Life changes in an instant for Island man

Grant and Ashley Turner are back home on Puget Island and adjusting to life after an accident last summer changed everything for the young couple.

The two had rented a houseboat on a lake in California with family and friends to celebrate the 4th of July. Everyone had been jumping and diving off the boat all day, so when Grant went in head first no one thought a thing about it.

"I don't know what happened, if we had drifted or what," Grant said.

What he did know, immediately after hitting his head on the bottom, was that everything had changed.

"It happened super fast," Grant said. "Like the flip of a switch. When I dove in I was fine, but the next moment I couldn't move anything."

His wife Ashley, and his friends and family reacted immediately, and he was life flighted from the lake to a hospital in Fresno.

"It's crazy how quickly and easily it happened," Ashley said. "That was the hardest part."

Grant, an active young man who was a welder for Foss Maritime in Rainer, became a C-4 complete quadriplegic that day. According to the Turners, the C-4 vertebrae was shattered, the spinal cord damaged but still intact. There is no function below his injury.

"They thought I wouldn't get any movement back after my first surgery," Grant said. "They did what they thought was necessary, but that hardware wasn't holding. They found out it was bending, so they had to do a second surgery."

"When he woke up after the first surgery he had more movement," Ashley said. "They thought, 'This guy is getting stronger, so we need to add some reinforcements.'"

"I think it was kind of a compliment," Ashley added with a laugh. "The amount of hardware in this guy is pretty impressive. I'd like to see him go through airport security."

After six weeks there, a medical flight transferred Grant from the hospital in Fresno to another hospital in Burien, WA. This hospital was a ventilation facility and they focused on getting Grant off the ventilator and breathing on his own.

"They knew exactly what they were doing," Grant said. "It was definitely tough, lots of ups and downs."

Staff gave him treatments throughout the day. There were breathing treatments to clear his lungs and others to expand his lungs.

"Every day or so they would bump down my level on the ventilator," Grant said, "so I was breathing a little bit more and more on my own."

After five weeks there, he was able to do just that. He was then transferred to Craig Hospital in Inglewood, Colorado and spent just over two months there for rehabilitation.

"It's supposed to be one of the top rehab hospitals in the nation for spinal cord injuries and for traumatic brain injuries," Grant said. "They did really good work there. I know why they are rated so high, because the staff there is so great, they know exactly what they are doing. Not only do they help rehab and get you stronger, they do a really good job of teaching you how to live a full life and teaching you what you are still able to do."

For starters, he learned to use an amazing chair.

"It took quite a bit of learning to figure it out," Grant said. "It's called a sip and puff. To drive, I give a hard puff. To go in reverse I give a hard sip. Rights and lefts are a soft sip and soft puff. It's good now. It can do a tilt as well."

The straw allows him to control his phone, the TV, the thermostat and the lights from a monitor on the chair. Soon a door opener will be installed at the Turner home and Grant will be able to go in and out of the house on his own command.

"He can pretty much do anything," Ashley said. "He also has a whole computer that is set up with voice control and he can operate every aspect of the computer on his own verbally and with a mouse that he runs with his mouth."

"One thing that we've always said is how lucky he is to be the age he is to see where technology is going to go over the years," she continued. "It could be limitless. The research and studies going on are pretty mind blowing."

The accident happened just six months ago, and so much has happened since then.

"We're getting there," Grant said, "just taking it one day at a time. We don't know exactly what life is going to throw at us. Like the cushion."

On a recent trip to a restaurant, the cushion that was specially made to fit him and his chair disappeared. Despite efforts to recover it, it has not been returned.

"I think those will be things that will always happen," Ashley said. "I think it's just so much more a part of our day to day life. Those things will arise all the time, we've just got to find a way to work around it."

Though the Turners have to wait a little while for the replacement cushion to arrive, their new van was set to arrive on Wednesday.

"We're really excited," Ashley said. "Grant can't go anywhere without three people here to pick him up and put him in a car. It's quite a task. It's hard for him. So for us to just be able to get in the car and go will be nice."

They've gone out to eat, they've gone to bonfires, and they've gone to the high school to watch Ashley's brother Joey, play basketball. Grant has been able to get out and spend time with his friends.

The chair goes most everywhere.

"Anything can be done," Ashley said. "We've pretty much found out we can do exactly what we did before. It might take more time, planning and equipment but anything is doable, it really is. We don't have our van yet, we haven't really been mobile, so things we've already done is insane. It's only going to get easier with time, I'm sure. This is still all so new, we're just figuring it out.

Ashley leaned in to scratch Grant's chest. There was no visible signal that he had an itch, but she knew. Though Grant has no function or feeling below the injury, there is still activity above.

"I have to be careful with this kind of stuff," Ashely said. "If his shoe was rolled up under his foot and hurting him, his brain would know something was wrong, but he couldn't tell me what it was. I have to investigate. His body knows, but doesn't know how to tell his brain."

It's called autonomic dysreflexia.

"His blood pressure spikes because something is uncomfortable on his body," she continued. "It could be something as simple as his tee shirt wadded up against his body."

"This injury is really unique in the sense that his brain is still so active," Ashley said. "His brain is still sending messages to the body but the body can't react to them. It's a bizarre injury. It took a long time to figure out how it all works and understand it. You never realize what runs through your spinal cord. Everything. And how simply it can be damaged. Some of the other patients that were at Craig? There was a boy who jumped into a bounce house. People slipped and fell. There were a lot of diving accidents and car accidents."

A reevaluation at Craig and a third surgery is scheduled for this summer. Some of the hardware will be removed from Grant's neck and will allow him a little more range of motion. Hopefully, it will ease some of the constant pain he is in.

"I'm supposed to regain 50 percent of the movement back in my head," Grant said. "We're hoping this surgery will free me up a bit. I think some of the pain is from not being able to move. I'm in this fixed position and my muscles are in that position and tensed up."

"I hope it gives him less pain," Ashley said. "There are a lot of safety issues with his head being fused like this as well. He can lose the straw to control his chair and the other devices when he is by himself and can't reach it. Little adjustments like this will make a huge difference."

Ashley, whose 26th birthday is next week, is a Wahkiakum High School graduate. Grant, 26, grew up and went to high school in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Both communities stepped up to support the two after the accident and the couple will be forever grateful.

"Some of our biggest hurdles have been accomplished," Ashley said. "H&K Construction donated time and labor and so much more. Campbell Group financed the ramp. The brewery has done fundraisers. All the local businesses that pulled together to help us has been phenomenal. Even the Columbia River Flooring in Rainier, Ore., helped pay for the cost of the flooring."

Their home was changed to be accessible for Grant. Door frames were widened. The kitchen island was removed. A ramp was installed. A large open shower was added in the bathroom.

"We want to thank the community," Ashley said. "We've written thank you cards. I just don't think there are words to express how thankful we truly are. We'll just keep saying thank you forever.

"The support was almost overwhelming for me," Grant said with some emotion.

"I think people are doing exactly what we need," Ashley said. "Just knowing that there is support out there has been enough for us. That is what has helped us get through. Just hearing people say, we're here for you, or knowing someone called to ask how to help, that really is what helps us. It's amazing to know that no matter where we are or what we are doing, we can reach out to people in the community who are more than willing to help us."

"We feel very lucky and very loved and very supported," Ashley continued. "There was no fear of coming home. I think when all this started, we didn't know what the future looked like, but we knew we wanted to come home. There was never a fear of coming back to Cathlamet, it was always the right choice. The support just helped us make the decision."

Some people wondered why the two wouldn't go to a city where resources were unlimited.

"That's not home," Ashley said. "Now that we are home, we realize we wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

The financial burden will be ongoing, but the generous donations have helped.

"People have made things possible that wouldn't have been possible," Ashley said. "Grant's med flights. We wouldn't have been able to afford those. The van. We wouldn't have been able to afford the van."

Ashley has been applying for grants. The Turners just received one that will allow them to buy a king size adjustable bed. It will allow them to sleep together and hopefully, give Grant some comfort.

"He'll be able to adjust it however he wants," Ashley said. "Finding a way for him to be comfortable is really difficult. It's just always being stuck in the same position, I can't imagine. I think it will give him more control of comfort being able to move up and down."

"I used to sleep on my stomach and now I'm straight on my back," Grant admitted. "It just takes some getting used to."

There has also been some talk about Grant returning to school. He isn't sure what he wants to do but a former interest in investing has come up in conversation. The idea is for the two to eventually have their own business, they just aren't sure yet what it will look like.

Washington is one of the few states that does not allow a spouse to be a paid caregiver. The two are already trying to change that.

"The state suggested we get divorced," Ashley said. "We said no. Our marriage means something to us. We don't want to get a divorce to work around the system, we wish the system would work with us."

"That income may not be something we will always need," she added. "For the time being I'm here taking care of him. If I were to go back to work, I wouldn't make enough to pay a caregiver. We're trying to balance it all. We're trying to find a way we can work together as a team and find a career that we can do together from home. We're trying to figure out what that looks like."

"I hate to think about the people who have been dealing with it for years and never did anything about it," she said finally.

The two met on a camping trip in Cathlamet.

"Grant's roommate at the time was from Cathlamet," Ashley said. "He wanted us to meet on a blind date, so we were stranded on one of the islands camping for three days. We were either going to love each other or hate each other."

It worked out. Their connection is obvious to anyone with eyes and a heart. They celebrated their second wedding anniversary in August.

"People always ask us, how do you do it?" Ashley said. "We have each other. The rest is details."

To make a donation, contact the Bank of the Pacific where an account has been set up for the couple. On the Internet, there is an account set up at https://www.youcaring.com/grant-and-ashley-turner-388009.