PEMBROKE PINES, FLA. (WSVN) - A Florida International University student has overcome great obstacles to finally walk across the stage after he was left paralyzed from a horrific accident.
“And we’re outside. It’s the first time I’ve walked outside in a while,” said FIU student Shane Mosko, taking his first steps outside after physical therapy. “It’s amazing. I can’t really put it into words.”
The 25-year-old business major from Pembroke Pines will take the stage, Sunday, for a walk to remember.
Mosko was left paralyzed from the waist down after a tragic crash five years ago, in Connecticut.
“It was Sept. 30, 2012, don’t really remember much from the accident. I woke up in the hospital about 30 days later,” he said.
Mosko said he had been drinking and driving when he flipped his car off an embankment. He was thrown from the vehicle.
“It totally changed me. It changed the way I view the world, changed the way the world viewed me,” he said. “I played soccer my whole life, and when something like this happens to you, your world is crushed. I mean, what do you do?”
After two weeks in rehab, Mosko was introduced to the Exoskeleton by Ekso Bionics. The technology allows Mosko to move from his wheelchair and on to his own two feet.
“So I can get in the device, stand and walk, but also initiate the steps with the movement that I have and work on strengthening what’s there,” he said.
The device would have cost Mosko $160,000, but a physical therapist in Pembroke Pines stepped in to make his dreams come true.
Guy Romain is the owner and a therapist at NeuroFit, a physical therapy center in Pembroke Pines. The facility owns an Exoskeleton, so Romain agreed to let Mosko use it.
“We worked out with him before,” said Romain, “and he called me recently and said, ‘Hey, I’m graduating, and I want to use your Exo to walk.’ I was like, ‘That’s awesome.'”
After college, Mosko said he plans to work at Ekso Bionics.
“I’m doing it, and I want to show people that regardless of your situation, you can make anything happen,” he said. “You just gotta put your mind to it.”
Shane will graduate as a World’s Ahead Graduate, the highest distinction given at an FIU commencement ceremony.
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