Rob was born and raised in Long Island, NY where he mastered the sport of tennis.  He is a graduate of Riverhead High School and attended Mary Washington College in Virgina where he majored in Business Administration.  During his time at MWC, he played on the tennis team, managed the men’s soccer team and was employed as a Campus Recreation Supervisor.  After his graduation in 2000, Rob moved to Hoboken, NJ and worked as a custom software developer for Applied Business Systems.  Rob and Mandy were married in September 2004 and bought a house in Sparta, NJ in January 2005.

On August 20, 2005, Rob was enjoying a boat ride in Rehoboth Bay, Delaware when he decided to go for a swim.  At approximately 8pm, he dove off the boat into water he didn’t realize was only 18 inches deep.  He vividly remembers his head hitting the sand, feeling a snap and knowing instantly that something was drastically wrong.  He was laying face down in the water wondering how long he would be able to hold his breath.  Within seconds, his brother-in-law turned him over so that he could breath and other family members stabilized him on his back in the water.  Rob doesn’t remember much from here on because he continuously drifted in and out of consiousness while his family kept him awake by slapping his face and calling his name. 

After a long wait for emergency services personnel, Rob was life-flighted to Christiana Care Hospital 2 hours from the scene of the accident where doctors revealed that he had broken the C4, 5, 6 vertebrae in his neck.  Rob received spinal fusion surgery on August 21 in order to repair the crushed vertebrae and release the pressure on his spinal cord.  After 5 agonizing hours, the neurosurgeon reported that the surgery went well and Rob’s spinal cord was not severed, just compressed and bruised. Despite the surgery however, Rob remained paralyzed from the shoulders down.  He stayed heavily sedated for the next five days while recovering in the ICU.  He was transferred to Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation on August 26, 2005. 

During his stay at Kessler, Rob’s treatment team concluded that he would never walk again and that he would only regain limited upper body control.  After 5 months of inpatient occupational and physical rehabilitation, Rob only regained the use of some of his upper body and could move his right leg only slightly.  His hands remained severely impaired as did his overall sense of balance and strength.  At the time of discharge on January 20, 2006, Rob could not sit up or roll over by himself and he was completely dependent upon his wife for personal care and movement. 

Rob returned to his NJ home where he was reunited with his wife, two cats and dog.  He continued his rehabilitation at Kessler on an outpatient basis three times a week but unfortunately made very little progress and became more and more depressed.  In May 2006 after feeling dissatisfied with the goals of outpatient therapy, Rob began supplementing his rehab with workouts supervised by a physical trainer who had been trained by Project Walk.  He immediately began to notice remarkable improvements in his strength and motor coordination.  In July 2006, Rob visited Project Walk’s headquarters in Carlsbad, California and completed a trial program.  In only two short weeks, Rob regained the ability to stand!  He and his wife relocated to California from September 2006- March 2008 in order to participate in the Project Walk program fulltime.  He is now completely off all prescribed medication (roughly 30 pills a day) and has learned to walk short distances with the aid of a walker. Rob still has lots of work ahead but he is finally hopeful that with the help of the skills he learned at Project Walk he will be able to walk independently someday in the near future.  Rob is currently working out at home with Project Walk’s "Home" program and hopes to work with a trainer soon.