Meet Adaptive Athlete: David Wood

David was born in Boston, Massachusetts where he was an avid swimmer and rock climber. He enjoyed the challenge of rock climbing, noting the mental focus required to stay calm during a challenging route. 

 

Upon graduating high school in 1998, David enlisted in the United States Marine Corps where he served until his honorable discharge in January of 2004. During his time in the Corps, David was deployed to Panama and then to Afghanistan during the initial invasion of 2003. 

 

After getting out of the military, David established and operated several successful businesses and started a family in Knoxville, Tennessee. In March of 2023, David went in for a hernia repair surgery during which the surgeon perforated his colon and did not notice. The undiagnosed perforation led to a multitude of complications, including sepsis that led to a cardiac arrest on the operating table in a procedure to repair the hole. 

 

When David woke up, he had been in a coma for weeks. The cardiac arrest on the operating table left him without a pulse for 20 minutes, until doctors were able to resuscitate him. He suffered an anoxic brain injury due to lack of blood flow to the brain. The resulting trauma left David unable to speak or with proper motor function, which he has worked tirelessly to regain. 

 

During his time at ATF, David hopes to regain his strength and motor function in order to be able to play with his daughters again and be a strong leader of his family and business.