Max
06-22-2003, 01:59 PM
Nanuet man copes with life after rock-climbing injury
By KHURRAM SAEED
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: June 22, 2003)
NANUET - Joseph Anaya remembers falling 35 feet straight down from the indoor rock-climbing wall and cannot forget its impact - the back of his neck smashing against a nearby fence, crushing his spinal cord.
"I knew right away I was paralyzed," said Anaya, who cannot move his body below his neck.
Anaya, 21, who also suffered a broken right leg, was conscious during the accident's immediate aftermath. He heard a security guard call for help and looked straight into the eyes of the paramedics who came for him that Tuesday afternoon in January.
Anaya's first time climbing the 50-foot-high wall, operated by New York Sports Club at the Palisades Center in West Nyack, was also his last.
Devastating for anyone, those close to Anaya said his being left a quadriplegic seemed downright cruel for someone who so loved the outdoors. When he wasn't working at his 50-hours-a-week job as a plumbing contractor, Anaya was riding his all-terrain vehicle in the mud, playing handball, camping in the woods or visiting the gym.
He worked out regularly, lifting weights. He was never a big guy, he said, but quickly bulked up his 5-foot-9-inch frame to 160 pounds. Today, he weighs 135 pounds.
Understandably, Anaya doesn't always know how to reconcile his feelings about the accident. He's happy to be alive, yet he can't help wondering why he was left paralyzed. For the most part, he has adopted an upbeat view.
"You know, it's amazing I didn't have brain damage the way I hit my head," said Anaya, telling his story publicly for the first time. "It could have been a lot worse."
Anaya would like to say more about the day that changed his life, but he has been told not to by his family and lawyers. He has sued the Manhattan-based health club for millions of dollars. The cause of the accident has not been determined.
If he wins the case or there is a settlement, some money would pay his medical bills, which are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Anaya didn't have health insurance at his job, and he was too old to qualify for his mother's insurance plan.
Medicaid has been covering his medical costs.
Unless there is a future medical breakthrough, Anaya will never walk again, shoot a basketball or cradle his niece in his arms. The fall severely damaged his spinal cord between the fourth and fifth vertebrae in his neck, killing the spinal cord's fragile nerve cells. In medical terms, his damage is called a "complete" injury.
Anaya spent three months rehabilitating at Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw after being transferred from Nyack Hospital, where he made his initial recovery.
For weeks, Anaya was in critical condition. Because the spinal cord regulates body temperature and blood pressure, each fluctuated wildly. He ran a high fever. One night, his heart nearly stopped beating. He was on a ventilator for eight weeks. He still sometimes gets pounding headaches, and feels dizzy on other occasions.
But Anaya has survived the worst and now is capable of leading a productive life, said Inocencia Carrano, Anaya's doctor and director of spinal cord services at Helen Hayes Hospital.
"At this point, thank God, he's quite stable," she said. "Now most of the transition is emotional, getting used to living in an able-bodied world as a disabled person."
That process started six weeks ago, when Anaya returned to the Nanuet home where he grew up with his three older siblings.
A 2000 graduate of Nanuet High School, he lives on the ground floor of the family's high-ranch home, his hospital bed dominating his 12-foot-by-12-foot room. A television, a dresser and a table of medical supplies take up most of the remaining space.
A white crucifix hangs on the wall behind Anaya's bed. He was never much of a church regular, he said, but noted, "I am a Catholic."
Debbie Anaya, Joseph's mother, said some suggested that her son be moved to a nursing home where his daily needs could be better met, but she didn't think his living with people three or four times his age made much sense. They considered another center for the disabled that catered to all ages, but the family opted against it because it was in Kingston, N.Y., a 90-minute drive from their home.
"Our main goal was to get him home," said his eldest brother, David.
So a doorway was added connecting his room to the adjacent garage, enabling him to get in and out of the house. Via wheelchair, Joseph can travel into the family room next door. His older sister, Christina, now sleeps there so she can keep watch over him at night.
On Friday, Joseph Anaya's friends will hold a fund-raiser to pay for renovations to his home.
Plans call for enlarging the downstairs bathroom, installing a roll-in shower, adding an elevator so he can reach the second floor (he hasn't been there since his injury), widening all the doors in the house and constructing a wing on the back of the home. It will provide a larger bedroom, a therapy room, a separate entrance and a ramp.
Bobby Motter, a friend and former co-worker of Joseph Anaya's at EMFO Mechanical, a Sloatsburg plumbing and heating company, said the project would cost about $100,000 if the family had to pay for everything. But local suppliers are donating framing wood, windows, siding, roofing and concrete. A company plans to sell them the elevator at cost. An architect did the designs for free.
"He's confined to his bedroom, and it's very small," Motter said. "We were in the business and we thought we could do something for him. We got on it right away."
The goal is to raise $50,000, Motter said, and to have all the renovations done by September.
Joseph Anaya wishes he could help. He loved what he did, he said, building things, making them work together. He spoke proudly of the jobs he did at doctors' offices, gyms and condos.
But if there's one thing Joseph Anaya loves more than his work, it's his friends. He talked constantly of their steady support.
Of all the things he misses most, it's going out with his pals, attending concerts, going to a Mets ballgame. These things are not out of reach. If the family secures a wheelchair-accessible van, Anaya will be much more mobile.
He credits family and friends with helping him pull through in the hospital. Many came to visit. His buddies watched movies with him by his bed. Loved ones filled his room with flowers and teddy bears, which he still keeps in his room. Kelly, his 7-year-old niece, and all her first-grade classmates at Miller Elementary School in Nanuet made him cards.
"When I feel bad, my friends feel bad, so I don't feel bad," Anaya said.
Debbie Anaya said her son's outlook kept everyone optimistic and hopeful.
"He's tough and he has a sense of humor," she said. "He hasn't let it get him down, and I think that's helped everyone around him."
His positive attitude is tested almost daily. Getting used to his surroundings hasn't been as difficult as adjusting to being dependent on others, Joseph Anaya said.
He has to call for someone to complete the most minor tasks, such as changing a channel on the TV, reading a get-well card or scratching an itch on his face.
Lying in his raised bed, speaking with a visitor, Joseph Anaya's voice is strong, the opposite of his body. He smiles often. When he said he was thirsty, his mother or brother hurriedly brought him a glass of cherry-flavored Gatorade.
He watches TV most of the day, having become a regular viewer of "NYPD Blue," "Jeopardy," "Wheel of Fortune" and "Law and Order."
His daily schedule is listed on the wall. Most of the entries are for rest, medication, therapy, meals and catheterization, to aid with bowel and bladder function.
Anaya takes 20 pills each day, a combination of vitamins and painkillers. It's not pleasant, he said, but it's a picnic compared with the 37 pills he was swallowing daily in the hospital.
He still gets that "pins and needles" feeling in his fingertips and toes, a common sensation experienced by people who have lost feeling in their extremities. Sometimes the phantom pains burn.
A nurse spends 16 hours a day with Anaya, helping him with his physical therapy, turning him in his bed every two hours to prevent bedsores and giving him sponge baths.
At other times, loved ones spend an hour each day bending, twisting and stretching Anaya's arms, legs, elbows, knees, ankles, wrists and fingers in an effort to maintain his muscle tone.
A tracheotomy tube is imbedded between the skin and muscles of his neck, to help remove fluids from his lung and keep his airway passage clear.
Caregivers have to be careful. He is still very vulnerable, because even though his body can't feel pain, it will still respond to it.
"It could be a full bladder, a full bowel, a bedsore, a hangnail," said Carrano, Anaya's doctor.
When the body does respond to pain, Anaya must contend with throbbing headaches, sweats, or blurred vision. Untreated, his autonomic nervous system will break down, which may result in a seizure, stroke, brain hemorrhaging, even death, Carrano said.
Most days are good, Anaya said, and getting better. He is more comfortable with his wheelchair. He offered to demonstrate his skills on his driveway.
It takes two people and 15 minutes to shift Anaya from his bed to his wheelchair, and that's after they put on his neck brace. He's supposed to sit in the chair for an hour every day, to help build stamina in his lungs.
The wheelchair is controlled by how much air Anaya blows into or sucks out of a tube. A hard puff sends the chair scooting forward, a soft sip of air turns it to the left.
A $35,000 custom-made wheelchair is on its way, but Anaya notes he could have bought a BMW for that much money.
It's not an ATV, but the wheelchair is fast and handles well.
"I already took this one on the lawn and through the woods," he said. "But it's not the same."
Precious little is these days.
Reach Khurram Saeed at ksaeed@thejournalnews.com or 845-578-2412.Reach Khurram Saeed at ksaeed@thejournalnews.com or 845-578-2412.
http://www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroom/062203/a0122anaya.html
By KHURRAM SAEED
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: June 22, 2003)
NANUET - Joseph Anaya remembers falling 35 feet straight down from the indoor rock-climbing wall and cannot forget its impact - the back of his neck smashing against a nearby fence, crushing his spinal cord.
"I knew right away I was paralyzed," said Anaya, who cannot move his body below his neck.
Anaya, 21, who also suffered a broken right leg, was conscious during the accident's immediate aftermath. He heard a security guard call for help and looked straight into the eyes of the paramedics who came for him that Tuesday afternoon in January.
Anaya's first time climbing the 50-foot-high wall, operated by New York Sports Club at the Palisades Center in West Nyack, was also his last.
Devastating for anyone, those close to Anaya said his being left a quadriplegic seemed downright cruel for someone who so loved the outdoors. When he wasn't working at his 50-hours-a-week job as a plumbing contractor, Anaya was riding his all-terrain vehicle in the mud, playing handball, camping in the woods or visiting the gym.
He worked out regularly, lifting weights. He was never a big guy, he said, but quickly bulked up his 5-foot-9-inch frame to 160 pounds. Today, he weighs 135 pounds.
Understandably, Anaya doesn't always know how to reconcile his feelings about the accident. He's happy to be alive, yet he can't help wondering why he was left paralyzed. For the most part, he has adopted an upbeat view.
"You know, it's amazing I didn't have brain damage the way I hit my head," said Anaya, telling his story publicly for the first time. "It could have been a lot worse."
Anaya would like to say more about the day that changed his life, but he has been told not to by his family and lawyers. He has sued the Manhattan-based health club for millions of dollars. The cause of the accident has not been determined.
If he wins the case or there is a settlement, some money would pay his medical bills, which are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Anaya didn't have health insurance at his job, and he was too old to qualify for his mother's insurance plan.
Medicaid has been covering his medical costs.
Unless there is a future medical breakthrough, Anaya will never walk again, shoot a basketball or cradle his niece in his arms. The fall severely damaged his spinal cord between the fourth and fifth vertebrae in his neck, killing the spinal cord's fragile nerve cells. In medical terms, his damage is called a "complete" injury.
Anaya spent three months rehabilitating at Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw after being transferred from Nyack Hospital, where he made his initial recovery.
For weeks, Anaya was in critical condition. Because the spinal cord regulates body temperature and blood pressure, each fluctuated wildly. He ran a high fever. One night, his heart nearly stopped beating. He was on a ventilator for eight weeks. He still sometimes gets pounding headaches, and feels dizzy on other occasions.
But Anaya has survived the worst and now is capable of leading a productive life, said Inocencia Carrano, Anaya's doctor and director of spinal cord services at Helen Hayes Hospital.
"At this point, thank God, he's quite stable," she said. "Now most of the transition is emotional, getting used to living in an able-bodied world as a disabled person."
That process started six weeks ago, when Anaya returned to the Nanuet home where he grew up with his three older siblings.
A 2000 graduate of Nanuet High School, he lives on the ground floor of the family's high-ranch home, his hospital bed dominating his 12-foot-by-12-foot room. A television, a dresser and a table of medical supplies take up most of the remaining space.
A white crucifix hangs on the wall behind Anaya's bed. He was never much of a church regular, he said, but noted, "I am a Catholic."
Debbie Anaya, Joseph's mother, said some suggested that her son be moved to a nursing home where his daily needs could be better met, but she didn't think his living with people three or four times his age made much sense. They considered another center for the disabled that catered to all ages, but the family opted against it because it was in Kingston, N.Y., a 90-minute drive from their home.
"Our main goal was to get him home," said his eldest brother, David.
So a doorway was added connecting his room to the adjacent garage, enabling him to get in and out of the house. Via wheelchair, Joseph can travel into the family room next door. His older sister, Christina, now sleeps there so she can keep watch over him at night.
On Friday, Joseph Anaya's friends will hold a fund-raiser to pay for renovations to his home.
Plans call for enlarging the downstairs bathroom, installing a roll-in shower, adding an elevator so he can reach the second floor (he hasn't been there since his injury), widening all the doors in the house and constructing a wing on the back of the home. It will provide a larger bedroom, a therapy room, a separate entrance and a ramp.
Bobby Motter, a friend and former co-worker of Joseph Anaya's at EMFO Mechanical, a Sloatsburg plumbing and heating company, said the project would cost about $100,000 if the family had to pay for everything. But local suppliers are donating framing wood, windows, siding, roofing and concrete. A company plans to sell them the elevator at cost. An architect did the designs for free.
"He's confined to his bedroom, and it's very small," Motter said. "We were in the business and we thought we could do something for him. We got on it right away."
The goal is to raise $50,000, Motter said, and to have all the renovations done by September.
Joseph Anaya wishes he could help. He loved what he did, he said, building things, making them work together. He spoke proudly of the jobs he did at doctors' offices, gyms and condos.
But if there's one thing Joseph Anaya loves more than his work, it's his friends. He talked constantly of their steady support.
Of all the things he misses most, it's going out with his pals, attending concerts, going to a Mets ballgame. These things are not out of reach. If the family secures a wheelchair-accessible van, Anaya will be much more mobile.
He credits family and friends with helping him pull through in the hospital. Many came to visit. His buddies watched movies with him by his bed. Loved ones filled his room with flowers and teddy bears, which he still keeps in his room. Kelly, his 7-year-old niece, and all her first-grade classmates at Miller Elementary School in Nanuet made him cards.
"When I feel bad, my friends feel bad, so I don't feel bad," Anaya said.
Debbie Anaya said her son's outlook kept everyone optimistic and hopeful.
"He's tough and he has a sense of humor," she said. "He hasn't let it get him down, and I think that's helped everyone around him."
His positive attitude is tested almost daily. Getting used to his surroundings hasn't been as difficult as adjusting to being dependent on others, Joseph Anaya said.
He has to call for someone to complete the most minor tasks, such as changing a channel on the TV, reading a get-well card or scratching an itch on his face.
Lying in his raised bed, speaking with a visitor, Joseph Anaya's voice is strong, the opposite of his body. He smiles often. When he said he was thirsty, his mother or brother hurriedly brought him a glass of cherry-flavored Gatorade.
He watches TV most of the day, having become a regular viewer of "NYPD Blue," "Jeopardy," "Wheel of Fortune" and "Law and Order."
His daily schedule is listed on the wall. Most of the entries are for rest, medication, therapy, meals and catheterization, to aid with bowel and bladder function.
Anaya takes 20 pills each day, a combination of vitamins and painkillers. It's not pleasant, he said, but it's a picnic compared with the 37 pills he was swallowing daily in the hospital.
He still gets that "pins and needles" feeling in his fingertips and toes, a common sensation experienced by people who have lost feeling in their extremities. Sometimes the phantom pains burn.
A nurse spends 16 hours a day with Anaya, helping him with his physical therapy, turning him in his bed every two hours to prevent bedsores and giving him sponge baths.
At other times, loved ones spend an hour each day bending, twisting and stretching Anaya's arms, legs, elbows, knees, ankles, wrists and fingers in an effort to maintain his muscle tone.
A tracheotomy tube is imbedded between the skin and muscles of his neck, to help remove fluids from his lung and keep his airway passage clear.
Caregivers have to be careful. He is still very vulnerable, because even though his body can't feel pain, it will still respond to it.
"It could be a full bladder, a full bowel, a bedsore, a hangnail," said Carrano, Anaya's doctor.
When the body does respond to pain, Anaya must contend with throbbing headaches, sweats, or blurred vision. Untreated, his autonomic nervous system will break down, which may result in a seizure, stroke, brain hemorrhaging, even death, Carrano said.
Most days are good, Anaya said, and getting better. He is more comfortable with his wheelchair. He offered to demonstrate his skills on his driveway.
It takes two people and 15 minutes to shift Anaya from his bed to his wheelchair, and that's after they put on his neck brace. He's supposed to sit in the chair for an hour every day, to help build stamina in his lungs.
The wheelchair is controlled by how much air Anaya blows into or sucks out of a tube. A hard puff sends the chair scooting forward, a soft sip of air turns it to the left.
A $35,000 custom-made wheelchair is on its way, but Anaya notes he could have bought a BMW for that much money.
It's not an ATV, but the wheelchair is fast and handles well.
"I already took this one on the lawn and through the woods," he said. "But it's not the same."
Precious little is these days.
Reach Khurram Saeed at ksaeed@thejournalnews.com or 845-578-2412.Reach Khurram Saeed at ksaeed@thejournalnews.com or 845-578-2412.
http://www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroom/062203/a0122anaya.html