NCC Alum Starts Wellness App for Mobility-Impaired

A car accident that left U.S. Marine Veteran, Kenneth Keitt, paralyzed led him to enroll at Northampton Community College (NCC) – the first step toward a career helping others with limited mobility. Twelve years later, the young entrepreneur continues to develop his online physical and mental wellness business.  

Born in the Bronx, New York, Keitt moved with his mother and five sisters to the Poconos in elementary school. In May 2007, he graduated from East Stroudsburg North High School. Having already enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, Keitt was on his way to Parris Island, South Carolina for boot camp just three weeks after graduation. Over the next couple of years, the marine took advantage of every opportunity. He obtained a commercial driver’s license (CDL) with certification to transport hazardous materials and trained to become a marksmanship instructor.   

In 2008, he was deployed to Iraq where, for eight months, he transported fuel, materials and gear to support troops on the perimeter of the combat area. After the combat deployment, Keitt had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and was assigned back to his original unit at Camp Pendleton in California. 

^{Keitt (left) in Iraq}

Honorably discharged after four years, Keitt moved from his apartment in San Diego to the Poconos with his then-pregnant wife to be closer to his family. Soon, he found the transition from military to civilian life challenging. He was prescribed medication for depression, which often made him drowsy. One day in December 2012, he fell asleep at the wheel while driving his car on Interstate 80 near Blakeslee. His car careened off the road and down a steep bank.  

“My car flipped seven times. I broke my back in three places – T7, T8 and T9 – and severed my spinal cord,” Keitt said. He didn’t know it yet, but this would cause him to be paralyzed from the chest down. “I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt, so I was ejected from the car through the sunroof. That probably saved my life because as the car rolled, the roof caved in. If I hadn’t been thrown from the car, I probably would have been decapitated.” 

Still conscious, Keitt realized that if he stayed where he landed, no one would find him, but he couldn't move his legs. Just then, his military training kicked in, and he used his chin and elbow to drag himself up the bank and onto the side of the road. Keitt hoped someone would see him and prayed a tractor-trailer wouldn’t run over him.  

Suffering from great pain, he fell in and out of consciousness, sometimes hearing the roaring of the trucks zooming by. Keitt faintly recalls waking up and seeing a Pennsylvania State Trooper. 

“The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital,” he said. “The second day came and passed, and then the third, and they weren’t getting me out of bed. I knew something was seriously wrong.” 

He was transferred to Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia where, over four months, he received extensive rehabilitation services, including physical therapy seven days a week.  

Keitt returned home with his wife, who shortly thereafter delivered their son, Liam, now 12. The transition was difficult. While excited to be a new father, “I was so sick and tired of being sick and tired. I wanted to take back control of my life,” he said. “Going from being a combat-ready war-fighting machine to needing assistance with minimal tasks was very depressing and embarrassing. It happens quite often; troops survive dangerous combat tours, just to come home and become injured in their home country.” 

His mother, Yvette, encouraged him to attend the family’s favorite college, NCC. His mother, a nurse, had graduated from NCC, as well as four of his sisters. Keitt started at NCC as a business administration major and attended the Pocono campus and, later, the Bethlehem campus. 

He felt at home at the Pocono campus. “It was more intimate. With a smaller student body, I got used to seeing the same people. At that time, I was integrating back into school and met several other veterans who helped me adjust. The environment prepared me to go to Penn State, Lehigh Valley, where I majored in business administration and minored in marketing.” 

Motivated “to turn pain into purpose, turn pain into passion,” Keitt started Paraper4mance, an online fitness app for people who are in a wheelchair or have mobility limitations. This includes those recently injured, elderly, paraplegic, quadriplegic, wheelchair-bound or who have had a recent stroke, spina bifida, or other conditions that lead to the use of a wheelchair. 

The app offers videos of fitness routines and instructions on activities of daily living like dressing, bathing and transferring from the wheelchair to a car, chair or bed. A professional trainer, physical therapist or occupational therapist leads each session. The app also offers online opportunities to interact with one another online.  

“My life isn’t perfect, but I listened to and learned from my peers and elders and managed to create a life where I am happy and fulfilled, balancing my family and career,” he said. “My wish is that everyone can achieve the same.”