LEWIS COUNTY, Ky. — A former baseball player who broke his neck is using his story to bring awareness to others about spinal cord injuries. 

Traveling around the state to speak with athletes, David Iery started a foundation to give back to his community.

Certain choices and decisions are what left David Iery with a spinal cord injury at 17 years old. 

“I broke my neck playing baseball in high school when I was a senior in 1989 sliding headfirst into home plate,” Iery said.

Now paralyzed from the chest down, he uses his experience to teach students about spinal cord injuries. 

“There’s no cure for spinal cord injury. You don’t want to break your neck because it ain’t going to heal your nerve cells. They aren’t healing, there’s no cure for it,” Iery said.

And for a long time, Iery had a difficult time getting back into the sport.

“I got out of baseball for a little while there. Of course, with all that going on, it’s like you feel kind of guilty or ashamed to get back into baseball,” Iery said.

But what baseball took from him, baseball also gave back to him. 

“So I really got back into it when Keith Prater, who was a high school coach of Lewis county, invited me up to talk to the kids,” Iery said.

Eventually starting up The David Iery Foundation, he now travels around the state, speaking to students, changing the way youth athletes view choices and decisions in their lives. 

“Everything that you do, do not do headfirst, even in a relationship,” Iery said. “Do not dive into a relationship headfirst, it could be a bad decision. It could be something that will change your life.” 

It’s a situation that Iery can never change, but hopes his life and foundation will leave an impact on youth athletes.

During the summer, the David Iery Foundation hosts a baseball and softball tournament which raises money for spinal cord injury research and scholarships for youth athletes. 

For more information on the David Iery Foundation and ways to get involved, you can go to The David Iery Foundation Facebook page.