Sam Schmidt’s Driven NeuroRecovery Center helping Hoosiers with spinal cord injuries
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAfter a track accident left former IndyCar driver Sam Schmidt with a spinal cord injury, he made it his mission to help others on a similar path.
The Driven NeuroRecovery Center powered by Indianapolis-based outpatient therapy clinic NeuroHope opened in Carmel last fall. Since then, the facility, established by Schmidt’s nonprofit Conquer Paralysis Now, has served around 200 clients, including Rebekah Thomas.
Thomas was injured after falling out of a window while on vacation in 2020.
“For a few years after my accident, I didn’t move. I didn’t get up out of my chair. I just got used to zipping around in my wheelchair and being a mom and not using my legs,” Thomas said. “The doctors told me I would never walk again; there wasn’t a lot of hope when I was in the hospital.”
After five years of therapy and work with NeuroHope, Thomas is starting to get some function back.
“I can’t even explain how important it is for people who have this type of injury to continue this type of care, but that’s where we struggle the most. It’s balancing all of the different doctors and the care and the time that it takes,” Thomas said. “I can stand up on my own. I’m taking about 15 steps…it’s a little wobbly. I believe I will walk again; I do.”
She visits the Driven Recovery Center for physical therapy and classes.
“It gave me a space, a place to go and my mind off everything else going on in my life and find community again,” Thomas said. “It’s just incredible to see there’s a place for us to come. This became my safe place, my healing place, my family.”
Since its inception in 2000—the same year Schmidt was paralyzed—Conquer Paralysis Now has raised $40 million.
Over the next two years, the center’s goals include adding an adaptive sports court and creating space for wraparound services on the second floor.
“Research has showed us that transportation is one of the biggest barriers to an individual receiving consistent care, and so why not make this a one stop shop?” Michele Sullivan, Conquer Paralysis Now’s director of advancement and impact, said. “We want that upstairs space to be a collaborative environment. So let’s say you need to get your chair looked at. Well, maybe every Tuesday, an entity will come up here and [people can] come and get their chair fixed.”
A Racing to Recovery Gala to help fund Conquer Paralysis Now’s programs and celebrate the organization’s 25th anniversary is scheduled for this weekend.
Before the center opened, Schmidt gave Inside INdiana Business of Health reporter Kylie Veleta a tour of the facility.