It was a warm, sunny April afternoon in Ojai, California when a group of Red Crossers were finally able to meet face-to-face with Ignacio. Everyone was all smiles as he wheeled himself onto the front porch to meet the people that had spent countless hours in the previous months helping him to regain his mobility, and his dignity.
Heavy winter rains and flooding had awakened Ignacio and his brother in the early morning hours the previous December. They found rapidly rising water almost knee deep in their apartment and still higher flood waters threatening just outside. They didn’t dare to open the door.
It’s frustrating because I have feeling in my body, but I can’t move. Watching the water rising, it was very traumatizing.
Ignacio remembers the panic and fear of that night. “Watching the water rising, my brother, what he did was put me on top of my bed since we saw the danger, if the water reached the outlets. It was very traumatizing and frustrating for my brother, since he didn’t know what to do, since he knew I wasn’t able to do much.”
Paraplegic and wheelchair bound, Ignacio could only watch as his brother frantically dashed about trying to find an island of safe refuge for him.
“None of my chairs worked,” recalls Ignacio, “so what he did was hug me because the water rose to the height of my bed.” The two remained on the bed through the night, surrounded by the cold, dark waters, until the firefighters arrived the next morning.
As the flood waters receded, Ignacio’s traumas were just beginning. The high water had literally drowned his electric wheelchair, fouling the circuits and rendering it useless. His brother dragged the soaked furniture outside and tried to make Ignacio as comfortable as possible in damp bedding arranged on the concrete floor. Unable to even move to the bathroom, he lay helplessly in the increasing humidity until his plight was discovered days later.
He and his brother were grateful to be moved to the dry comfort of a nearby motel, but without an electric wheelchair, Ignacio was unable to help himself. He could only lay unmoving on the bed, dependent on others for his every need.
The Red Cross first learned of Ignacio’s troubles from Gabriela Basua, an Oxnard City Council member and Maintenance Director for neighboring Port Hueneme’s Housing Authority. The team went to work immediately, but while the local Red Cross warehouse has a lot of disaster supplies, an electric wheelchair is not among them.
Volunteers Suzanne Allen de Sanchez (Health Services), Diana Swartz (Recovery) and Jim Doubler (Gov’t Operations) made dozens of phone calls over the next week before they were able to find an available electric wheelchair that matched Ignacio’s needs.
“When I received the new chair,” said Ignacio, “I felt very happy. It is the only way I can go out. It is difficult to be bed ridden, in one place only without the ability to move. It’s frustrating because I have feeling in my body, but I can’t move, I can’t stretch my legs, I can’t lift my arms to high up, and I can’t turn my head. It is fabulous having the chair because before I was always needing for someone to move me.”
But the Red Cross team wasn’t finished just yet. This wheelchair was an expensive rental – a stop-gap measure until a new, permanent wheelchair could be obtained. It took another dozen letters and hundreds of phone calls before Ignacio finally gained his freedom.
“The Red Cross has helped immensely,” says Ignacio. “They were able to expedite the [insurance] process to get me authorized for a new chair. They have been very attentive by checking in on me . . . it has been super helpful!”
The happy gathering in the Ojai sunshine was a culmination of Red Cross volunteers working in collaboration with government partners and charitable organizations to achieve, what at first, seemed to be an insurmountable goal. And their efforts continue. “Although I’m not a therapist,” said Suzanne Allen de Sanchez, “when he gets depressed, Ignacio knows that he can call me for a shoulder to cry on.”
Story by Dave Wagner, Public Affairs Volunteer
Photos by Michael McGeehee, Disaster Cycle Services Leader
Translation by Maricela Rodriguez montelongo, Disaster Program Specialist
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