A 29-year-old man who was paralyzed after he was shot during an attempted robbery in Northern Liberties last year spoke to NBC 10 about his ongoing recovery.
It’s been five months since Kevin Neary was told he’d be paralyzed from the neck down after his spine was shattered when he was shot in the neck after walking home from a friend’s home last November.
“I didn’t really know until I got to Jefferson the severity of the events.”
Neary has undergone several surgeries to get off a ventilator so that he can breathe on his own.
“It’s been successful. I could do it for 15 minutes yesterday and we are hoping to continue to build up slowly,” Neary said.
It was in November 2011, after watching Monday Night Football at a friend’s home along the 700 block of Bodine Street that Kevin was shot during a robbery. The incident was captured on a security camera. Police later arrested 20-year-old Chris Easter for the shooting. Kevin and his family say they been asked by prosecutors not to talk about the shooting.
Neary says his motivator for staying positive is his grueling physical therapy.
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“If I ever have the fortunate circumstance to walk and use my arms again it’s to make sure muscles – that they haven’t atrophied away and that they can be used again.”
Kevin’s dad, Joe, said his focus is his on his son’s recovery.
“You don’t want to see something happen to your child. But when you are this strong you get through it. You look and you say ‘this is the road we got and this is the road we’re going down – and we’ll do the absolute best we can,’” Joe Neary said.
Kevin says he hopes to help others.
“What I could do to help other people that have similar injuries to mine and also how I can help other people who’ve been the victims of gun violence.”
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