My name is Jeff Dellovade and this is the story of how Ethos Therapy Solutions helped me live a full, meaningful life with a spinal cord injury. It was late May 1994. At age 24, I had just graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Two days later, everything came crashing down when I was injured in car accident, sustaining a complete C7 spinal cord injury leaving me paralyzed as a quadriplegic. Not one to be deterred, I completed my rehabilitation and returned to my work as a structural engineer. In order to become more physically active, I began trying out various adaptive sports such as snow skiing, water skiing, tennis and rock climbing, but I soon discovered that my true passion lied in handcycling and marathoning. I began racing competitively and eventually won several major marathons, including multiple Boston Marathons. Also during this time, I was fortunate enough to meet my wife and we were married in 1998. Several years later, in 2002, we welcomed our daughter into our lives.
The first ten years of post-injury life were successful by anyone’s definition. I was married, with a child, held a full-time job, was accomplished in my marathoning and, outside of a few UTIs, healthy. But in 2006, I needed my first flap surgery. Typically, recovery from a flap surgery requires six weeks of laying prone in an air-fluidized bed, followed by 2 weeks in a rehabilitation facility, and a lot of physical therapy. Unfortunately, by the time I was released from rehabilitation, it was clear that my flap surgery had failed, and my wound continued to worsen.
I had my second corrective flap surgery in 2007. This procedure was successful, and I maintained a level of good health for about 4 years, but inevitably it was not sustainable. My skin simply continued to break down without an air-fluidized bed. What I really needed was a Clinitron®.
In 2011, I had to have a third muscle flap surgery to repair the recurring skin breakdown. Based on my unique conditions, my insurance company allowed me to permanently have a Clinitron air-fluidized bed in my home so that I wouldn’t have to undergo a flap surgery ever again.
With the Clinitron, I was able to remain healthy 4 years. Unfortunately, my Clinitron supplier went out of business in 2014, meaning I would have to find somebody else to repair and maintain this complex machine. Much to my chagrin, I couldn’t find a single other provider to fix my Clinitron or provide me a new one. Without any resources to provide maintenance, I had to get rid of the Clinitron and tried a regular adjustable firmness mattresses on the market. Within two weeks I developed another pressure sore. Unfortunately, without another Clinitron provider, my insurance provider would only approve an advanced powered air mattress. I knew a mattress wouldn’t be enough. While advanced air mattresses may be sufficient for some patients, it was not adequate for someone like me, a quadiplegic who has had multiple muscle flap surgeries already and has compromised skin. Needless to say, my situation continued to worsen on the air mattress, and I eventually needed another flap surgery.
After this surgery I decided that I needed to find another Clinitron, so I bought one on eBay with my own money. The gentleman I bought my Clinitron from could not get the machine running, but he did have the contact information for Ethos Therapy Solutions. Ethos traded my old, non-functioning Clinitron for a refurbished one and drove more than five hours to set it up for me. But that wasn’t the end. Now I needed insurance coverage, and my insurer had already refused to cover an air-fluidized bed permanently despite my costly repeat flap surgeries, opting instead for the same advanced air mattress that lead to my fourth flap surgery. Ethos’s staff worked tirelessly with my doctors and my insurance company and, after 18 months and five appeals, convinced the insurance company to cover the Clinitron. I cannot stress enough how lucky and grateful I am to have found Ethos. There are few companies in this world who would give their time and effort to make sure an individual – a stranger – was able to get the medical equipment they needed in order to survive. I have no doubt that without Ethos’s altruism I would be back in the hospital for many more flap surgeries and for that my family and I are forever grateful.
I have had several more procedures over the years, including a leg amputation and several more muscle flap surgeries to correct severe bed sores. The good news is that after all of this I am recovering nicely. I am learning to live and adapt to the amputation and am free of any sores. While legs and feet may seem unnecessary for the paralyzed person to an able-bodied person, they provide substantial support, stability and load-bearing capacity for mobility and transfers. I am working to overcome these obstacles with the same fortitude I attacked all of my other setbacks. But if it wasn’t for the generosity of Ethos and its staff all those years ago, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to overcome these latest issues and for that I am grateful. Thanks to Ethos, I can rely upon my Clinitron, the highest quality air-fluidized bed available, for the rest of my life.
Read Jeff’s Blog That’s How I Roll: Musings from a life in a wheelchair
