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Rolling Forward, Despite The Bumps
Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO
Tony Starez, 50, of Dunedin, injured his spinal cord in a car accident in 1980 that left him a quadriplegic.
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Published: September 12, 2008
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After a car accident landed me in a wheelchair in 1980, I knew I'd encounter accessibility issues. But I really had no idea of the pitfalls - and lumps - that lay ahead. That was probably for the best because, had I known, I might have panicked.
I was 21 years old when I broke the fifth and sixth vertebra in my neck after my car ran off a road in Baltimore. Spinal cord damage that high up results in limited movement from the shoulders down. (Actor Christopher Reeve shattered his first and second vertebra when he was thrown from a horse. He lost feeling and function from the shoulders down, including the ability to breathe on his own.)
In those early days, I had to learn what I could and could not do. They say you only gain experience through failing, and I'm here to tell you, I've gained a lot of experience.
I decided early on that I wanted to push my own chair, not ride in a power chair. That mostly had to do with stubbornness and ego. I was athletic before my accident, and I wanted to prove I still had some of that prowess. I also thought I looked less disabled in a manual chair without side armrests.
One danger of being a quad who pushes his chair is that it's really hard to stop when you're rolling down a hill. Because of the lack of grip in my hands, once the chair picks up speed - and that can happen in seconds - my only options are to crash or, um, crash. I can't count the number of times I've run into cars and fences, or nearly gotten run over, because the chair got away from me.
Toppling is another hazard, and the threats fly at you during the early years as you learn what can flip your chair. Sometimes it doesn't matter how experienced you are.
Part of the problem was learning to judge how light the front end of my chair was when I first got it. Getting on my van lift at the beach one day, I rolled my front wheels onto the lift, tilting the chair backward a bit to do so. I do this all the time, but in those days I didn't know how to work the momentum of weight. I pushed at the wrong moment and did a back flip.
I lay there with my knees around my head and the chair on top of me until a couple of bicyclists rode by. Nonchalantly, I called, "Hey guys, can I get a hand up?" The shock on their faces was pretty funny. They had no idea what they were looking at.
In the early 1990s, I went to a party at the Rock-It Club in Tampa. I took my friend Steve, and things were fine until I started pushing toward the back of the club. Suddenly, I found myself tipping over backward, and I landed hard, smacking my head on the concrete floor.
A guy set me upright, and I shook my head clear, wondering how that happened. Then a man came over to me, apologizing profusely. He said his shoe caught on the front of my chair, but he didn't know what he was caught on and he just jerked his foot up. His foot was free - and I was on the floor.
One advantage to pushing a manual chair is that buddies can pull you up steps, but this is not fun. Although I've mostly gotten past the fear, I still get jittery. All it takes is one slip, and my butt has had it.
Just last week I was pulled up on my friend's deck, and we had drinks and dinner. He proceeded to drink a bottle of wine, getting too intoxicated for me to trust him getting me down from the deck. When the time came to leave, I got his girlfriend to help me, but it was a shaky endeavor all the way around. Still, she may have saved my life, so I owe her a drink!
Probably the most dangerous of the scary episodes happened years ago, after I got my van outfitted with hand controls so I could drive again. I drive from my wheelchair, locking it down with two bolts that secure it when I hit a switch. The problem is, if I forget to hit that switch, there's nothing to warn me that I'm not locked in. Accelerating from a light or stop sign can cause the chair to quickly roll backward, away from the steering wheel and hand controls.
Back then, it was much easier to forget about the chair lock than you might think. Someone talking, adjusting the radio or making a phone call can distract me. One day, while taking off from a light, I found myself on a sudden roll to the back of the van. I could not push the brake in on the hand control, as that would only push me farther away, so I had to release. Holding on would only make the van accelerate more!
Frantically, I tried to roll my chair back to the front while steering the van, but it was moving too fast. I rolled up over a curb and into a tree in a schoolyard. Thankfully, the tree stopped the van, and there were no children in the yard.
That was one lesson well-learned. I've never had another mishap like it in 20 years.
There's only so much you can do to prevent an accident, but years of stairs, scares and spills have educated me. I've learned, usually the hard way, to become watchful and even intuitive about the slope of the ground, the size of the steps, and the attitudes of others - any of which can land me on my head.
Nothing teaches you about a hot frying pan better than touching it!
Who Do Spinal Cord Injuries Affect in the United States?
• 250,000 Americans are spinal cord-injured.
• 52 percent of those are considered paraplegic; 47 percent quadriplegic.
• Approximately 11,000 new injuries occur each year.
• 82 percent are male.
• 56 percent of injuries occur from ages 16 to 30.
• The average age of spinal cord-injured people is 31.
• Spinal cord injuries are most commonly caused by:
• Vehicular accidents - 37 percent
• Violence - 28 percent
• Falls - 21 percent
• Sports - 6 percent
• The most rapidly increasing cause of injuries is due to violence; vehicular accident injuries are decreasing in number.
• Only 52 percent of spinal cord-injured people are covered by private health insurance at time of injury.
Source: Spinal Cord Injury Information Pages
Tony Starez graduated from the University of South Florida in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. He has been employed by The Nielsen Co. since 1993. He's also a musician, and has written, recorded and performed locally (post-injury) for
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