[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2026\/06\/life-changers-jared-quinteros-spinal-cord-story\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2026\/06\/life-changers-jared-quinteros-spinal-cord-story\/","headline":"UPMC Life Changers: How Volunteer Jared Quinteros Lifts Up Spinal Cord Patients Through Art","name":"UPMC Life Changers: How Volunteer Jared Quinteros Lifts Up Spinal Cord Patients Through Art","description":"

After a tragic accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, Jared Quinteros created an art program for spinal cord patients at UPMC Mercy.<\/p>","datePublished":"2026-06-10","dateModified":"2026-06-11","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/rehab","name":"UPMC Rehabilitation Institute","url":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/rehab","sameAs":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/upmc-rehabilitation-institute\/","parentOrganization":"UPMC"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"UPMC HealthBeat","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-06-10-135131-e1781114041237.jpg","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-06-10-135131-e1781114041237.jpg","height":267,"width":616},"url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2026\/06\/life-changers-jared-quinteros-spinal-cord-story\/","about":["Health Topics A-Z","Rehabilitation","Spine Health"],"wordCount":2027,"articleBody":"When art helped Jared Quinteros through personal tragedy, he knew it had the power to help others, too.Paralyzed below the waist in a June 2021 accident that killed his wife, the Pittsburgh artist wanted to pay forward the help he received from others during his recovery. Art became the perfect medium.Jared worked with staff at UPMC Mercy to create an Experience Art program for people there with spinal cord and brain injuries. Once a week, Jared connects with patients to learn their stories and create artwork together.“When you find yourself with a spinal cord injury, you’re immediately part of a population \u2014 a community \u2014 that you didn’t know about before,” Jared says.Learning more about this community led him to want to do something to benefit them.“I meet amazing people every week who have had spinal cord injuries or are in a wheelchair for some reason,” he says. “And it’s crazy because they’re inspiring, they’re motivating, and it’s infectious. You want to share that, and continue that, and give it to somebody else.”‘My Artwork Was Always an Outlet’Born in Mesa, Ariz., of Mexican and Apache descent, Jared never felt like he fit in with his peers. He began drawing, sketching, and painting as a child, with art quickly becoming how he dealt with life’s difficulties.“My childhood was a little crazy, a little wild, and not necessarily the best environment, but my artwork was always an outlet,” Jared says. “It was always something I could turn to for getting my mind out of a bad situation or coping with things. And, so, that would be where I would go and what I would do to express myself.”Jared describes most of his art as abstract, with “more texture and color than imagery.”“I more or less start a painting with a feeling and an emotion,” he says. “That sort of feeling or emotion kind of translates into those textures, those colors, and what’s going on with me emotionally.”After a brief stint as a college student, Jared moved to California to pursue a career as a professional artist. One winter, he moved to Lake Tahoe to snowboard, where he met his wife, Kara Leo.Jared and Kara, a pastry chef, moved to Rhode Island, then to Boston, before settling in Pittsburgh. After the couple had two sons, Oliver and Owen, art took a back seat for Jared as he worked other jobs to help support his family.“My wife used to tell me all the time, ‘Jared, you’ve got to start painting again. You need to get in the studio,'” Jared says. “And my answer at the time was, ‘I’m just too happy to paint.'”‘One of the Hardest Moments of My Life’Jared’s life changed in June 2021.He and Kara were hiking in Upper St. Clair, a suburb south of Pittsburgh, when they heard cracking in the trees.After hearing a loud crack, “I grabbed my wife’s hand, turned to run, and it was too late,” Jared remembers.A large tree limb fell from 50 feet above, striking them both. Almost immediately, Jared, a trained emergency medical technician (EMT), realized his back was broken. He called out to Kara, but she didn’t respond.Someone nearby heard his yells for help and called 911. Crews rushed Kara, then Jared, to UPMC Mercy. An x-ray revealed a fracture in Jared’s thoracic spine, the middle portion of the back. A surgeon brought a picture of the injury up on the phone to show Jared and said he needed surgery.“I looked at it and said, ‘Let’s go,'” Jared says. “That was the last thing I remember.”It wasn’t until he woke up that he learned his wife didn’t make it.“It was one of the hardest moments of my life,” Jared says.‘What My Soul Needed for Healing’Kara’s death devastated Jared. At the same time, he knew he had to remain strong for Oliver and Owen.“You either deal with it, or you don’t,” Jared says. “You\u2019ve got to make a decision. And I have my two sons, and I knew that if I didn’t choose to (be strong), they were going to suffer. I wasn’t going to be that parent to do that to my kids, knowing how much they had already lost.”Remembering how much art had helped him in the past, Jared realized it could help him again. But first, he needed to focus on rehabilitation so he could return to Oliver and Owen. When that happened in July 2021, Jared turned a four-season room in his house into a studio.Although he did therapy and physical therapy to heal his mind and body, painting helped heal his soul. “Like every tough moment in my life, I gravitated back to my art,” he says.Except that the first full painting he created after the accident wasn’t an abstract. Instead, the piece depicts his spine before and after surgery in two images. It now hangs in the rehab gym at the UPMC Mercy Pavilion.‘Paying It Forward’The idea for helping others through art came to Jared while he was in the hospital. Since his accident occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, visitation was limited. But he had a memorable visit from a handful of volunteers who used wheelchairs.They stayed with him for four hours, talking with him and answering his questions.“It was the first contact I’d had with people that were in wheelchairs that were living the life,” he says. “That was an amazing experience.”The community support he received also motivated him to give back. In the months after his accident, local contractors and community members donated money, supplies, and labor to make his house wheelchair-accessible.“I do feel like what was given to me, this was my way of repaying it or paying it forward,” he says.Initially, Jared planned to bring people with spinal cord injuries into his house to paint with them. But he soon realized that the space was too small.About a year after his accident, Jared contacted Gwendolyn Sowa, MD, chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UPMC and director of the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute. Dr. Sowa connected him with Jeff Bisdee, a therapeutic recreation specialist at the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute.Jeff provides brain and spinal cord injury patients with leisure activities to assist with their recovery.“I find it very important for patients to help them just to express themselves in a different fashion,” Jeff says.Although he was already doing art projects with patients, Jeff was ecstatic to learn that Jared \u2014 a local artist and former patient \u2014 wanted to volunteer.“Jared showed up, and here’s a legitimate artist who not only can do art, but also is a peer for the patients on the unit. And that really upped the game quite a bit,” he says.Thanks to the help of Jeff and others at UPMC, including Andrew Ziegler, a senior development officer who helped raise funding, the Experience Art program launched in 2023.‘It’s a Special Time’Jared didn’t know how patients would respond to Experience Art. He also didn’t know how he would fare as a teacher. But both have gone better than he anticipated.“It was a role that I kind of stepped into that was fairly easy for me to do, for some reason,” Jared says. “And I was very happy and amazed with how it was received by patients. A lot of patients really have blossomed from coming down and painting, and they’ve really enjoyed it.”Jared makes weekly visits to UPMC Mercy for Experience Art. The program takes place in the afternoon, when many patients’ daily therapy regimens have lightened.As the point of contact, Jeff gauges patients’ interest in the program. Jared often talks to them, too, when he arrives on-site.“A lot of times, they need to meet me first,” Jared says. “They think I’m going to be down there wearing a beret or have a big afro or something, like Bob Ross.“But I (tell them), ‘It’s really chill. Just come down and hang out and talk. You don’t even have to paint if you don’t want.'”Each session is different. Sometimes, six patients will stop by; other times, only one. Some know exactly what they want to paint, while others need guidance. Either way, Jared and Jeff are there to help.“Jared is really suited to facilitate these sessions,” Jeff says. “Not only because he’s an artist and has the skills to do art, but he’s just genuinely very open with patients and staff.“Anybody that comes in, he’s going to welcome them and talk to them,” Jeff adds. “He just makes you feel like you can do something, like you can create something. And I think that’s really a wonderful thing to have.”Jared enjoys watching patients create something artistic.“To see someone create something for the first time that they’ve never done before, the joy in their eyes and the satisfaction of being able to create something, that’s amazing,” he says.Beyond painting, the sessions allow for peer connection.“People really want to share their experience, share their story, and talk to somebody that wants to listen and connect with where they’re at,” Jared says.He tries not to share his story right away because many people find it overwhelming. But he will if they seem interested or would like to know.“We’ll kind of go from there, just discussing things \u2014 talking about life, politics, whatever, and painting,” Jared says. “And it’s kind of a normal moment for them and for me.”While Experience Art isn’t traditional art therapy, it carries physical and emotional benefits, Jeff says. During the program, patients often process their illness or accident. Jared helps them talk through it.“There have been some really emotional times where patients have broken down a bit, cried a bit, shared tears a bit with Jared and myself, too,” Jeff says. “And there are moments where it just becomes quiet, and you know that folks are really thinking. It’s a special time, really.”‘This Is How I’m Going to Contribute’Although Experience Art began as a way for Jared to repay some of the kindness shown to him and his family after his accident, it has grown beyond that. Jared has met and connected with many patients through the program, some of whom remain friends to this day.“It’s both good and challenging at times because not every story is a happy story or a happy ending,” Jared says. “Some connections, I’m amazed with the growth, the development, how people get on in their lives, and it’s wonderful. It’s wonderful to see someone blossom.”But as Jared knows too well, not every ending is happy. Some friends he’s made through the program have lost their fight to cancer or another disease or health issue. Those times are especially challenging.“But at the same time, I feel good that I was able to be a friend, that I was able to work with them, and that I gave them an opportunity to create some artwork that they get to leave behind for their loved ones,” Jared says.In October 2025, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recognized Jared’s impact on the community with the Governor’s Keystone Award.“I think if everybody can just take a step back and do a little bit of something to help the person standing next to you, the world would be a better place,” Jared says.Moving forward, he hopes to continue making an impact on others through Experience Art.“I don’t have a lot of money, and I don’t have a lot of power,” Jared says. “This is what I do have, so this is what I’m going to share. This is how I’m going to contribute.”Sources"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2026","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2026\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"06","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2026\/\/06\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"UPMC Life Changers: How Volunteer Jared Quinteros Lifts Up Spinal Cord Patients Through Art","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2026\/06\/life-changers-jared-quinteros-spinal-cord-story\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]