Grant
recipient gets new wheelchair
By Sara Buscher
Free Press Staff Writer
SOUTH BURLINGTON -- Jeremy Shortsleeve has put a lot of miles on the
wheelchair he has used since he was injured in a motorcycle accident in
June 2005.
It's banged up from being broken down, dragged across the concrete and put
into the car daily as Shortsleeve travels to work, graduate school and
physical therapy appointments, he said. It's also heavy.
"A wheelchair is just like a car. If it breaks or you pop a tire, you're
out of luck," Shortsleeve said.
Though his insurance policy would cover a portion of the cost of another
chair, it would also limit his options, Shortsleeve said. When he heard
about the Travis Roy Foundation for spinal
cord injury survivors, he applied for a grant to buy a new chair, and got
one.
Established in honor of Travis Roy,
who suffered a paralyzing injury while playing hockey at Boston
University, the nonprofit has distributed more than $1.3 million in grants
to individuals and to research projects and rehabilitation institutions
across North America since 1997. The money has been used to modify vans
and to purchase wheelchairs, computers, ramps, shower chairs, and other
adaptive equipment to help paraplegics and quadriplegics.
Thanks to a $4,124 grant from the foundation, Shortsleeve expects to
receive a new, lightweight chair this week.
The motorcycle accident that changed Shortsleeve's life occurred just
before 7 a.m. June 30, 2005.
"I knew it was bad, seeing my parents as I was going into surgery. I knew
even when I was in the road. There was nothing; I couldn't feel anything,"
he said. Shortsleeve suffered an incomplete fracture of the L-1 vertebra
in his lower back, which left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Following two weeks in intensive care, he underwent acute physical therapy
from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day for two months.
"That's the time things start to come back, if they come back," he said.
"The physical and occupational therapists are doing everything they can --
stretches, showing me how to transfer from my seat to my wheelchair."
Shortsleeve regained some sensation in his lower body. "But nobody would
really tell me, 'You know, you're going to be in it a while.'"
He said he understands why.
After the accident, his sister moved from Virginia and bought a house in
Vermont, which she outfitted to accommodate Shortsleeve in his wheelchair.
A nurse, she scouted physical therapy options beyond the hospital. The two
lived together until he bought his own condo.
He's fortunate among those with spinal cord injuries, he said, because
with full movement of his upper body he can take care of himself. He even
plans to enter the Vermont City Marathon next year.
Since beginning physical therapy with the Rehab Gym in 2005, he's
increased the strength of his working muscles to the degree that with the
aid of leg braces and crutches, he has started to walk.
Contact Sara Buscher at 651-4811 or
sbuscher@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
Appeared in the
Burlington Free Press
- November
17, 2007 |