Josh Meyer

If you sit with Josh Meyer for even five minutes, you realize you’re in the presence of someone different, someone rare. His voice is steady and full of life. You don’t hear bitterness and you don’t hear self-pity. You hear a man who has walked through something unimaginable and somehow comes out the other side with more grace, humor, and perspective than most people have in a lifetime.

Josh served in the U.S. Air National Guard, earning the rank of E4. After leaving the military, life unfolded normally, until it didn’t. Two years ago, what started as “just the flu” turned into a nightmare. His body shut down. Pneumonia became sepsis. He contracted MRSA. His organs began to fail. He was airlifted, placed on ECMO, and surrounded by family told to prepare for the worst.

He flatlined. He was not supposed to wake up. Doctors said he would never have quality of life again. But Josh, in the most Josh way possible, explains the whole thing with a simple, almost casual acceptance:

“It’s just a thing that happened. It’s in the past now.”

It’s that mindset that sets him apart. It’s why hearing his story doesn’t leave you sad, it leaves you inspired. The infection damaged his limbs, forcing the amputation of both legs and both hands. The gravity of that should be devastating, yet he talks about it the way some people describe a rough day at work. Not because it wasn’t traumatic, but because he refuses to let pain take up space it doesn’t deserve.

He works from home, he parents, he shows up for people, and he’s constantly figuring out new ways to keep living fully. But mobility was the piece missing from his new reality. That changed when Freedom Mobility Foundation gifted him a 2021 Dodge RAM 1500 Limited 4x4, equipped with an ANT lift and a highly adapted cockpit designed around his prosthetics and way of moving through the world.

For Josh, this wasn’t “just a truck.” It was an identity. It was normalcy. It was a return to experiences he thought were lost. He explained it with clarity:

“It’s given me agency over my ability to choose where I spend my time and how I get there.”

Before receiving the truck, travel meant compromises. He couldn’t bring the equipment he needed. He relied on lighter chairs that were exhausting, limiting, and difficult to use. Now, hecan bring his 375-pound power chair, his gear, and everything necessary to feel comfortable, supported, and safe. It means showing up to Christmas dinner without worrying. It means rolling into a friend’s house on Super Bowl Sunday with the chair he trusts. It means participating, not “managing”.

He used the truck to attend the adaptive ski clinic in Breckenridge with a full week of snow, equipment, and independence that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. He was able to pack two chairs, a shower setup, bags for himself and his buddy, and still handle the winter conditions of Colorado. With anything smaller, he wouldn’t have had the space, the safety, or the stability.

And with the off-road “Coyote” device coming soon, his world is about to expand again with access to the mountains, fishing spots, lakesides, campsites, and hikes with his kids. Experiences he thought were gone are suddenly on the horizon.

But the heart of this testimony isn’t the truck. It’s Josh. It’s how he talks about life with a simplicity that carries so much truth.“Life doesn’t always go as expected… and that’s not a reason to get stuck.”

It’s how he talks about donors not from a place of need, but from a place of understanding. “It’s not charity. It’s a hand on someone’s back, helping them keep moving.”

And it’s how he describes Freedom Mobility Foundation, not as an organization, but as people. “Their support is more than a checklist they truly care, and you can feel it in every interaction.”

Josh is the kind of person who makes you rethink what strength looks like. He is open, honest, unshaken, and profoundly positive. He’s still discovering what life looks like now, but he has no intention of sitting still. He wants to fish again. Hike again. Explore again. Drive again. Be out in the world again.

He’s one of the most naturally inspiring people you could ever talk to, not because of what he lost, but because of the way he continues to live. Thanks to Freedom Mobility Foundation, the road ahead is wider, more accessible, and filled with possibility.