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For parents with spinal cord injuries like Melissa Teligades, a mother of two children, there’s nothing more satisfying than providing for your family in spite of your injury. Teligades is currently working towards making this aspiration a reality. Not only did she utilize vocational services to return to school, she made an exciting change to her major after becoming successful on TikTok. Read on to discover how Teligades’ experience with social media inspired a change in degrees.
Car Accident Upends Married Life
Spinal cord injuries can be just as life-changing as a hurricane. When Teligades was injured in 2019 at 36 years old, she was married and the mother of two young children. In an instant her life changed. “I felt the car start to tilt and then lights out for me. I was not wearing a seatbelt when we hit the tree,” she says. “This cataclysmic event changed me in more ways than just being paralyzed.” Unfortunately their children were also in the car at the time of the accident. Her husband had been drinking, which contributed to the accident.
After the accident, her husband was charged with 7 felonies. “The state took custody of our children and gave temporary custody to their aunt Alex,” she says, while Teligades herself was airlifted to Atlanta where she would begin her spinal cord injury rehabilitation at the Shepherd Center. With a C4-5 injury, Telidages was left with minimal arm movement. She spent two months at the Shepherd Center and returned home.
Unfortunately, after a few months home, Teligades husband asked for divorce, which is when she reached out to SPINALpedia. “I had gotten very depressed and afraid when I came home,” she says. “But I knew what I had to do. Thanks to the information Shepherd Center had given me and from my own research looking at quadriplegics like Josh Basile, a malpractice attorney, and Jordanne Menzies, a schoolteacher, I reached out to them and asked them for advice on what to do to be able to live a life like them; dependently independent.”
Going Back to College a Must
After a series of difficult life events, Teligades and her children were able to move out of the house they shared with her husband and moved in with her mother and brother. She knew if she ever wanted to have her own home, she would need to find employment. “I learned the rules in my state about making money and there is no other option but to go to school to learn how to do something with my brain,” Teligades says, referring to SSDI.
But in order to go to college, Teligades had to get her previous student loans forgiven, which she was able to do on account of her spinal cord injury. “I had gone to school back in 2009 and got my GED and did some college classes. I stupidly took out student loans back then and did not apply myself the way I should have and dropped out after a year and a half. In order to go back to school, I had to get my student loans forgiven.”
Thanks to help from the Tennessee Vocational Rehabilitation Department, not only were they able to help Teligades with her school loans, they were able to get her the necessary equipment to be successful. “Vocational rehab set me up with a desk, printer, laptop, the GlassOuse face mouse with a bite switch, but no Quadstick.” She started college in the fall of 2023.
Upon returning to school, Teligades had a change of heart in regards to her major. “I went in thinking I wanted to major in psychology. I did not like being reminded of all the terrible things I went through so I decided that was not the best course for me. I decided, because TikTok has always been a constant thing I’ve been doing, that I would like to go into mass communications instead and work in public relations.”
Why TikTok? “While I was home, I felt alone and had nothing to do but supervise my children’s care and my own. I was able to go on TikTok and make friends. TikTok was how I started going out. It was something I could look forward to doing. I felt if I had a platform and a microphone, I would never be alone.”
After changing her degree to mass communications in the spring semester of 2024, Teligades has made the dean’s list both semesters. She wants to thank Drew Clayborn, a well known quadriplegic from Michigan who helps other quadriplegics get the equipment they need.
They were able to help Teligades get the coveted QuadStick, which helps so many quadriplegics with limited arm movement use their computers independently. “Using it to control my laptop has been so much easier than what I was doing before and I am still learning how to use it. A huge thanks to Drew for teaching me and giving me his cheat sheet.”
As for what the future holds for her, Teligades is extremely hopeful. “Five years into this spinal cord injury saga, I have a strong care team, I’m a college student, I’m a mom of two brilliant children now ages 7 and 11 and both live with me full-time. I also want to thank my brother and my mother for never giving up on me and my children for always being there for me for us.”
ideas@spinalpedia.com
