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Red Deer family is fundraising to make home wheelchair accessible after dad falls down the stairs

Sometimes, it only takes a moment to change your life.
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Red Deer resident Jose Mena fell down the stairs in his home on New Year’s Day. He continues to recover at a Calgary hospital surrounded by family. Photo contributed

Sometimes, it only takes a moment to change your life.

That’s true for Esteban Mena and his family in Red Deer, when his father Jose took a tumble down the stairs Jan. 1 in his home.

“I broke down in the hospital, to see your father looking like that, I don’t wish that on anybody,” Esteban said recollecting when he first saw his father in the hospital.

Since New Year’s day, 78 year old Jose has been in the hospital in Calgary and continues to recover.

“What the specialist told us is out of the seven bones in your neck, he broke four,” said Esteban Monday, adding that doctors performed a surgery to put plates and screws in his neck.

The middle of the night fall, after Jose went to the washroom, also damaged his spinal cord. This means the senior’s future includes a wheelchair.

Esteban said his father is still in the hospital for physiotherapy and waits for his bones to be healed.

“Luckily, he is able to move his arms so he can eat and do things with his arms,” the son said. “But the wheelchair is a permanent thing.”

The family is looking at the community to help fundraise for his father so his house can be wheelchair accessible including modifications at the house’s entryway, bathroom, kitchen and doorways.

Esteban explained the Red Deer home is on a hill, and the entry way will have to be renovated.

“The ramp is not an option because the house is too high, so we need to put in a lift,” the 53 year old son said.

The entire experience has been hard on the family, reminding them of the struggles when Pedro, Esteban’s older brother was battling with cancer for 10 years. He died about 18 years ago, at the age of 33.

“We’re going to our little corner and crying when we have to,” Esteban said with a chuckle. “We’re laughing, that’s our background to show we’re strong.”

The family does not want Jose in a senior’s home, who is due back home from the hospital end of April.

“We want them around, as long as they can be,” Esteban said about his mom and dad.

The son looked into government funding for home modifications, but the family does not qualify, Esteban said.

Those looking to donate can do so on GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/home-modification-for-senior-who-suffered-a-fall



mamta.lulla@reddeeradvocate.com

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