My Crash

I was headed home, not drinking and not speeding, when I entered a rain slicked curve. Just as I had turned 180º and slid off the road, I hit a concrete culvert. Being the year before mandatory headrest, I suffered a whiplash break and my shoulders, C5-C6. This resulted in paralysis from my shoulders down which left me a quardripegic/tetraplegic. I was in the hospital for 100 days in traction with Crutchfield Tongs inserted inserted into my skull with 22 lbs hanging from them. (I was conscience during surgery and could not have anything to deaden the pain from the scalpel cutting and drilling into my skull.) I was sent to Warm Springs, Ga. for rehabilitation and left walking on forearm crutches.

After 37 years on crutches and osteoporosis and breaking bones from falling, I now use a power chair. I should have used this chair many years ago.