Community rallies around the Wrights
A soup and sandwich benefit was held Jan. 26, at River View High School for the Eric and Jody Wright family.
Eric spent six months in the hospital after being injured in freak accident on a bridge coming from Killbuck with wife Jody last March which left him a quadriplegic.
“I am just so grateful that all of the people in the community came out for me and my family,” Eric said. “I don’t know what I would have done without the all the help from the community, Veterans Helping Veterans, Blue Star Mothers, the veterans administration. We have been getting donations. I feel very blessed that my wife and I have touched this many people in our life. I am thankful that they came out in support for us. God Bless everybody. ”
Jody said, “We are astonished. People talk negatively about our community, negativity about the VA but there has been nothing but caring people. We need to make sure that every day we do something kind and some day, somehow, some way Eric and I will repay the blessings bestowed upon us. Whether it is touching a child’s life, the elderly or a group of people, that is what we want. We just have to get settled in our new life, our new journey. This just wasn’t in our plan. This is God’s plan and there is a reason why he is still alive because it did not look good for the first full month he was on a ventilator. He had a broken neck from the C-2 to T-2, a stroke during the accident and pneumonia twice. Three months after the accident the feeding tube and trachea came out. He had speech therapy and therapy for his head injury to help get his memory back.” Eric has no recall of the first three months. ”I didn’t even know where I was at,” he said.
“You don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow or what is around the bend. Make sure you have God in your life to guide you,” Jody said.
It was a freak accident that a tree fell across a bridge three minutes prior to them crossing the bridge into Holmes County from route 60 through Killbuck. They came around the bend at dusk where a tree had fallen from the left covering both sides of the road, landing on the guard rail. It was elevated to the height of the windshield of their full sized GMC truck when they hit the tree that went through their windshield and tore off the top of the truck. Jody was able to duck below the dash, but Eric wasn’t able to. “All I remember was thinking, what am I seeing? We were on a state route at night on a curve and I just didn’t see it,” Jody said.
Jody climbed out the windshield onto the hood and got out of the truck. The wind was too strong for a helicopter so they went by ambulance with stops along the way at several hospitals before reaching Summa the Akron City Trauma Center. The journey was all by ambulance taking precious time to get there. The accident broke his neck and severed his artery which needed immediate attention. They are still working on the clavicle which snapped in two. The Wrights want to thank the Killbuck EMT on the scene for her life saving skills. She was small enough to climb on the hood and slide in through the windshield to help Eric.
The family is grateful for Wiley Organics where Eric was employed, and Kraft Foods where Jody works, the River View Music Boosters and everyone who helped organize the benefit at River View.
“I needed this. I have been at home recouping and pulling my hair out because I am so used to doing stuff all the time. I used to stay busy all the time and now I want to do stuff and I just can’t,” Eric said. “With the community, with our church, our family, our friends and there are people here we don’t even know supporting us, so it is amazing.”
Dee Smith, from the River View High School Music Boosters said, “I am a proud alumnus and the idea of this benefit just snow balled. Everyone wanted to help. We even had a call from a classmate in Alabama wanting to help. The word went far and wide for people wanting to help. All the food was donated, water, food, drinks, paper products were donated. We wanted to do something to help them financially over this hurdle and we came up with a soup and sandwich benefit with raffle baskets and a silent auction. This is our music program. If someone is hurt or sick, we rally together, we pull together and we support. I have had so much fun talking with people who either went to school with them or worked with them somewhere, or are related to them and knew about this. They all said, ‘What can we do to help?’ The outpouring of support came from one end of the county to the other and beyond. There were a couple of businesses outside the county line that helped sponsor this tonight. I greatly appreciate all the kids, the staff, for all the support in helping us put this together tonight.”
Eric also is grateful to the veterans administration for their help and support. “The VA helped pay for our van and my chair,” he said. They also got him eye-tracking technology for their home, making it easier for him to control the mouse cursor to write with screen keyboard. All this is done using eye movements. They paid for Eric’s automated house where he can turn on the TV, the lights, open doors, things like that and he has Alexa too, Eric said. “There is a lot out there through technology where I can do things day to day, and I am not completely confined to my chair. I can still do things.” His phone is voice activated, as well.
While Eric was hospitalized, philanthropic groups helped with hotel bills so he could be with family during this time. Dodd Hall at OSU specialized in head trauma, and spinal cord rehabilitation. The VA Hospital in Cleveland provided Steps to Rehabilitation.
“Tyson Gentry, an OSU football player paralyzed from the waist down in a football injury has a foundation that helps with travel because the best way for someone to get well is to have family around them,” Jody said. The family was able to stay at Fisher House for families.
“The blessing was that he was an army veteran because we are never ready for a tragedy like this. During this time, we also found out we were going to be grandparents in October so through challenges there is always a blessing,” Jody said. “This has been a very good testament. This is why we have vows when we get married. It was for better or worse and he is my everything.”
Eric said, “I love her more now than I ever have seeing everything she sacrifices. There are people here I haven’t seen since high school. Guys I know from the Army were visiting me when I was in the hospital. I didn’t realize that this many people cared for us. It is truly amazing. I don’t know what we would do without the VA and help from the community too. I would rather be walking, but there is a reason this happened, and I am accepting that. I have made my peace with it. There is no sense dwelling on it. I’ve learned to live with it and I am trying to have a positive attitude. Live one day at a time, be thankful and learn to live with it.”
Category: People & Places
