Ricks wheelchair van
Donation protected
Hello All,
We would like to share our brother’s experiences with you. Rick Shahan is now 49 years old, and up until almost 4 years he was a very independent person. He spent more than 20 years working in a leadership role in the manufacturing field. He enjoyed playing golf, basketball, softball, bowling and played on a pool league team for many years. Rick has many friends and was always a very social person, willing to help out anyone in need.
Having always been tall and thin with a high metabolism, it was not uncommon for Rick to get up in the middle of the night hungry, and go downstairs of his condo to fix himself a snack to eat. There were times he would do this without even waking up or remembering doing so. September of 2011, in typical Rick fashion, he went to down to eat, got his belly full and then went to venture back to bed. This night was different though and changed my brother’s life forever. He made it up to about the 3rd or 4th step and lost his balance, he fell backwards and slammed his head into the condo front door. When he went to get up, he could not move his legs. He tried and tried, but his legs would not work. His girlfriend at the time, was there and called an ambulance where he was rushed to the local hospital. With very little ability to help him here, he was then transported to Carolinas Regional Medical Center where it was determined that Rick’s C5 and C6 vertebrae were shattered by the impact of hitting the door. When the bone shattered, fragments scattered causing damage to his spinal cord and split a nerve causing Rick to become a quadriplegic.
At this point in time, the doctors informed us there was a possibility that Rick wouldn’t even survive and if he did, he would never walk again with little possibility of hand and arm movement as well. Devastated didn’t begin to describe how we were feeling. Surgery was done to replace the vertebrae and protect the spinal cord from further damage, while in recovering Rick came down with pneumonia. The pneumonia caused him to be put into a medically induced coma in ICU for a month, with procedures being done daily to clear his lungs. All the while, we didn’t know if he would survive from one day to the next. There was a time when the doctor’s thought Rick would need a tracheotomy the rest of his life.
With the fight and determination that Rick had always lead his everyday life with, he survived. But it wasn’t easy, we became his full time caregiver once he was released from the hospital. A room set up in our house where he was fed, bathed, dressed and even changed his catheter which led Rick into a deep depression. Friends would come by to visit and he would turn them away, he would rarely leave the house, even to go out for some sunlight. His whole world was shattered and he didn’t know how to handle it. Now three years later, Rick is living on his own again. He can make his own meals, has an electric wheelchair that assists him to do for himself, he showers and dresses himself. We are so proud of where our brother has come from. He even went for his first job interview last week and has promising possibility of once again being independent.
The final step to his independence is his transportation. Rick lives in a small town that offers few public transportation options that aren’t always the most accessible for the handicap. There is a state funded organization that will however install the necessary hand controls into a specialized vehicle, but the vehicle must meet certain criteria to be approved. It must be a conversion van, no more than 6 years old with less than 65K miles. The van must be equipped with a ramp that he is able to drive his wheelchair into the driver seat location. A used van that meets these requirements start at $36,000 and goes up to $52,000. With all the medical expenses that he has already had to pay, he doesn’t have the necessary down payment in order to finance the cost of a van. I am hoping that this will touch enough hearts out there that maybe $20 here and there can add up to our brother once again being completely independent in spite of his disability. It would mean the world to us and I know it would be life changing for him as well.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our brother’s journey, it is truly appreciated!
We would like to share our brother’s experiences with you. Rick Shahan is now 49 years old, and up until almost 4 years he was a very independent person. He spent more than 20 years working in a leadership role in the manufacturing field. He enjoyed playing golf, basketball, softball, bowling and played on a pool league team for many years. Rick has many friends and was always a very social person, willing to help out anyone in need.
Having always been tall and thin with a high metabolism, it was not uncommon for Rick to get up in the middle of the night hungry, and go downstairs of his condo to fix himself a snack to eat. There were times he would do this without even waking up or remembering doing so. September of 2011, in typical Rick fashion, he went to down to eat, got his belly full and then went to venture back to bed. This night was different though and changed my brother’s life forever. He made it up to about the 3rd or 4th step and lost his balance, he fell backwards and slammed his head into the condo front door. When he went to get up, he could not move his legs. He tried and tried, but his legs would not work. His girlfriend at the time, was there and called an ambulance where he was rushed to the local hospital. With very little ability to help him here, he was then transported to Carolinas Regional Medical Center where it was determined that Rick’s C5 and C6 vertebrae were shattered by the impact of hitting the door. When the bone shattered, fragments scattered causing damage to his spinal cord and split a nerve causing Rick to become a quadriplegic.
At this point in time, the doctors informed us there was a possibility that Rick wouldn’t even survive and if he did, he would never walk again with little possibility of hand and arm movement as well. Devastated didn’t begin to describe how we were feeling. Surgery was done to replace the vertebrae and protect the spinal cord from further damage, while in recovering Rick came down with pneumonia. The pneumonia caused him to be put into a medically induced coma in ICU for a month, with procedures being done daily to clear his lungs. All the while, we didn’t know if he would survive from one day to the next. There was a time when the doctor’s thought Rick would need a tracheotomy the rest of his life.
With the fight and determination that Rick had always lead his everyday life with, he survived. But it wasn’t easy, we became his full time caregiver once he was released from the hospital. A room set up in our house where he was fed, bathed, dressed and even changed his catheter which led Rick into a deep depression. Friends would come by to visit and he would turn them away, he would rarely leave the house, even to go out for some sunlight. His whole world was shattered and he didn’t know how to handle it. Now three years later, Rick is living on his own again. He can make his own meals, has an electric wheelchair that assists him to do for himself, he showers and dresses himself. We are so proud of where our brother has come from. He even went for his first job interview last week and has promising possibility of once again being independent.
The final step to his independence is his transportation. Rick lives in a small town that offers few public transportation options that aren’t always the most accessible for the handicap. There is a state funded organization that will however install the necessary hand controls into a specialized vehicle, but the vehicle must meet certain criteria to be approved. It must be a conversion van, no more than 6 years old with less than 65K miles. The van must be equipped with a ramp that he is able to drive his wheelchair into the driver seat location. A used van that meets these requirements start at $36,000 and goes up to $52,000. With all the medical expenses that he has already had to pay, he doesn’t have the necessary down payment in order to finance the cost of a van. I am hoping that this will touch enough hearts out there that maybe $20 here and there can add up to our brother once again being completely independent in spite of his disability. It would mean the world to us and I know it would be life changing for him as well.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our brother’s journey, it is truly appreciated!
Organizer
Rick Shahan
Organizer
Salisbury, NC