A University of Michigan doc committed to making sports and fittingness accessible for those with disabilities got a immense boost toward gathering the university's adaptive sports programming Thursday connected "Good Morning America."
Michigan Medicine's Dr. Oluwaferanmi Okanlami, known arsenic Dr. O, received $1 cardinal unrecorded connected the greeting amusement for his enactment gathering the University of Michigan's adaptive sports and fittingness program. It came from the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping radical with spinal cord injuries unrecorded full, productive lives.
"Disabusing disablement was a trademark that I coined a mates of years agone to effort to show that disablement doesn't mean inability," Okanlami said connected "Good Morning America" Thursday, surrounded by household and loved ones who amazed him with the announcement.
Okanlami — an adjunct prof of household medicine, carnal medicine, rehabilitation and urology astatine Michigan Medicine — besides serves arsenic the manager of pupil accessibility and accommodation services and services for students with disabilities astatine the University of Michigan, wherever helium coined the catchphrase "disabusing disability."
"Everyone present has been touched by your kindness, by your large heart, by your perseverance," said "Good Morning America" big Robin Roberts.
Born successful Nigeria, Okanlami immigrated to the United States arsenic a kid and grew up successful Indiana. He attended Stanford University and was an world all-American way and tract jock earlier getting his aesculapian grade astatine UM. But during his 3rd twelvemonth of an orthopedic country residency successful 2013 astatine Yale, helium had a swimming mishap and broke his cervix portion jumping into a pool. He was instantly paralyzed from the thorax down.
After undergoing 2 surgeries and aggravated rehabilitation helium regained immoderate centrifugal relation and present uses a wheelchair. Okanlami past continued his education, earning a master's successful engineering, subject and exertion entrepreneurship from the University of Notre Dame and finishing a residency successful household medicine astatine Memorial Hospital successful South Bend, Indiana.
While moving arsenic a doc astatine Michigan Medicine, Okanlami made it his ngo to physique the school's adaptive sports and fittingness programme which makes carnal fittingness and recreational activities accessible for radical with disabilities.
"Until I started to unrecorded beingness connected the different broadside of the stethescope with my spinal cord injury, I did not recognize however ableist our satellite was, however inaccessible the satellite was and unintentionally complicit to this satellite of ableism," Okanlami said connected Good Morning America.
Surrounded by his mother, lad and different loved ones, Okanlami said the adaptive sports and fittingness programme is "not a maine thing" but "an america thing."
"Disability is not inability, disablement is simply a cloth successful the satellite of diverseness that conscionable makes america each person our unsocial contributions we tin make. And the information that the satellite is not accessible is not the responsibility of the idiosyncratic with a disability. We request to past beryllium fixed entree to bash what we tin and alternatively of being constricted based connected what we cannot, we request to beryllium fixed the entree to amusement what we can."
hmackay@detroitnews.com
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