My name is Laurie Lafferty-John. On September 5th, 2020 my 27 year old son Jackson was involved in a bad car accident causing an incomplete spinal cord injury with a jump fracture at C6-7 resulting in severe quadriplegia.
His care was given at ECMC (Erie County Medical Center) in Buffalo, NY. His initial spinal surgery involved fusion of C4-T1. In 10 days, he was moved to the Medical Rehabilitation Unit receiving intensive OT/PT sessions. At this point, he already had developed a pressure wound on his coccyx area. After a few weeks he began to have voluntary muscle firing in his upper legs (quadriceps, hamstrings, adductor, and abductor muscles) while on the Moveio table doing assisted squats. Other voluntary movements were noted while on the mat table such as toe movements by the physiatrists Dr. Mark Levy at Erie County Medical Center.
Unfortunately, after working so incredibly hard, around the 5th week he began to have neck pain. The radiology reports showed that his hardware was beginning to come loose and the orthopedic surgeon needed to go in and fuse from C2-T1 and add rods on each side of his spine. This surgery left him with no or little muscle firing and voluntary toe movements. This was so devastating . He was living the nightmare all over again. Jackson fell into a very deep depression and his pressure wound was no a stage 4.
He then was readmitted to the Intensive Rehab floor at ECMC staying 3 weeks. His entire hospital stay as during COVID- which brought restricting visitors and really made things so hard for him emotionally. He begged to come home and on November 18th, 2020 we brought him home. We were thankful to have friends and family they helped get a downstairs room ready and to repurpose our mudroom into a shower room and we were able to build a ramp to get him into our home.
He has worked through in home OT/PT therapy, out patient therapy and is now seeking intensive therapy with dedication to get Jackson the training he needs to regain more function. A year ago, his tone in his legs were almost non-existent. When I would perform his ROM exercises several times a day his legs were very noodle like. We have noticed an improved tone and some voluntary movement in his legs while he is in the pool.
Jackson has 2 other brothers, who built him a mat table, and as a family of welders they built him a hydraulic standing table as well. Jackson had a FES bike gifted to him by a fellow teacher that I work with and this has helped tremendously in Jackson not losing muscle tone and has eliminated a great deal of atrophy. He also uses it on his hands and abdominals as well.
Jackson is an extremely big hearted, handsome young man. A very talented athlete (football, basketball and lacrosse) he is a very competitive person. My hopes is that he would get involved in some adapted sports. HE is really struggling with getting back into the social aspect of life. he does not want to go out in public and my fear is that will get worse as time passes. I am thankful for the friends who still stop by and spend time and that he has 2 brothers who do a lot with him. He was employed as a Union Carpenter at the time of his accident. Many of his superiors have discussed how incredibly talented and hardworking he is. His superiors have noted outstanding his leadership and his visionary capabilities. He has a real knack working with his hands, which unfortunately are not moving that well currently.
Jackson has very limited fine motor skills. He does have the capability to transfer, which we thank God for each day. He doesn’t have much sensation below his chest. He can feel deep touch more than light touch. He does mention that has improved a little bit.
He loves to cook (great cook BTW), ride the side by side with his brother, and has 2 nieces that live next to us and they are his inspiration to live and to find a way to get better. He loves boating and skiing, fishing and hunting.
This had certainly been the biggest challenge of our lives. We are hopeful that there are rehabilitative therapies that can help Jackson experience a higher quality of life and possibly regain function. We give thanks for all of the blessings given to Jackson thus far and pray each day for the ones lying ahead of him.
Thank you changing the lives of thousands of SCI patients and their families as well.
Sincerely,
Laurie Lafferty-John
