A mistake at birth left me with Cerebral Palsy. When I was born, the doctor that was on duty that night didn't follow the x-rays that were in my mother's file. He went ahead and did the procedure his own way. Instead of delivering me by C-Section, he pulled me with forceps, tossed me in one of those baskets and left me on the floor, not breathing, while he tried to stop my mother from bleeding. During the time I spent without oxygen, I developed Cerebral Palsy. I've never said this before, but my ?accident' was attempted murder.
In the late 1960's and early 1970's, there was a team of doctors in Colorado Springs who didn't like minorities; Black, Hispanic, Asian and so on. When a woman of any of these nationalities came in for a check up, or to see if she was pregnant, they wouldn't tell her. Instead, they would abort the baby without the mother knowing and finish by giving the woman a hysterectomy to end people of color or mixed race being born.
Countless women have come up to my father with their story of what these doctors did to them. One said the doctor told her, "Your kind have too many children, anyway."
After my birth, the doctors said to put me in a institution where I could die and they wouldn't be bothered with what they did to my mom and me. My parents did what many didn't, they took me home and raised me with help from my grandma; without them and faith, I wouldn't be.
I started therapy when I was one and a half years old; trunk, abs, legs and neck, just so I could hold my head up and crawl.
I grew up with 80's movies; Conan, Rocky, Rambo, Arnold, etc. And every time I'd watch one, I'd think to myself, "That's so cool, I want to look like that." When I was around six years old there was a TV show called, The Incredible Hulk. I used to watch it every week, and I found out that the actor who played the hulk had a handicap, so I figured if he could get that big, I could too! He's deaf, but I thought he use to be disabled as I was.
When I was 11, I saw Conan the Barbarian on its opening day, and after that I always wanted to be a bodybuilder. I would go hit the weights after watching a movie. Also, in the 80's, there were shows about the future, like "In 1988 World War three will begin and people will start eating each other," movies. "Red Dawn" and "Road Warrior" to name a few. I had the thought that I didn't want to be left behind, so I worked out. My junior high had a weight room, there, I did leg presses and curls. I also bought muscle magazines and took weight gainers, Joe Weider tablets.
My brothers owned Tak Kwon Do studios and every time they closed one I'd get the weights, rusty Weider plates, ankle weights and dumb bells. Not until 1984 did I really start wanting to get big. I had a huge setback with my hip surgery in 1986; I had to start over. As soon as I was out of the cast, I went into a K-Mart, I bought more ankle weights and wore them on my wrist throughout the summer of 1986.
In high school, working out made me feel better and stronger. The high school had a weight room and my uncle owned a gym, so I worked out in both places throughout the rest of the 80's. My teachers and physical therapists had a conference at the end of my ninth grade, I guess to see how I was doing in a main stream school/classes. My old therapists said it was a bad idea for me to work out, that it would do something to my Cerebral Palsy. She had no idea what she was talking about. Studies now show that working out improves Cerebral Palsy.
At first, I thought maybe wheelchair Olympics might have something, then in the mid ?90's, I was reading Muscle Mag. There was a story of a disabled person looking to compete in bodybuilding. I saw this picture of a guy from India; he was obviously handicapped, but ripped. He was asking where he could compete. The writer told him to contact Frank Dalto. I did the same, and after seven years, I competed.
I was looking at shows and competitions in 2004 and saw the New Orleans one in July, it was March, and in my mind, I saw a road with a fork in it; one way to compete, the other not to. Once I chose to compete, I stuck to it, no quitting. I tried to learn something new at every show, diet, posing, anything I could pick up.
One of the main things I try to do, is open doors for many other disabled people. Whether this is just by e-mailing them back, or showing them how to get into bodybuilding and making wheelchair bodybuilding bigger and better, whatever I can do to help someone better their lives. Lastly, for me it is getting bigger and better every year, we need to make the sport grow.