HomeMy WebLinkAboutFarming '88, 1988-03-30, Page 38PAGE 14. FARMING ’88, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1988.
Accident's complications again threatened life
Continued from page 13
pain killer, but he was aware that
there was to be no surgery
attempted; instead, his doctor
ordered 90 days of complete bed
rest, which meant that nurses had
to turn him every four hours, night
and day, to prevent bedsores.
Nevertheless, complications set
in, some of them potentially more
life-threatening than the spinal
injury. Neil’s damaged digestive
system did not function for nearly
three weeks, and he lost 24 lbs.
from his already spare frame in 26
days; then pneumonia set in,
largely as a result of the crushing
damage done to his lungs. Finally,
blood clots began to form in his
legs, the result of the blood pooling
there from inactivity, broke loose,
and travelled to his lungs, a
potential killer.
“I had to live on rat killer -
Warfarin - for the next ten months,
topreventfurther clotting,” he
laughs now, but it was far from
funny then.
In mid-March, Neil was return
ed to the Wingham hospital, a
great morale booster; and in
mid-May was moved back to
Parkwood Hospital in London for
the start of his rehabilitation. At
that point, nobody knew how much
or how little he would be able to do
again, how much or how little his
life had changed.
In August, he finally came home
to the family farm, although he had
to continue physiotherapy sessions
at the Goderich hospital up until
lastNovember. Today, Neil Staple
ton wears fibreglass braces on his
Friends, neighbours flock
to farm family's assistance
Neil Stapleton, who was the
guest speaker at the 15th annual
conference of the Farm Safety
Association Inc. in Toronto earlier
this month, says he could never
have survived his farm accident in
the shape he’s in if it hadn’t been
for the help of his family, friends
and neighbours.
“They were all just tremendous -
you can never pay back something
like that,” says the West Wawa-
nosh farmer, who suffered a spinal
cord injury in a farm accident 14
months ago. “The morning after
theaccidenttherewas standing
room only at my barn to do the
chores, and they came back for
chores every day for weeks, as well
as cleaning out all my pens and
yards and better than they’d ever
been.”
In the spring, he told the
delegatesattheconference, his
wife was heading out to the field
with the tractor when a neighbour
pulled in behind her and took over;
itwas the same at haying, when
neighbour Wayne Durnin organiz
ed a big gang of men to take the hay
off-50acresofabumper crop in
one day. The same help was there
for the harvest, he said, and is still
there, when it is needed.
Neil’s wife, Nancy, had to take
over the majority of the day to day
farm work and choring from the
time of the accident, as she still
does without a grumble. But she
says she could not likely have
managed the first few traumatic
weeks if it hadn’t been for the help
of her mother, 79-year-old Esther
Kelly of RR 2, Dublin, a former
school teacher.
“ She came in here as soon as she
lower legs, supporting the limbs
from knee to ankle and keeping his
feet from dragging. He can get
along fairly well indoors, on
smooth floors, but because he can't
pick up his feet, he has difficulty
walking out of doors, but has
graduated from using crutches to
using two canes on the rougher
going.
There is some feeling in his
thighs, which still have good
muscular strength, but no feeling
at all in his lower legs or feet: he
broke his big toe recently without
being aware of it, and has tobe very
careful of being outside in the
winter, since frostbite is a hazard.
As well, much of the strength is lost
from the lower back muscles, so he
overbalances easily, and must be
forever on guard.
Doctors are reluctant to make
prognosis in spinal cord injuries, so
none have offered the Stapletons
any hope for Neil’s future. But
Nancy, trained as a registered
nurse, sees a big difference in his
mobility, and people who don’t see
him for several weeks at a time are
often amazed at how far he has
advanced. Neil himself says he
sees little change, then admits that
he can do much more than he used
to, but says it is a constant source of
frustration to tackle some simple
task, and find he can’t handle it -
such as feeding cattle, when he can
only use one hand while balancing
himself on the manger with the
other, or stepping across a sloppy
spot in the barnyard, because he
can’t swing his legs that far.
heard (of the accident), and just
took over the house,” Nancy says.
“I really don’t know what I’d have
done without her.”
Mrs. Kelly would drive over,
stay for several days at a time, and
take over virtually all the house
keeping chores, including the
cleaning and cooking. The first
spring, she planted the family’s
entire large garden, and in the fall,
she took a fork and dug every one of
winter’s store of potatoes - all in a
day’s work for a lady well over
three score years and ten.
Neil Stapleton’s community as a
whole pitched in to help the family
out as well, offering the kind
support that small rural communi
ties do so well. The Lucknow Lions
Club has provided the specially
constructed braces the disabled
farmer must wear all his waking
hours; while several organizations
and individuals in the community
hostedaSupportNeil Stapleton
Night last September 11, during
which they raised more than
$13,000 in pledges and donations
for the family’s use - no strings
attached.
The Stapletons know that the
generosity they have experienced
can never be repayed, but having
been on the receiving end of so
much of it, they do have some
advicefor others who are able to
help whenever a family is hit with
tragedy.
Don’t ask what you can do to
help, they say - justgo and do it.
Most families, especially farm
families, will never ask for help. So
if you really want to help, drop
over, look around to see what needs
doing - and do it.
The one thing he can do is drive a
truck or tractor “as good as the
next man,” and he was able to
truck corn to the elevator himself,
and did all the fall plowing on his
own, just weeks out of Parkwood.
He does not use a two-way radio in
the vehicles, but says he is seldom
anywhere that he could not
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Huron-Bruce
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summon help if need be.
At this time, life for the
Stapletons has not changed dra
matically to the casual observer.
But Nancy, who has always cared
for the farm’s small cow-calf herd,
has had to pick up far more of the
choring for the 200-300 animal beef
feedlot the family runs, as well as
the myriad of other jobs Neil can no
longer do, orcandoonly slowly.
The couple’s two daughters still at
home help out, but neither wants to
stay in farming, and both have jobs
away from home and are just not
available much of the time. They
have also had to hire a man, which
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