Paralyzed Disabled Couple Seek Grant Money For Financial Autonomy
by Bianca Carroll
My husband and I
It was May 28, 2002. I was in the prime of my life, only 23 years old. My friend and I we're heading up the mountain in his four-wheel drive. My sister asked if we could give her a ride home. I said "sure. " The three of us then climbed into the cab of the pickup truck. I went to put on my seat belt but my sister was sitting on it. So I thought to myself, "It's just up the road. I'll put on my seat belt when my sister gets out of the truck." We began driving up the hill. We turned on to a switchback, but the other driver just kept turning and the truck went down through the trees landing on its nose. When this happened I came down on my neck and broke it in four places. I had no idea but the driver of the truck was under the influence of alcohol. I remember when coming to I was upside down in the truck. I could feel my body on my face but I could not feel my face on my body. Then I realized that all I could feel was my head. At that point I knew my neck was broken and I was paralyzed. I yelled at my sister, "Pull me out of here I can't breathe!" She said, "You're not supposed to move somebody if their neck is broken." I told her, "If you don't get me out of here I'll die; I can't breathe." She grabbed me by my legs and pulled me out of the truck, and laid me on the ground. Then she ran to a phone and called for help. An hour later the ambulance arrived. They drove me down to the pavement were a helicopter was waiting for me. The helicopter then flew me to Saint Joseph hospital. My family was all called to come and say goodbye to me because they did not think I would live through surgery. I spent eight hours in surgery getting my neck fused together, and then they put a halo on me. I'll never forget the grief I felt when the nurse came and told me, "You know you'll never walk again." I got very angry and told her, "You don't know that. Anything is possible with God." I spent eight days in intensive care. After that I flew to San Diego and stayed six weeks in the spinal rehab unit of Santa Clara valley medical center. I then returned home to try and figure out how to live life with no use of my hands and legs. For the first two years I felt so hopeless. I cried day and night. I thought that no one would ever want to be with me, because I was a quadriplegic. God works in mysterious ways though, because he sent me the love of my life, my best friend and husband john Carroll. My husband John is also in a wheelchair. He is paralyzed down the left side of his body. He also was a passenger in a drunk-driving accident 19 years ago, at the age of 25. He flew over the roll bar of a Jeep into the bank like a dart. When help arrived they found his mouth packed full of dirt and he was in a coma. They took him to the hospital where he spent three months in a coma before he awoke. It was still another three months before he was able to function. Between my husband and me we have only one working hand, but we do the best we can with it. My husband is a wonderful artist, who dreams of one day opening his own art gallery to sell his beautiful paintings. This dream is so important to my husband because he wants us to become financially independent of the government. He wants to take care of me like the princess he thinks I am. We have called and had a couple of art galleries offer to show his work. However, we have no transportation of our own that is wheelchair accessible to do this. In fact, we can't make it to the doctor's or out to get groceries, not to mention all of the other things we could do if we had a wheelchair accessible van. John and I live on his father's property located in the rural area of Hoopa California located on a small Indian reservation. We're far from many places that we need to travel to. We have not been able to save enough money to get our own wheelchair accessible van due to our limited finances through SSI.
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