What Causes Quadriplegic (from Wikipedia)

It is caused by damage to the brain or the spinal cord at a very high level - in particular spinal cord injuries secondary to an injury to the cervical spine. The injury, known as a lesion, causes victims to lose partial or total mobility of all four limbs, meaning the arms and the legs.^[1]

Typical causes of this damage are trauma (such as car crash, gunshot wound, fall, or sports injury) or disease (such as transverse myelitis, polio, or spina bifida).

It is possible to suffer a broken neck without becoming quadriplegic, such as when the vertebrae are fractured or dislocated but the spinal cord is not damaged. Conversely, it is possible to injure the spinal cord without breaking the spine, such as when a ruptured disc or bony spur on the vertebra protrudes into the spinal column.