Rich's journey from Toronto to Port-of-Spain

Rich VanderWal flew all the way over from Toronto, Canada to Trinidad just to see the birthplace of one of his former patients of the Toronto Rehab Institute, Trinidadian Indar Singh. Why? Well, Rich was impressed by Indar’s vibrant and outgoing spirit despite an accident in April this year, which left him paralysed from the chest down. Added to that, Rich had never been to the Caribbean before.

Rich and Indar quickly bonded because the two were diagnosed with the same paralysis — a broken thorasic vertebrae classified as T4. Indar was injured on the job earlier this year. A steel rod hit him on the head and back which caused his spine to push forward into his chest to a degree of 60 percent, according to doctors. When local doctors could do little to assist him, Indar sought medical attention abroad. In Rich’s case, a momentary lapse of attention while riding along the highway near Niagara Falls on his motorcycle resulted in a near fatal accident 11 years ago. “I had just left my friends place and while riding, I looked behind to check for him, just for two seconds and I ran into a dump truck which was trailing a backhoe in front of me. It was the wrong place, wrong time and not paying attention,” Rich said.

Rich returned to Canada last week after spending five days, mostly on the beaches of Trinidad and Tobago. During his stay, he was able to make telephone contact with President of the Trinidad and Tobago Chapter of Disabled People International George Daniel who was hospitalised at the time. Rich had hoped to share his experience with members of the local body and gain an insight into the concerns of the disabled in Trinidad and Tobago. He was amazed to not see at least one disabled person in wheelchair on the streets during his visit here. “This trip has really opened my eyes. We have it so good in Canada, not only with the products (medication) but with the wheelchairs and accessibility. It is not uncommon to see anybody with a wheelchair there,” said Rich who is wheelchair-bound.

Rich stands behind the words that anyone in his condition, complete spinal cord injury, can lead a normal life. Anyone who possesses the dynamism that he does will! There is no goal that Rich perceives as unattainable. It may be more of a challenge, but never impossible, he assured. Apart from working as a full-time Recreation Therapist at the Toronto Rehab Institute under the charge of 63 patients, Rich is also a ski instructor and a director on the board of the Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing (CADS). He kayaks, bikes and plays tennis for fun and competes in swimming, biking and running triathlons when he can. He owns a condo which he said, is not wheelchair accessible at all “because of the level of independence I’m at”, and he owns and drives an SUV which he operates with customised handcontrols for the brake and accelerator.

His recent project has been constructing wheelchairs. He has built three in all, inclusive the one in which he wheeled himself in and out of Pizza Boys, Maraval for our interview. “A wheelchair costs 7,000 Canadian dollars and I have just spent like $300 on mine. My friend has a welding shop and he allows me free use of his material,” Rich said. In March 2002, he took part in one of the biggest ski events in Canada — the Blue Mountains Big Air Competition open to able bodied skiers. Using what is called a sit-ski, Rich put on a show for the thousands who, perhaps had never seen sit-skiers at the event. He said: “I’ve pushed the sport of sit-skiing as far as it could go. It’s an event I always wanted to take part in. I think I’ve proven a lot to myself and to a lot of people. I can retire now.” But his zeal and confidence didn’t all happen overnight. “After the accident I couldn’t see how I could be involved in all the things I used to do. With my level of injury they (therapists at the institute) said I didn’t have enough trunk muscles to balance on a ski. It took me three years and my goal was to get good enough to beat my brother.” He still managed a speed of 70-80km/hr. “I went into the pool in rehab and couldn’t even float. People said you can start playing basketball or get a desk job or get into computers, but I’ve never enjoyed that. I said if that was what my life would consist of I didn’t want to live.”

A lot of the time, he said he hid his pain from his mother and siblings. “She was a single parent and I thought that I was already a burden to her... I was always carefree. I never turned down a dare and I was a hothead. I liked to try new things. While at high school I was involved in rowing, rugby, swimming. I ran track. Later, I did a lot of scuba-diving and fast downhill skiing, they call it Alpine skiing. I was a ski instructor in the winter and lifeguard in the summer. I did a lot of cycling; my longest ride the year before injury was 272 km and I did a lot of bunji jumping too. “Initially, I didn’t believe it when the doctors told me I wouldn’t walk again because I had always been active in sports. I had got in a lot of accidents before, I’d gotten hurt and I always healed, so it was hard to believe. But I got support from family and most of my friends. If your family is encouraging and accepting that gives you a boost. “Having a sense of humour too is good and that is what I noticed with Indar. I honestly believe that the ones who have that go a lot further. If you can make light of a situation, you can make it work and Indar hasn’t proved me wrong yet.” When Rich did come to terms with reality, “three days later”, he said, “I wanted answers. I wondered what could I still do and what equipment was invented for skiing. All wheelchairs are chromed and plain looking. I said if that’s gonna be a part of me I wanted to have the coolest wheelchair... The hardest thing was learning to adjust; everything physical changes. But you have to figure out how to be content, find peace and enjoy life.” Rich plans to return to Trinidad in June of next year to learn more about the twin isle and hopefully, bring to fruition one of his ideas of staging a wheelchair awareness relay.