Couple needs help to welcome paralyzed son home - To the Rescue: Folks come through

[The Straight Story]

Couple needs help to welcome paralyzed son home

CANTON TWP. —

It was supposed to be a fun time with friends riding dirt bikes.

But March 30, Tyler Rockstroh crashed, and his injuries left him unable to walk. Now the 16-year-old’s family is scrambling to renovate their home in time for Tyler’s release from the hospital. And time is running out.

Tyler is expected to come home from the Cleveland Clinic in less than two months. His stepdad, Christopher Smith, is trying to modify his Faircrest Street SE home to make it wheelchair accessible.

As a township fire captain and paramedic, Smith is used to responding to calls for help from others.

....

TO THE RESCUE

There is hope for the family as an ecumenical Christian group called Hammer and Nails is planning to do some carpentry work at the home. Township firefighters also are pitching in by providing labor.

“On the 14th, the 15th and 16th (of May), there are going to be so many people here,” said Jodi Wayble, community outreach coordinator for Hammer and Nails. “We are going to be here with teams of volunteers, building a wheelchair ramp and enclosing the back porch to make it Tyler’s bedroom.”

Smith has been taking time off work since Tyler’s accident. His wife, Lorie Smith, also is disabled with a neurological disorder.

“As far as the township, they are letting him use his sick time,” said Fire Chief Scott McKibben. “A bunch of guys (firefighters) are going to help him with the construction and remodeling of his house.”

http://www.cantonrep.com/carousel/x359586116/Couple-needs-help-to-welcome-paralyzed-son-home

[virgogal]

1. Nice to see people helping each other out. We have a similar

situation here in MA where a young man is now a quadriplegic because of a hockey accident several months ago.

[FightingIrish]

2. That's so familiar it's painful to read.

A little over five years ago my wife and I were in the same predicament. Our son had been badly injured after just a few weeks at college. The neurosurgeons did some remarkable work on his spinal cord injury but wouldn’t promise he could ever walk again. Even after weeks in a rehabilitation unit he was not up to traveling in a car or even taking a commercial flight home. Members of a club I belong to raised the money to fly him home in an air ambulance. A contractor friend built a wheelchair ramp from the garage to the lower floor where his bedroom turned hospital room was located. An excavation contractor carved a long wheelchair path into the hillside so we could wheel him up to the main floor of our house.

Medicine did wonders but good deeds did miracles. Within a few months he returned to school even though he was wheelchair bound and still in a lot of pain. Through guts and determination he has worked his may back to walking without even a cane and last December he received a bachelors degree in physics. This kid’s parents are really key to his recovery and any help they get will go a long way to giving their son back his life.