According to CDC data from 2022, nearly 14 percent of Nevadans aged at least 18 have a mobility disability.
That group includes Sam Schmidt, a former IndyCar racer who lives in Las Vegas.
Schmidt had a promising career ahead of him, when on January 6, 2000, he got into a life-changing accident at the Walt Disney World Speedway, damaging his spinal cord and paralyzing him from the shoulders down.
Since then, he’s dedicated his time to physical recovery and disability advocacy. More recently, he's also spent the intervening time writing an autobiography, No Finish Line — which Diversion Books released earlier this year — detailing his life before and after the crash.
Schmidt said his impetus for writing the book came as he noticed the lack of information surrounding his type of paraplegia.
"I can't reach everybody, you know, and I can't answer everybody's phone call," Schmidt said. "So a lot of people thought it was going to be a racing book or a motorsports book, but I really wanted it to be all-inclusive."
Schmidt also aims to raise awareness surrounding treatment and therapy resources, of which his own DRIVEN Neuro program is one.
That organization was founded by Schmidt and is primarily located in downtown Las Vegas, with a larger facility having just recently opened in Indianapolis, Indiana. DRIVEN provides medical and mental health care, adaptive fitness programs, and rehabilitation services to people with spinal cord and neurological conditions.
Schmidt said that, in addition to his family and his faith, this initiative is now his "why" for continuing to move forward.
"[Neurological injuries are] just kind of blowing up families every day. There are 20,000 new spinal cord injuries a year, and if you add the stroke and the brain injury, it's probably closer to 200,000. So this just happens every day, and we can't help everybody. But the goal is to try and bridge that gap. Give them some more independence. Try and get them back to work because it's a pretty sad situation."
No Finish Line is on shelves now. All proceeds from the book go towards DRIVEN Neuro's work.
Guest: Sam Schmidt, author, founder of DRIVEN Neuro
