.› Admission: $75.› Phone: 423-634-1208.› Website: www.siskinrehab.org.
Siskin Hospital’s 13th annual Possibilities Luncheon will be held Tuesday, March 22, with keynote speakers Grant and Shawna Korgan detailing how they came through Grant’s paralyzing spinal cord injury.
Grant Korgan, world-class adventurer, nanoscientist and professional athlete, undertook the greatest challenge of his life on March 5, 2010. A day that started with a snowmobile outing with friends in the Sierra Mountains of California ended with a helicopter ride to Reno’s renowned medical center.
Korgan overshot a jump and the landing fractured his L1 vertebra – or, in the words of a close friend and eyewitness to the accident, “exploded his L1 vertebra [sending] shrapnel into his spinal cord.” Korgan underwent nine hours of reconstructive surgery to repair the damage.
Eventually, he recovered to the point he could reclaim his active lifestyle. From wheelchair to walker to crutches to two canes, Grant progressed until he became the first spinal-cord-injured athlete in history to ski 80 miles to Antarctica’s South Pole.