Advertisement

Strangers rally to buy quadriplegic man a wheelchair van

Eric Heighton stands with his wife and CBC reporter Jennifer Henderson. He crushed his third vertebrae while sleepwalking.

A quadriplegic River John, N.S. man may never walk again, but he is hoping to get back a different kind of mobility thanks to the kindness of strangers online.

Eric Heighton has never seen his grandchildren’s concerts or football games. Not because he doesn’t want to, but because it’s too hard to get there.

After coming tantalizingly close to winning a contest for a wheelchair-accessible van earlier this year, friends and family of the navy veteran are trying again.

Heighton received 56,000 votes, enough for fifth place in the North American-wide contest sponsored by Automotive Mobility Solutions as part of Mobility Awareness Month — but it was not enough to win.

Heighton and his wife Maxine said they were disappointed and figured it was a long shot anyway. That might have been the end of the story, but an old high school friend decided the campaign wasn’t over.

Beth Sinnis lost touch with Heighton years ago but reconnected with him during the contest. She started a new fundraising campaign to buy the Heighton’s the van they wanted.

“Maxine made [the contest website] personal by posting little tidbits about their daily life. Everyone was drawn to that website. We all felt a personal connection to Eric and we wanted them to win,” said Sinnis.

“So we were all very disappointed when they didn’t win. So I thought, why not try to fundraise instead of waiting another year to try and enter the contest again? They need it now.”

Ten years ago Heighton woke up in the middle of the night at the bottom of the stairs.

“[I was] looking at my arms and I couldn’t figure out whose arms they were,” he said.

He’d crushed his third vertebrae after falling down the stairs while sleepwalking. He was face down and couldn’t breathe.

Heighton’s dog rolled him on his back, saving his life. The dog waited four hours until Maxine woke up and found him.

Heighton was nearly completely paralyzed from the neck down, with only limited use of one hand.

He had just retired from the navy six months before the accident and he was planning on marrying Maxine and settling down in the home he’d built.

The couple married only months after the accident.

First only able to use his chin to steer the electric scooter, now Heighton has recovered just enough strength in one hand to nudge the controls in the chair and to click a mouse. From there he can access the internet.

“My computer and the chair is freedom,” he said.

He scoots around between the house, the yard, and the workshop in the garage, his dogs trailing him the whole way. Still it’s not quite enough.

Heighton can be carried into the couple’s car, but the process is exhausting and uncomfortable. It’s also difficult for his wife, who does much of the legwork.

“[So] I don’t go anywhere,” Heighton said. “I go as far as my wheelchair will take me.”

If he could drive his scooter directly into the van, Heighton said he could go anywhere.

Besides visiting his grandchildren, there is somewhere else Heighton would like to go.

“Anywhere there’s a Nascar race,” he said.