New York man paralyzed in 2020 bike accident walks again, shares story

• Cory Moses was paralyzed in October 2020, when he was hit by a car while on his bicycle.
• After five surgeries and months of recovery, he took his first steps again last summer.
• Today, Moses can walk 1.5 miles and hopes to compete in the 2024 Paralympics.

A New York man once paralyzed in a 2020 accident can now walk again.

In late October 2020, Cory Moses of Brooklyn was having a “regular” Sunday. But while on a bike two blocks away from meeting his then-partner for brunch, he was hit by a car.

A parked car opened a door into Moses, pushing him into the street, where he was hit by another vehicle. The accident resulted in two broken arms, six fractured ribs and a fractured spine, which left the then-25-year-old paralyzed.

“There was a lot of damage done,” Moses told USA TODAY. He added that, while the state of his injury and a twitch in his leg suggested the possibility for recovery of minor movements, he was initially told that he probably wouldn’t walk again.

Still, there was hope, and Moses was dedicated to his recovery.

“It was very much a changing point for me,” Moses said. “It was a lot to deal with in the beginning. But while I was in ICU for a couple weeks, I just accepted where I was and understood that I survived because of a greater purpose… [My] mission was to understand what that was and who I was going to be after this.”

Following the accident, Moses underwent a total of five surgeries. At Mount Sinai Hospital, he had his final two surgeries and extensive physical therapy.

Dr. Angela Riccobono, director of rehabilitation psychology at Mount Sinai and one of Cory’s doctors, applauded her patient’s perseverance and “most positive mindset out of the gate” after his “life changed in a matter of seconds.”

“Cory is such a special young man. I’ve been doing this job for almost 30 years and I’ve never met anybody like him,” Riccobono told USA TODAY. “After an injury like this, [many people] become overwhelmed by the uncertainty… But instead, Cory embraced uncertainty as an opportunity for growth… He didn’t define himself by his limitations, but by his possibilities – at such an early stage in a traumatic injury, it was profound .”