The day is hot, almost unbearable, yet the exercises continue. Twenty-two-year-old Bandna Bhatti positions the sports wheelchair to accommodate the rallies headed her way. Some are close-ups, while others are taken from a further distance. Occasionally, the shots sail by, or, even with a confident hit, they still 
catch on the near-side portion of the net—no point. She laughs and then wheels back, picking up where she left off.
The lessons continue, eventually progressing to a point and goal of sailing five tennis balls past the net. Bandna pitches one by one up for the serve and gets them all past the net. This is just the third time out on the tennis court since her injury, but the progress leaps and bounds every time. And soon, she’ll be back in northern California, assailing the courts again with her friends.
“I didn’t think this would be possible.” A moment later, Bandna reflects: “But it is.”
Bandna’s track over the past handful of years has not always followed the expected route. A native of California, she had a clear picture of going to the University of California, Berkeley, on a pre-veterinarian track. Berkeley, so close to Silicon Valley, is a hotbed for the computer and data science fields. Bandna figured she could give it a go—take a few classes and see what would come of it. Her major ended up becoming data science. “Just seeing something be created out of nothing,” says Bandna, “really intrigued me.” In a field as demanding as the one she has chosen, Bandna has counted herself lucky to have a support system behind her the entire time. “Building good relationships with people is something that deeply fulfills me; there are so many whom I can depend on.” That kind of socialization lent itself to getting out constantly, enjoying the afternoons and evenings of sports, honing her skills earlier on in areas such as softball or volleyball, but later centering on tennis and pickleball.
By the spring of 2025, the next steps were evident: graduate, with a stable job lined up, and try to stay close to the Bay Area, where her friends were. In April, just a few weeks away from graduation, Bandna fell from a staircase at a party, sustaining a spinal cord injury. Following this, as time in the ICU led to figuring out what her rehabilitation journey
would ultimately look like, Bandna is quite candid about what her initial outlook was. “I thought about all the things I felt I couldn’t do anymore—my mind was racing.”
Yet one constant that could continue, and she would always be able to do, was simple. “Building good relationships with people is something that deeply fulfills me; there are so many whom I can depend on. When I came to QLI in July 2025, the team wanted to hear what my life was like, what I enjoyed doing, and how they could integrate those things into their sessions with me.”
“One of the first things Bandna told me was how much she loved to drive,” remembers her occupational therapist, Sara Waid. “To be reliable for yourself and others, to get out and about, even to go and play tennis—all of that was extremely important.” Together, they went to unfamiliar environments around Omaha, allowing Bandna to learn new ways of going about old, favorite activities, such as doing a coffee run. All the details that were previously intuitive now needed to be properly worked through—transferring out of the car, navigating into the shop, ordering, finding a place to sit, etc..
Sara recalls the impact of their first time on the road. “She told me that after her injury, she thought she’d never be able to drive again—but here she was, doing something so motivating and meaningful.” As 
Bandna has progressed, continuing to have more moments like this with each passing day: more deeply understanding her injury, the development of realistic goals, and possibly most importantly, the mindset that nothing not attempted is impossible. With ingenuity and planning, with her team of therapists, so many activities and passions can be unlocked again.
Enter again, tennis. When Bandna began doing the research on adaptive tennis, it at first overwhelmed her. “There’s so much involved with it,” she notes, “it’s all about finding the right racquet, then figuring out how to hold it while moving the wheelchair.” Not to mention the intricate understanding of the movement and play of tennis, a sport that may be simple in concept but is difficult to master.
Bandna expressed her interest to Life Path Assistant Kevin Houston, who connected Bandna with individuals in the Omaha community. Together, they discovered a dedicated class, based at the Montclair Community Center, aimed at guiding people into the sport of adaptive tennis. “There was a beginner and intermediate level,” remembers Kevin, “and Bandna started with the beginner class. She wasn’t a great fit for the beginner class,” says Kevin, “It was clear—with Bandna’s skill level, she needed to go straight to the intermediate one.” The weekly classes, complete with all the exercises and drills she could need, signified something important. When Bandna returned to the court, able to return high and low shots, or expertly setting up for an ace serve, she was back—ready, present, and able.
The tennis classes, driving sessions, and every other moment with QLI can become both a retrospective and an encapsulation of what she has accomplished, but also a taste of what is still to come when Bandna gets back home to California. She now envisions, with the right tools at her disposal, that there
will most certainly be a way to do it; she just needs to find it. At QLI, Bandna could so clearly see that nothing was entirely out of reach; solutions to everything were waiting.
It will be a future of success for her, returning to her friends, returning to the normal day-to-day, getting a great job, following her passions—because she wants to, and can do so. “I’ve learned to capitalize on every opportunity.” She smiles. “When I go back, I plan to conquer everything.”
