A highly anticipated handcycle has finally arrived at Nadine Montano’s North Hills home.

More than six months ago, Montano was awarded a grant for the purchase of a $3,000 handcycle she desired that will attach to her wheelchair. Through a series of unfortunate events, including customs issues and shipping errors, the bike arrived months later than it should have.  

Although it will still be some time before she can use it, as she needs to ensure that it’s adjusted to fit onto her wheelchair, she’s very appreciative and looking forward to taking it for a ride. 

“My family likes to go bike riding, so now I can keep up with them again,” Montano said. “I can go do something with them again … that’s slow enough that I can enjoy and do now.”

For someone like Montano, who doesn’t have mobility in her lower body due to a spinal cord injury, a handcycle gives her the opportunity to move around a bit more freely. In contrast to regular bicycles, handcycles are three-wheeled vehicles that rely on hand cranks instead of foot pedals to propel the cyclist forward. 

However, they can also be incredibly expensive – ranging in the thousands of dollars – as they’re more mechanically complicated and difficult to manufacture.

But thanks to a grant provided by the Kelly Brush Foundation, Montano was able to acquire one. The nonprofit, founded in 2006, aims to empower people with spinal cord injuries to once again lead active lives. Each year, the foundation has active fund cycles in the spring and fall, in which people can apply for a grant for adaptive sports equipment. In Montano’s case, she was one of the recipients of the grant in last year’s fall selection cycle.

“As soon as they read my application, they sent me an email and told me that they really loved my story, and that they were interested in helping me out,” she recounted.

An Unfortunate Accident

Montano had always been active in sports as a kid. She played tee-ball and basketball. But her main sport was aquatics, she played water polo and was a competitive swimmer. When she was 17 years old, she became a lifeguard and worked for both the city and county of Los Angeles. She also coached water polo at Taft Charter High School in Woodland Hills for about four years.

But in May 2020, she had a life changing accident. In a cruel twist of irony, when she dove into the shallow end of the pool and hit her head – something that, as a lifeguard, Montano has likely warned patrons not to do many times for this exact reason.

“As soon as I hit my head, I was like, ‘Oh no,’ and I tried to do a barrel roll to bring myself back up to the surface, and I couldn’t turn,” Montano said, recalling that she had drowned at that moment. “Luckily, my cousin came and fished me out of the water, and they did CPR on me and brought me back.”

Although her life was saved, the news she received from the doctors wasn’t as positive. Montano had suffered a break in her fifth cervical bone in her neck, meaning she was paralysed all the way down from the upper shoulders; she was told that all she would be able to do was shrug her shoulders.

The accident occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, Montano wasn’t allowed visitors during the three months she was in the hospital, negatively impacting her mental health. 

With a poor prognosis, many people would feel resigned to their fate and would believe they had no choice but to accept living with their paralysis. But Montano refused to be like most people. 

Regaining her Mobility

“I don’t quit,” Montano stated. “I spent all those years telling kids that they couldn’t quit and they had to work harder, so … I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t keep trying. I feel like I got so hurt that there was really nothing else for me to do but try.”

Since she was released from the hospital, Montano has been working to regain as much mobility as possible. Towards the end of 2020, she started going to a private rehabilitation gym in Northridge that she happened to learn about through her dad – a coworker’s daughter is an employee at that facility. A few years later, she also started going to California State University, Northridge, for their adaptive water program.

Montano described the exercises she would do as a lot of “neuroplasticity work,” meaning that someone would move her body and she would do everything she could to move it herself. These exercises included raising her arms to her side and above her head, as well as using adaptive equipment like a triceps press to regain her muscle memory. 

She began making progress, saying that she could move a part of her body just a little bit better after each session. 

Additionally, Montano has been participating in adaptive sports activities, including wheelchair rugby, that are hosted by nonprofits like the Kelly Brush Foundation and the Triumph Foundation, which also helps people with spinal cord injuries. 

In the six years since the accident, she’s made great progress. Montano has control over her abdomen – meaning she can move forward and side to side – wrist and limited control of her elbows. She’s still working on regaining function in her hands. 

Now that she has the handcycle, she sees it as a milestone moment for all the work she’s done to regain some mobility and arm strength to cycle with her family. 

“I want to go to the beach,” Montano said. “I want to be on one of those [bike] paths. I want to be with my mom and brothers when they cycle, … so it’s kind of like a reward for everything that I’ve put into my recovery so far.”

Today, Montano does some work as a public speaker, talking to graduate students who are working towards a degree in physical or occupational therapy. She provides her insight as a patient, telling them how to treat and motivate their clients, since many people who have suffered spinal cord injuries are also dealing with depression. 

Right now, she is still focused on using her hands again, but she hopes to eventually regain even more mobility.

“I have two goals: a physical one and then a human one. The physical one is pulling myself out of my chair. I have leg braces, and [when] I go to the gym, they put me on parallel bars, and I practice … because then as soon as I can pull myself out of the chair, that opens up so much for me. I can reach things again. I can transfer myself [to] places. It [would be] just a huge deal to be able to stand up again.

“The human goal is I want to get more into leading paint workshops for the Triumph Foundation … so I can get out there and help my community find peace and happiness through painting and being able to share their emotions … by doing something that isn’t so strenuous.”

The Kelly Brush Foundation began the fall active fund cycle on July 1 and will be accepting applications until Sept. 23. If you’re someone who’s been paralyzed by a spinal cord injury and are looking for a grant to purchase adaptive sport equipment, fill out an application at https://kbf.org/theactivefund/.