There are two main types of spinal cord injuries, complete and incomplete. If your injury is complete, the nerves have been rendered ineffective and are no longer able to send any signals below where your injury happened. This is the type of spinal cord injury that leads to paralysis.
Incomplete spinal cord injuries, while still extremely damaging, still allow you to be able to move and sense things beneath the location of the injury.
There are treatments and rehabilitation methods that can allow you to continue to lead an independent life, and many states offer support groups in multiple locations. However, there is still no way to completely repair your spinal cord, making it so you would most likely spend much of your life dealing with the weight and effects of this injury.
According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC), there are about 17,000 new spinal cord injury incidents every year. That amounts to 54 cases per million. In 2016, the approximate number of people alive in the United States who have damage to their spinal cord is 282,000.