{"id":5799,"date":"2012-12-09T20:34:55","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T04:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/?p=5799"},"modified":"2012-12-15T15:09:19","modified_gmt":"2012-12-15T23:09:19","slug":"tragedy-and-triumph-the-day-zach-caires-life-changed-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/5799\/news\/tragedy-and-triumph-the-day-zach-caires-life-changed-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"Tragedy and Triumph: The Day Zach Caires\u2019 Life Changed Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bryan A. Sanchez\/CONTRIBUTOR<\/strong><\/p>\n

The night was dark and cold. He unknowingly strode into danger. What he didn\u2019t know would change his life in an instant.<\/p>\n

Zachariah Caires, 21, better known as Zach, was a machining student at San Jose City College.<\/p>\n

Tall in stature with classic looks, Caires enjoyed girls, beer pong and inventing things; but most of all, he loved riding his bike. He rode for fun, for transportation and even for work as a rickshaw driver downtown.<\/p>\n

Riding home from an evening class on Oct. 15, 2012, Caires was crossing through an intersection when a negligent driver made a sudden left turn without stopping, slamming into him and dragging his bike for several feet lodged underneath the driver\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

Caires\u2019 body was not dragged under, but he was violently thrown onto the hood which smashed his left shoulder through the windshield and his head onto the roof of the car. He was just one block away from home.<\/p>\n

He regained consciousness while inside an MRI scanner at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center across the street from SJCC.<\/p>\n

It was there that he was informed that he had lost the use of his body from his chest down and he is now permanently a paraplegic.<\/p>\n

His 661 brand helmet was the only physical thing between himself and the vehicle that helped save his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story would have been so different without his helmet,\u201d said his mother, Deborah Caires.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a son who is on a bicycle fifteen to twenty miles a day, this is what you fear,” Caires said. “I\u2019m thankful he has his beautiful brain and hands because he has the mind of an inventor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the devastating incident, Caires remains constantly smiling, laughing and steadfast in his sunny outlook on life. As luck would have it, his nerves are intact and he could recover the use of all his limbs in time.<\/p>\n

Caires is learning to move independently with only the use of his arms. It is a long, sweaty struggle.<\/p>\n

Though he has the use of his arms, he does not have the use of his stabilizing abdominal muscles which help support arm movement.<\/p>\n

This lack of support makes a simple sitting-up bench press a hard-won undertaking. His physical therapists, Liz Gizycki and Chris Kilbourn, helped him through SCVMC\u2019s spinal cord injury rehabilitation program.<\/p>\n

\u201cZach always impressed us with his positive attitude and willingness to push himself,\u201d said Kilbourn.<\/p>\n

Caires said he believes his loss of limbs does not define him or limits his life.<\/p>\n

He will be attending De Anza College for the Spring 2013 semester for the adapted sports program, participating in marathons with his mother, and he plans to take up hand-cycling.<\/p>\n

Caires also aims to develop products in the world of target sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI plan to be ten times as active as I was before,” Caires said. “This incident handicapped my legs, but it doesn\u2019t handicap my life.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bryan A. Sanchez\/CONTRIBUTOR The night was dark and cold. He unknowingly strode into danger. What he didn\u2019t know would change his life in an instant. Zachariah Caires, 21, better known as Zach, was a machining student at San Jose City College. Tall in stature with classic looks, Caires enjoyed girls, beer pong and inventing…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"staff_name":[570],"class_list":["post-5799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","staff_name-contributor"],"yoast_head":"\nTragedy and Triumph: The Day Zach Caires\u2019 Life Changed Forever - City College Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/5799\/news\/tragedy-and-triumph-the-day-zach-caires-life-changed-forever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tragedy and Triumph: The Day Zach Caires\u2019 Life Changed Forever - City College Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Bryan A. Sanchez\/CONTRIBUTOR The night was dark and cold. He unknowingly strode into danger. What he didn\u2019t know would change his life in an instant. Zachariah Caires, 21, better known as Zach, was a machining student at San Jose City College. Tall in stature with classic looks, Caires enjoyed girls, beer pong and inventing...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/5799\/news\/tragedy-and-triumph-the-day-zach-caires-life-changed-forever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City College Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SJCityCollegeTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-10T04:34:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-15T23:09:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sjcctimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sjcctimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Escrito por\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\" Contributor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutos\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tragedy and Triumph: The Day Zach Caires\u2019 Life Changed Forever - City College Times","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/5799\/news\/tragedy-and-triumph-the-day-zach-caires-life-changed-forever\/","og_locale":"es_ES","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tragedy and Triumph: The Day Zach Caires\u2019 Life Changed Forever - City College Times","og_description":"By Bryan A. Sanchez\/CONTRIBUTOR The night was dark and cold. He unknowingly strode into danger. What he didn\u2019t know would change his life in an instant. Zachariah Caires, 21, better known as Zach, was a machining student at San Jose City College. Tall in stature with classic looks, Caires enjoyed girls, beer pong and inventing...","og_url":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/5799\/news\/tragedy-and-triumph-the-day-zach-caires-life-changed-forever\/","og_site_name":"City College Times","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SJCityCollegeTimes","article_published_time":"2012-12-10T04:34:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-12-15T23:09:19+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sjcctimes","twitter_site":"@sjcctimes","twitter_misc":{"Escrito por":" Contributor","Tiempo de lectura":"2 minutos"}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5799"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6459,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5799\/revisions\/6459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5799"},{"taxonomy":"staff_name","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_name?post=5799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}