Blind amputee pushes his limits

Apr. 14—Corey Reed, one of the city's newest, most unusual and inspiring residents, grins and ponders: "What's not to love about Scottsdale?"

He and his wife, Kayla, and their two children moved here last year, after Corey figured Scottsdale is the perfect spot to grow his fledgling business.

A typical day might have him podcasting about maximizing performance in extreme sports or simple gym workouts, then meeting with his business partner to review sales and planning before putting in a few hours as a massage therapist.

After heading back to the Reed home near the Paradise Valley and north Phoenix borderlines, Corey recharges his battery for kid activity time.

He might join the boys — Grady, 8 and Eli, 5 — for a bike ride around the neighborhood. Or perhaps head to the nearby park and compare skateboard moves.

So, he's pretty much an average, multi-tasking, goal-setting Scottsdale dad.

Except he has a prosthetic leg.

And he is blind.

His existence changed in the snap of a finger when he lost a leg and his sight in a car accident 20 years ago.

Though that certainly put speed bumps and detours in his life path, he refused to allow the accident to be a roadblock — and indeed is charging ahead with ambitious plans.

As his life and business partners tell it, 41-year-old Corey Reed is constantly setting new goals, grinding, sweating and pushing to find the answer to a question dangling before him:

"What's my limit?"

Kindred spirits

The fearless, upbeat Corey Reed was a little different, when he first emerged from a coma to a frightening new reality.

His wife, blind since she was 4 after an allergic reaction to amoxicillin, recalls meeting Corey 16 years ago, "through some mutual friends. It was about 18 months after his accident," Kayla said.

Her friends run an extreme sports camp for the blind, with activities like downhill skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling.

Kayla had been to the camp before and was assigned to mentor the newcomer.

"Corey wanted nothing to do with any of that and stubbornly refused to let me teach him anything," she said. "I think he hadn't quite accepted his blindness and still believed that he would get his sight back any day."

While that miracle never happened, Kayla laughs that it is just about miraculous that "somehow Corey and I became friends and then began dating."

After getting over his stubbornness, Corey showed flashes of his old adventurous spirit — he had been a mountain climber and outdoor enthusiast before the accident.

"I think the deal was sealed for me when Corey taught me how to wakeboard while we were on a house boating trip at Lake Powell," Kayla said.

"Although everyone else had told me that it wasn't something I could do as a blind person, he assured me that I could and was determined to make sure I succeeded."

After marrying, Corey and Kayla set up shop in her home state of Montana.

There, Corey launched Mountain Wellness.

After becoming a successful adaptive athlete, Corey started a company to maximize the performance of others — whatever their skill levels.

"With every ounce of normalcy ripped away from him," his bio page says, "Corey not only overcame his challenges, but he also used his experience as an opportunity to grow."

Immersing himself in how to help others, he became a licensed massage therapist, Breathwork — a calming strategy to help with stress — practitioner, nutritionist and health/performance coach.

As his website promises, "Work one on one with a human performance coach to create an individualized plan addressing nutrition, sleep, supplementation, movement, mindset, and recovery."

Trying to grow a business in rural Montana proved challenging, to say the least — particularly for a blind entrepreneur.

Waiting for Uber rides seemed to take as long as a Montana winter. Speaking of which, the Southern California native's pining for the sun pushed him to search for a warmer climate and a city with less transportation challenges.

Enter Scottsdale

"The boys and I are absolutely loving Scottsdale," Kayla Reed said. "I've never felt so at home anywhere that I have lived before. Everyone is so generous and kind."

Over coffee at a Starbucks next to Elements Massage, where he works, Corey Reed agreed with his wife on that.

"I think Scottsdale has got a nice mix," Corey Reed said, grinning as he pondered his new home. "Especially where we're located.

"It's kind of a nice mix of a city and suburbia."

The Reeds moved here in June of 2023, just in time for the hottest weather ever recorded.

"I've got a buddy who lives here," Corey said with a laugh. "He texted me, 'You better tell your boys they're moving to Mars.'"

The kids handled the toasty summer just fine, spending the Mars-like months in the pool or water skiing and wakeboarding at Lake Powell.

On water, as on land when biking or skateboarding with the boys, Corey relies on his older son — who calls out directions and obstacles.

"It's a fine balance," Corey pondered, "because you don't want to, you know, create anxiety for your child to where it's like he feels like it's a responsibility — 'Oh, when I go bike riding and Dad goes, I gotta keep him safe.'"

As such, he's learned to curb his enthusiasm to call out, "Dude, let's go for a ride" — instead letting his older son make the invitation.

Corey gets professional advice right at home: Kayla Reed is a marriage and family therapist with a private practice in Scottsdale.

On her website, Kayla Reed describes herself as being like a seasoned contractor for clients:

"I'm not here to swing the hammer for you. Think of me as your project consultant, offering guidance and support as you tackle each room of your life's house."

Her husband had to rebuild his life's house after it was torn down.

It's a lifelong journey with no end, like constantly adding on to and refining a home.

"Corey can have down days," Kayla said, "but they usually are related to feeling bummed about not being able to interact with the kids in the way that he would want to such as playing catch with them, watching their sports games, or off-roading with them."

It doesn't get him down for long, she adds, "because he just simply finds an alternative method of doing things or finds something he can enjoy with them, such as skateboarding or biking.

"Anyone who knows Corey knows how incredibly stubborn he can be, and in this case, it's one of his strengths."

Journey to recovery

Dec. 16, 2005: Corey relives it, every day.

"It's that time of year all your friends are coming back home from college for Christmas," he said, flying back in his mind to the fateful night in Simi Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles. "We were at a local nightclub. I remember the whole day — I remember last call. And that was basically it."

He has a vague memory of getting into a friend's car.

"We made it all the way back to my hometown which was like a 20-minute drive — and the last stretch right before his house. He was racing at high speeds and lost control — at 100 miles an hour sideswiped a tree and rolled several times. And basically, I was entangled in the vehicle."

Rescue workers cut Corey out of the vehicle and intubated him, as the 23-year-old's life flickered.

"I coded twice. I was in the hospital for over a month," he reflected, matter-of-factly. "Two weeks of it in a coma."

He has two words to describe how he lived to tell the tale: "Absolute miracle."

Though he radiates optimism and a can-do vibe, the California native with the surfer looks is open about the deep depression that overwhelmed him after the accident.

"When I woke from the coma, I was totally blind ... So like my first memories were basically like blackout dark and then feeling weird ... I went to reach for my leg — and that was like, 'Hello, you're back to reality but your world's been flipped upside down.'"

Pull Quote

Before the accident, he was an active athlete and outdoorsman and spent a year in a firefighter training program.

"So when that was ripped away from me, it was like, oh my gosh, who am I now? What am I gonna do?"

He quickly decided to accept the new reality, adapt, survive — and push ahead.

"First and foremost, I had a survivor mindset," Corey Reed said. "So even at my lowest point, my first memory in the ICU, being blind, knowing I lost my leg — being aware that I might not make it it out of the hospital ... and even to the couple years after that, I never got to the point of depression where I was like, 'I don't want to live anymore.'

"So I think that helped me tremendously. Having that sort of survivor mindset upfront — but that doesn't mean that I didn't encounter the struggles, I think it just helps overcome them because I have the right mindset."

His war on multiple fronts, with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, led him on a path to discovery.

Plagued by anxiety attacks and nausea, Corey "didn't like the answers I was getting" from traditional doctors. "I started going down the rabbit hole," he said with a smile. "You know, researching and trying to find the answers."

He said he discovered "there's something called leaky gut ... that causes basically all of the stuff that I was dealing with.

"So needless to say, I figured it out. I healed myself. I got super passionate about health and wellness."

'What's your excuse?'

Mike Maina, Corey's Mountain Wellness business partner, recalls first meeting this unusual man early in his post-accident journey at a gym.

"Being blind and an amputee — my first question was, 'How is this going to work?' And I think that was kind of the beginning of our friendship because everything that he was doing at the time was to try to figure out — like most people would — what were his limitations," Maina reflected.

"Because the doctors told him after he came out of the coma, losing his leg and his eyesight, that the best they could hope for is he'd be in a wheelchair the rest of his life."

Corey's response to the experts, in a word: Nope.

Maina said a natural reaction of family and long-time friends who knew Corey before his accident was "to baby him."

Having only met Corey as a blind amputee, "when he wanted to push himself, like how far do you want to go — so we ended up in the mountains, rock climbing and doing ... some difficult things for someone who's blind. And we did some wakeboarding."

Maina said he went from teacher to peer to student, marveling at Corey Reed's perseverance.

"He was always testing his limits," Maina said. "And I think when you watch him test his limits, you kind of have to ask yourself, 'Well, he's doing these things blind and missing a leg — I'm not even willing to do these things.'

"And so he kind of calls you out a little bit ... 'What's your excuse?'"

Corey's life partner shares similar views as his business partner.

Both marvel at how Corey Reed is constantly setting new goals, pushing boundaries — and moving forward.

"I most admire about Corey," Kayla Reed reflected, "is how much he is motivated towards personal growth. Every day he is striving to improve himself on a physical, mental, or spiritual level and he won't settle for average.

"He wants to be the best he can be in all areas of his life."

Corey Reed's life is almost evenly split, about 20 years where he lived a normal life, about 20 years where he has been adapting to his new reality.

His goals are many, summarized by: keep moving forward.

Success, he said, "involves achieving personal growth, making a positive impact on others, and maintaining balance across various aspects of life."

He begins every day as a challenge, ticking off his daily routine:

"Prioritize physical and mental health. Spend more time outdoors in the sunlight, consume whole foods, stay active. Begin a breathwork routine, and interact socially with others in person."

Pushing himself spiritually like a soul-building triathlete, he reminds himself to let go of ego, learn from mistakes, recognize his talents and build on his weaknesses, gain wisdom as well as physical strength, "and always prioritize your relationship with God.

"Remember, if you're breathing, you're blessed."

For more information, visit mountainwellnesslife.com.