Hello all, Yes, the world sucks, not just for the handicapped people, but for many able-bodied people. The family involved in making that decision, to allow the quad to be taken off the ventilator will come to regret those moments. Many on this list have been put under anesthesia, how well could you think after you came to? I know it said that the man made his own decision. I hope I am not related to that family! All of us have gone through so much and accomplished so many things. Compare a custodian that cleans bathrooms with Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft. No matter which way you look at the situation, each one accomplished what they could. As with all quads, each is different. Rufus Beiler, an Amish men in Pennsylvania, fell from a roof and can't even use his fingers, but without electricity in the home, he devised a system for a hydraulic elevator, learned computer and is now a successful architect. Did you hear that world, he couldn't even move a finger. Among the Amish community there are several success stories of quads making a living and contributing to their community. Yes, we all face different aspects of our injury, but in most cases we triumphed. Each year on the quad site, most everyone acknowledges their anniversary date of their accident. Many are sad, bitter while others are hopeless, fortunately these are a few. Sometimes we dread our anniversary and sometimes we give thanks. In spite of all the issues that we face, I look forward to marking another milestone. In my opinion, God gave me a gift 46 years post SCI. Last week a friend of mine took his life at the end of an electrical cord. In 1976 my brother (a police officer)took his life after witnessing an accident of his best friend father, an alcoholic, stepping out in front of a car to commit suicide. My brother pulled him from under a car and attempted CPR, no luck.The Police Department's advice, keep your mouth shut and get over it. Then there's me! I'm C5-6, multiple problems just like the rest of us. After being discharged from a state institution the nurse took my father aside and gave him some advice. "Take him home, buy him a television and wait for him to die." This was not a mean comment, this was the mindset of that time period. Boy how things have changed! I took my interest of hunting and fishing to open a small business selling articles of that interest. Having a strong feeling that I was to go into the electronics field, I approached the office of vocational rehabilitation to acquire funding for a home correspondence course. No computers back then, everything was done through the mail. Of course the office of vocationa l rehabilitation said "no way," someone without the use of their fingers could not work on electronics equipment. Okay, they wouldn't pay for it, I would. After I was three quarters of the way through the course, a miracle happened they paid for the rest of it. Sometimes God put you at the right place at the right time and in my case it was the CB craze of the 1970's. In this same small single car garage that I was selling hunting and fishing equipment, along with live night crawlers, I started servicing CB radios with the help of two part-time technicians that were attending electronics school. The two part-time technicians were hired full-time, a third was added part-time, and busting at the seams, I purchased property and constructed a building on the opposite side of the street. Within five years I had three full-time technicians, two part-time technicians, three office people, not including my wife and myself. Our business continued to expand, God kept opening new doors and we expanded, sending business fliers to fire departments in 13 states. We have serviced fire equipment from every state including Alaska, but not Hawaii. Darn, missed that one. As things would happen, my wife had a health issue, visited the wrong doctor and the medical bills piled up. As many of the married quads know, your wife in many cases is your main caregiver. Any funds that had been built up quickly went for my health care and hers. The next several years would take us to a very comfortable lifestyle to living in the red. Well, that is water over the dam. After selling the business to cover our bills around 1995, I continued to manage the business on a part-time basis for the new owner. Unfortunately the new owner did not have a business head on his shoulders. After his business fails around 2005, I continued to service fire pagers on a limited basis. Earlier this year I retired from all of electronics and my 62-year-old brain is trying to learn web site design. Yes, we all have our trials and we all have our triumphants. I just wished they would have given him a chance to see what he could do. He may have found a cure for cancer. We will never know. Keep going, it's worth it in the end! What is your success story?
Glenn Henry
