What started as a typical late-summer evening turned suddenly tragic for Michael Gibson.
“We were hanging out at home watching TV, and we fell asleep,” says Felicia Gibson, who was Michael’s girlfriend at the time. “We got up to go to bed, and Michael took the dog out to go to the bathroom. A couple of minutes later, I heard several loud bangs.”
Outside the couple’s Savannah, Georgia, home, Michael had encountered several men breaking into cars on their quiet cul-de-sac. As the men got in their car to leave, Michael tried to get the license plate number, and one of the thieves shot him in the center of the back.
“Of the six or seven rounds shot, only one hit Michael, and the bullet stopped at his T1 vertebrae,” says Felicia, who was 38 years old at the time. “He is a C6, C7 quadriplegic, but we don’t know if the injury is complete because the shrapnel in his spine prevents us from doing an MRI.”
Michael proposed to Felicia in the hospital, and a couple of days later, they were married in the ICU. After two weeks, Michael was transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. The bullet had ripped through his esophagus and damaged his trachea, and the 30-year-old had nearly 20 surgeries to try to repair his injuries.
Almost a year after the 2017 shooting, Michael went back to work with Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation and began taking classes to finish his undergraduate degree. Felicia changed careers to become a certified fitness instructor, but she wanted to do more.
“I was on a Facebook group for caregivers, and someone suggested that I reach out to the Reeve Foundation,” says Felicia. “I initially got involved with doing advocacy work. I met with Buddy Carter, who is our local Congressional representative, as well as Savannah’s mayor and alderman.”
Felicia joined the Savannah–Chatham Council on Disability Issues, but she still wanted to do more. She became an ambassador for the Reeve Foundation’s National Paralysis Resource Center (NPRC), meeting with local schools, rehabilitation centers and equestrian centers to educate employees about the NPRC’s free resources and services for people living with paralysis.
Last year, Felicia learned about the Reeve Foundation’s Peer & Family Support Program (PFSP), and she decided to get a mentor for herself.