‘It’s like being born again’: 22-year-old begins new life after crash left him paralyzed from chest down

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - A Colorado Springs motorcyclist has returned home after months of rehab, following a crash that's left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Spence Alger was involved in a life-changing crash on July 17, 2023, after being forced to ground his bike after being allegedly run off the road by another driver.

"My right lung was collapsed, my left lung filled with blood. I had several broken ribs,  a broken scapula, a vertebrae in my spine exploded," said Alger about the aftermath.

Since then Alger spent several weeks in UC Memorial Hospital, before another three months at Craig Rehab hospital in Englewood.

"It is literally like being born again," explains Alger.

Everything else healed, except for a snapped spine right below his sternum.

"Generally, I wake up and, like roll over and see the wheelchair and I'm like, oh, you got to be kidding me," said the 22-year-old.

Four months of arduous rehab later, it's a reality that hasn't gotten much easier to accept

"I used to love, you know, going up in the mountains and doing stuff. I can't even get in my Jeep to drive it anymore because I can't drive it with a stick shift. So off-roading and all that stuff I loved gone."

He returned to his childhood home just in time for Thanksgiving, much different from the way he left it.

"You can't wheel over carpet. He had to have a stairlift put in. The bathroom had to be completely modified so he could move into there with the wheelchair, and get onto the potty and into a shower," explained Ralph Alger, Spence's father.

Spence stresses to both motorcycle riders and drivers, that they bear a responsibility when on the road, that should never be overlooked.

"There's going to be, there's people who drive recklessly, but the vast majority of them aren't doing anything wrong, and they don't deserve to have their entire livelihood changed or taken from them. because you were inattentive," said Alger.

Spence plans to resume classes at Pikes Peak State College this January to continue pursuing his computer science and security degree, before potentially moving on to UCCS.