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OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, October 23, 2009 · 4 Spinal cord infection paralyzed young man Continued from page 1 "I went to sleep watching TV in a chair and I woke up and I tried to lift my head, but my head was really heavy. I could move my arms a bit, but they were really floppy and I couldn't open or close my hands," said Devreese. "I tried to grab a phone, so I could call an ambulance, but when I was trying to get the phone I fell on the floor. Nobody came home for like eight hours, so I was lying there on the floor until someone finally came home." Devreese was initially taken to OTMH, but soon transferred to Toronto Western Hospital, which has special units dealing with spinal cord injuries. After a series of examinations, Devreese was told his paralysis was the result of an infection within his spinal cord. He was also told his condition was permanent. Devreese says he has little memory of this early period as he was on multiple medications. However, his father, Ken, was present and has an all-too-clear recollection of how devastating the initial prognosis was for Devreese. "Initially, he wanted to die," said Ken, choking back tears. "He felt like his whole life had been taken away from him. He was off course thinking the worst and he was really depressed. It was horrible." LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER LONG ROAD AHEAD: Fraser Devreese would like to resume his recovery in a home of his own. Devreese noted this depression stayed with him when he was transferred to the Toronto Rehab Lyndhurst Centre for five months of physiotherapy and occupational therapy. At first, he said, he didn't want to do the exercises because, with a diagnosis of being paralyzed for life, he didn't see the point. This changed, however, when Devreese actually began to regain some of his former mobility. "After about a month at Lyndhurst, I had feeling back in my legs, but no movement ,and then maybe after four or five months at Lyndhurst, I was able to move my feet back and forth and lift my leg up a bit," he said. "That gave me more hope." Devreese has also regained much of the mobility in his upper body and now has complete use of his right hand with his left hand functioning at about 75 per cent. The explanation for this partial recovery, he said, was that while the infection in his spinal cord was gone, it had left behind scarring that continued to frustrate his mobility. Due to the nature of spinal cord injuries, whether Devreese will walk again continues to be a question no one seems able to answer. "They said that with spinal cord injuries, usually within the first two years whatever you regain is what you are going to regain," said Devreese. "I'm only six months into it." In September, Devreese was discharged from Lyndhurst and returned to OTMH so he could be closer to his family and girlfriend. Devreese also began planning for his future, noting that he intends to start taking animation courses at Sheridan College in the hope of one day finding a career within the industry. Finding proper care to help him with his daily routine and an accessible apartment also became a priority. "There is no point in sitting around and being depressed all day and saying, `My life sucks.' It's not going to make anything better. I just have to deal with what happened," said Devreese. "I have to get on with my life because I could walk again, they said, but who knows?" Getting on with that life, however, has proven much more difficult than Devreese ever anticipated. See Accessible page 5