Goal: $2,000
Goal: $2,000Goal reached – Mary has her new scooter! Thank you!
Help raise funds to purchase a new Shoprider Chameleon GK8-3 – Portable Electric Scooter for Mary.
Target Date: November 30, 2017
Total funds raised to date: $2,000.00
Donate Now for Mary Rogers
(On the checkout page, please enter “Mary Rogers” in the Donation Notes box)
Mary Rogers is a resident of Langley and a positive force of nature. Bright-eyed and somewhat nervous, she welcomes Zosia and me into her hospital room. While we’ve talked with her on the phone several times, we haven’t met in person until now. Within moments we recognize her as a sister— a member of the What-The-Heck-Else-Could-Go-Wrong Sorority. We listen as she shares what led her to ask Langley Pos-Abilities for help in procuring a mobility scooter to replace one that had been stolen.
Weighing 110 pounds and no bigger than a minute, Mary Rogers is an intelligent and articulate woman in her mid-fifties. Reclining on the hospital bed, her thin arms interlock to form a sling above and behind the knee of her left leg keeping her misshapen foot from touching the bedclothes. It is lightly bandaged in gauze to half way up her calf; a festering sore and red inflamed skin hint at what the bandage is hiding. Mary has a dangerous infection—osteomyelitis, and how far up the leg it goes has yet to be determined. The excruciating, mind-numbing, soul-crushing pain is the end result of an accident that happened five years ago to the day.
Mary’s life had already had its challenges. Her childhood was sad and difficult and she woke each morning in fear and dread. She knew things could be better and she hoped and planned for a better life. Mary worked hard in school. Setting her sights on a post-secondary education, she graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor of Arts. Aspiring to a career in law, she wrote the LSAT, but a diagnosis of Bi-polar mood disorder threw a spanner into the works. More than anything, Mary wanted a life filled with purpose and hope, but it always seemed just beyond her grasp.
On September 15, 2012, Mary was blindsided again. While travelling to the Okanagan to pick autumn fruit, she stopped outside of Merritt to use the bathroom. After exiting the van, she realized the breaks had failed. She tried to regain control, but the vehicle rolled, crushing her left foot. The damage was so extensive, she felt no pain at all. She was even walking on the injured foot when examined by a doctor in Merritt. He wanted to send her to Kamloops for emergency treatment but with her family and support system in the Lower Mainland, Mary decided to drive herself to Chilliwack. She didn’t get very far before the shock and numbness began to wear off, and she was running out of gas in the van. She parked and passed out with the pain. The next morning she found herself at an Indian Reserve. Hobbling to a near-by house, she was offered some fuel for her van and incredibly, she drove herself to Chilliwack Hospital, where she received emergency surgery. Pouring herself into months of strenuous rehab, Mary seemed to be getting better. Three years went by without incident.
In October 2015, Mary’s foot began to ache. By the end of the month she was rushed to the VGH in a coma due to sepsis, and unable to participate in a plan for recovery. Her sister advocated with the surgeons, knowing that amputating the leg below the knee would not be what she wanted. Finally conscious, Mary agreed to extensive surgery, which seemed to work. Her doctor expected many months of rehabilitation, but she set her mind to the task, determined to take advantage of all any help to put this setback behind her. Outfitted with a wheelchair, Mary turned it into a walker, and before long she was back on her feet and out the door. The reprieve was short-lived. The bones and tissue were just too damaged to remain stable, so the foot broke down and infection set in repeatedly. She has been in constant, debilitating pain ever since. The pain has changed her, made her angry and sent her to a depth of depression unparalleled even by the bipolar disorder.
Mary’s reality is very dark at the moment, but if you think she has given up, you’d be wrong. Grateful for every ounce of effort expended on her, gushing with praise for the doctors and medical professionals who have treated her in the past and currently at St, Paul’s Hospital, she has nothing bad to say about anyone. Even ICBC, often maligned, is more than OK in her books. They have been just super, providing her with much needed equipment for rehabilitation. The Fortress scooter they gave her was top notch, but it was stolen during a move, and they cannot replace it. She reported the theft to the police, but in the end, they could do nothing for her, so she has turned to Langley Pos-Abilities.
Mary wants her life back and she is willing to go the distance to retrieve it, even if it means that she will lose her leg, which is the most-likely scenario. Whatever the prognosis, she will need a means of getting around and a scooter is crucial for her to move forward, in more ways than the obvious. She has a long and difficult road ahead of her. Langley Pos-Abilities would dearly love to help her by raising the funds needed to replace what was so callously taken away from her.
Written by D. Rose Hominick
Donate Now for Mary Rogers
(On the checkout page, please enter “Mary Rogers” in the Donation Notes box)