Patrick Laugerude

************************************************************ ****************************** A mistake at birth left me with Cerebral Palsy, When I was born the doctor that was on duty that night didn't follow the x-rays that were in my mother's file and went ahead and did the procedure his own way. Instead of delivering me by C section he pulled me with forceps and just tossed me in one of those blue baskets and left me on the floor not breathing while he tried to stop my mother from bleeding. During the time I spent without oxygen I developed cerebral palsy. I started therapy 1 1/2 years later; trunk, abs, legs and neck, just so I could hold my head up and crawl. I grew up with 80's movies; Rocky, Rambo, Arnold, etc. And every time I'd watch one I'd think to myself, "that's so cool, I want to look like that." When I was around 6 years old there was a T.V. show called The Incredible Hulk. I used to watch it every week and I found out that the actor who played the hulk had a handicap so I figured if he could get that big I could too, ha! He's deaf! Then when I was 11 I saw Conan the Barbarian on its opening day and after that I always wanted to be a bodybuilder. I would go hit the weights after watching a movie. Also, in the 80's there were shows about the future, like "in 1988 world war III will begin and people will start eating each other, movies like “Red Dawn” and “Road Warrior”. I had the thought that I didn't want to be left behind, so I worked out... give me a brake, I was 13. My junior high had a weight room and there I did leg presses and curls. I also bought muscle magazines and took weight gainers, remember those Joe Weider tablets? My brothers owned Tak Kwon Do studios and every time they closed one I'd get the weights, rusty Weider plates, ankle weights and dumb bells. Not until 1984 did I really start wanting to get big. I had a huge setback with my hip surgery in 1986; I found a doctor who didn't know me, he took one look at me and said, "my God, his hip's out of joint!" so, I had to start over, as soon as I was out of the cast, my cousins and I went to K-Mart, I bought more ankle weights and wore them on my wrist the summer of '86. In high school, working out made me feel better all over. The high school had a weight room and my uncle owned a gym, so I worked out in both places though out the rest of the 80's. My teachers and physical therapists had a conference at the end of my 9th grade, what for? I have no idea. Anyway, my old therapists said it was a bad idea for me to work out, that it would do something to my Cerebral Palsy, she had no idea what she was talking about. One of the main things I try to do is open doors for many other disabled people, e-mailing them back, showing them how to get into bodybuilding and making wheelchair bodybuilding bigger and better, whatever I can do to help someone better their lives. Lastly for me is getting bigger and better every year.Through the years I’ve learned many things about bodybuilding and there are always new things to learn around every corner. I do cardio on a bike for a hour to hour and a half a day and I train at FLEX GYM of Colorado Springs with my trainer Dennis James. I’m always looking for ways to get better. ****************************Cerebral Palsy is not a manifested phenomenon; it comes from lack off oxygen to the brain causing damage to the cerebral nerve. There are different degrees of Cerebral Palsy, depending on the amount of damage to the nerve. Anything that deprives the brain from oxygen can lead to Cerebral Palsy. ************************************************************ *******