Max
12-13-2002, 06:48 PM
It's Quinn - Again
by Lyn Johnson
Editor
Once she rode horses, jet skied, coached football and soccer, danced 'till dawn and was a lively five-foot bundle of never-ending energy. She operated a paralegal office in Blythe and at one time was a reporter for the Palo Verde Valley Times; writing a weekly column entitled "Quinn Again."
Now, Taunya Quinn sits in a wheelchair, paralyzed.
"People don't realize in an instant, you can have a life-affecting moment that changes the rest of your life. Once I did it all. Now, I can do nothing myself. I can't even take care of myself," Quinn said. "I was active in the community, in Kiwanis, I was going back to law school...And then, my whole life changed in that one moment - - one moment."
On a Thursday sunny afternoon, April 4 of this year, Quinn slid down a 30 to 50-foot embankment while riding a four-wheeler with friends in San Felipe, Mexico. With her body bruised and broken, with a punctured lung and critical injuries, Quinn was transported from Mexico to El Centro, California, by ground. From there, Air Medi-Vac flew her to UC San Diego.
"I remember going in and out of consciousness. I recognized the flight nurse immediately, Trina Sartin, from Blythe. If there was ever a comforting moment in any of this, it was to see her smiling down at me when I came to, during the flight," Quinn said. Jess Gatchel was the Medi-Vac pilot.
"I remember Trina and then the next time I woke up, I was in a trauma unit with a bunch of doctors around me. I was in excruciating pain. My entire back and legs. They hurt," Quinn said.
Doctors will explain there is a world of difference between damaging a spine and damaging a spinal cord. Unfortunately for Quinn, she suffered both injuries, as well as shattering several vertebrae.
A 10-hour surgery, in which doctors used bone marrow from Quinn's hip to recreate some of the vertebrae, a steel rod was placed along her spinal cord to lend support. Nerve damage was extensive.
After a brief stay, Quinn was sent to San Diego Rehabilitation Institute. Victims suffering injuries such as Quinn's usually stay a minimum of six months to a year in rehab, gaining strength and learning how to function.
However, within a short time, it was learned that Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance had canceled Quinn's policy, despite the fact they had been receiving monthly payments on said policy.
The Rehab Center promptly sent Quinn home in less than four weeks - in a wheelchair, without a home health or other qualified, trained individual to care for her.
Now, not only did Quinn not have insurance coverage, but she had monumental hospital bills, no income and no local doctor familiar with the gravity of her injuries. Quinn was unable to work. Indeed, she was unable to even dress herself or see to basic needs.
As her home was not handicap accessible, it was impossible to even get a glass of water, reach something in a cabinet, take a shower.....the list goes on.
"This has been like shell-shock for me. During my hospital stay I even had an office assistant steal money from me," Quinn said. "I tried working to pay bills. It was hard. I had a mortgage, utilities, on top of medical expenses."
Today, Quinn works part-time at her paralegal office on Broadway. However, her resources are few, her bills monumental and her prospects dim.
Quinn is in desperate need of many things, not the least of these, financial help.
Quinn owns a small modest home in Mesa Verde. However, it is not handicap assessable. Modifications to make it so will be extensive.
Kitchen cabinets need to be lowered, doors widened. A bathroom, which would include a handicap shower, would need to be built.
Quinn does not even own a shower wheelchair and has no resources in which to purchase one. The cost starts at about $1200.
Physical therapy equipment, such as weight and exercise equipment, that could help to strengthen Quinn's upper and lower body, helping to rebuild atrophied muscles would be a great plus. "My legs are just about dead weight," Quinn said. "Whatever equipment I can get to strengthen what I have left would be good. My hands, my arms, my upper body - they are everything to me now. They are all I have.
"There's a lot to each individual. We are all made up of emotional, physical, mental and spiritual needs. For a person who has my kind of injuries, these are all compounded.
"I sometimes think of the saying, 'It takes a whole village to raise a child.' For the handicapped person, it takes a whole village to help them function. Communities need to be educated. It takes more than building handicap ramps into buildings and having special near-by parking. It is so much more.
"It is amazing what a handicapped person needs to enable them to function. A person would just about have to put themselves in my wheelchair to see what it's like," Quinn said. "Getting the right perspective means you actually have to sit there and whatever is out of reach from that chair - well, it's out of reach. It prohibits the handicapped person from even being able to function.
"Even purchasing necessary equipment, if you go on the internet and look for physical therapy equipment for a handicapped person, prices start at twice as much as those for a non-injured person," Quinn said. "At my level of capabilities I cannot even make the transfer from my bed to my wheelchair without help."
There are clinical trials for spinal cord injuries. However, the spinal cord does not stabilize until 18 months after the injury occurs, which means, at this time Quinn has been told she does not qualify.
A fund raising dinner for Taunya Quinn will take place Thursday, December 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the VFW Hall, located at 148 North First Street in Blythe. A voluntary donation of $25 per person is requested by the "Friends of Taunya Quinn." Dinners-to-go are also available. For more information, call the VFW at 922-6830 or Barbara at 218-5677. Donations may also be brought to the Palo Verde Valley Times.
"People don't realize this kind of injury, as severe as it is, could happen to anyone. It could happen to them. Someone was telling me their son broke a hip and it took two years for him to recover. I have more than a broken hip. I may never recover," Quinn said. "Ask me what I miss the most. The answer would be, mostly I miss it all."
Back To Palo Verde Valley Online Home Page
http://www.paloverdevalleytimes.com/blythecanews/myarticles.asp?P=690865&S=395&PubID=9979&EC=0
by Lyn Johnson
Editor
Once she rode horses, jet skied, coached football and soccer, danced 'till dawn and was a lively five-foot bundle of never-ending energy. She operated a paralegal office in Blythe and at one time was a reporter for the Palo Verde Valley Times; writing a weekly column entitled "Quinn Again."
Now, Taunya Quinn sits in a wheelchair, paralyzed.
"People don't realize in an instant, you can have a life-affecting moment that changes the rest of your life. Once I did it all. Now, I can do nothing myself. I can't even take care of myself," Quinn said. "I was active in the community, in Kiwanis, I was going back to law school...And then, my whole life changed in that one moment - - one moment."
On a Thursday sunny afternoon, April 4 of this year, Quinn slid down a 30 to 50-foot embankment while riding a four-wheeler with friends in San Felipe, Mexico. With her body bruised and broken, with a punctured lung and critical injuries, Quinn was transported from Mexico to El Centro, California, by ground. From there, Air Medi-Vac flew her to UC San Diego.
"I remember going in and out of consciousness. I recognized the flight nurse immediately, Trina Sartin, from Blythe. If there was ever a comforting moment in any of this, it was to see her smiling down at me when I came to, during the flight," Quinn said. Jess Gatchel was the Medi-Vac pilot.
"I remember Trina and then the next time I woke up, I was in a trauma unit with a bunch of doctors around me. I was in excruciating pain. My entire back and legs. They hurt," Quinn said.
Doctors will explain there is a world of difference between damaging a spine and damaging a spinal cord. Unfortunately for Quinn, she suffered both injuries, as well as shattering several vertebrae.
A 10-hour surgery, in which doctors used bone marrow from Quinn's hip to recreate some of the vertebrae, a steel rod was placed along her spinal cord to lend support. Nerve damage was extensive.
After a brief stay, Quinn was sent to San Diego Rehabilitation Institute. Victims suffering injuries such as Quinn's usually stay a minimum of six months to a year in rehab, gaining strength and learning how to function.
However, within a short time, it was learned that Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance had canceled Quinn's policy, despite the fact they had been receiving monthly payments on said policy.
The Rehab Center promptly sent Quinn home in less than four weeks - in a wheelchair, without a home health or other qualified, trained individual to care for her.
Now, not only did Quinn not have insurance coverage, but she had monumental hospital bills, no income and no local doctor familiar with the gravity of her injuries. Quinn was unable to work. Indeed, she was unable to even dress herself or see to basic needs.
As her home was not handicap accessible, it was impossible to even get a glass of water, reach something in a cabinet, take a shower.....the list goes on.
"This has been like shell-shock for me. During my hospital stay I even had an office assistant steal money from me," Quinn said. "I tried working to pay bills. It was hard. I had a mortgage, utilities, on top of medical expenses."
Today, Quinn works part-time at her paralegal office on Broadway. However, her resources are few, her bills monumental and her prospects dim.
Quinn is in desperate need of many things, not the least of these, financial help.
Quinn owns a small modest home in Mesa Verde. However, it is not handicap assessable. Modifications to make it so will be extensive.
Kitchen cabinets need to be lowered, doors widened. A bathroom, which would include a handicap shower, would need to be built.
Quinn does not even own a shower wheelchair and has no resources in which to purchase one. The cost starts at about $1200.
Physical therapy equipment, such as weight and exercise equipment, that could help to strengthen Quinn's upper and lower body, helping to rebuild atrophied muscles would be a great plus. "My legs are just about dead weight," Quinn said. "Whatever equipment I can get to strengthen what I have left would be good. My hands, my arms, my upper body - they are everything to me now. They are all I have.
"There's a lot to each individual. We are all made up of emotional, physical, mental and spiritual needs. For a person who has my kind of injuries, these are all compounded.
"I sometimes think of the saying, 'It takes a whole village to raise a child.' For the handicapped person, it takes a whole village to help them function. Communities need to be educated. It takes more than building handicap ramps into buildings and having special near-by parking. It is so much more.
"It is amazing what a handicapped person needs to enable them to function. A person would just about have to put themselves in my wheelchair to see what it's like," Quinn said. "Getting the right perspective means you actually have to sit there and whatever is out of reach from that chair - well, it's out of reach. It prohibits the handicapped person from even being able to function.
"Even purchasing necessary equipment, if you go on the internet and look for physical therapy equipment for a handicapped person, prices start at twice as much as those for a non-injured person," Quinn said. "At my level of capabilities I cannot even make the transfer from my bed to my wheelchair without help."
There are clinical trials for spinal cord injuries. However, the spinal cord does not stabilize until 18 months after the injury occurs, which means, at this time Quinn has been told she does not qualify.
A fund raising dinner for Taunya Quinn will take place Thursday, December 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the VFW Hall, located at 148 North First Street in Blythe. A voluntary donation of $25 per person is requested by the "Friends of Taunya Quinn." Dinners-to-go are also available. For more information, call the VFW at 922-6830 or Barbara at 218-5677. Donations may also be brought to the Palo Verde Valley Times.
"People don't realize this kind of injury, as severe as it is, could happen to anyone. It could happen to them. Someone was telling me their son broke a hip and it took two years for him to recover. I have more than a broken hip. I may never recover," Quinn said. "Ask me what I miss the most. The answer would be, mostly I miss it all."
Back To Palo Verde Valley Online Home Page
http://www.paloverdevalleytimes.com/blythecanews/myarticles.asp?P=690865&S=395&PubID=9979&EC=0