A Maine quadriplegic is taking to the road to bring awareness of research he believes may help.
PARIS – Patrick Harris is determined to walk again.
It was November of 2001 that his car skidded on black ice and crashed into a culvert outside Palmyra.
Harris, 45, broke his neck and was confined to a wheelchair as a quadriplegic.
He wants to walk again.
He wants others to walk again.
So, on Sept. 3, he will begin a 414-mile trek in his electric wheelchair from Fort Kent to Kittery.
He believes stem cell research is the only thing that will enable him and thousands of others with disabling injuries to recover.
He said he has complete faith in the American medical system. Cures to disabling injuries will be found, he said, if research is encouraged.
Stem cells are undeveloped cells that grow into the body’s tissues and organs. These cells are sometimes taken from embryos. Funding for research using them has been limited in many countries, including the United States, often on moralistic grounds.
Harris would like to see more research.
“I know our state, our country can differentiate between those with clandestine cloning and immoral utilitarian agendas and those with wonderful scientific research and a strong moral compass,” Harris said.
“I have a dream that Maine will answer my prayers and help me walk again. I know the only way I can walk again is if (more) stem cell research approved.”
On Wednesday he had his route mapped as far as Waterville. He said he wants to gather signatures along the way for those supporting stem cell research and then take them to Washington, D.C.
It could be a long trip for Harris and his support crew of two: Amanda Saucier and Sara Wheeler, his personal care assistants.
Having a maximum speed of 7 miles per hour in his wheelchair, and planning a side trip to his hometown of Bar Harbor, Harris expects the trip will take at least 10 days but said he is willing to spend whatever time it takes.
He controls his wheelchair’s direction and speed orally by emitting a series of “puffs” and “sips” that vary in degrees of duration and intensity into a long, narrow plastic tube.
He realizes the trip’s dangers: drunken drivers, tractor trailer trucks on narrow roads, pot holes, drivers falling asleep and Harris himself falling asleep.
“I have to do this,” Harris said. “I’m doing this for every quadriplegic and paraplegic that is unable to do it for themselves. It’s for those that don’t have the strength, wherewithal, affluence or direction.”
“I’m going to be a voice, defender of the handicapped whose broken hearts don’t give them the will to stand up,” he said.
Harris, who is now living in South Paris, said he is trying to raise awareness of stem cell research, not money.
He plans to raise money with a book. Already entitled “Whales, Dolphins and Paraplegics,” the book will detail the lack of etiquette handicapped people have to deal with, he said, and his perception that people most often talk above and around the handicapped instead of directly to them.
Harris, had been a licensed social worker for 20 years. He worked mostly with troubled youth and prior to leaving Texas, he was in charge of therapeutic recreation at Southwind Boys Home in Austin. He also was a child-abuse investigator for the state of Texas.
He finds it ironic that he helped so many, for so many years, and now – “I’m getting to see it from a different perspective,” Harris said. “I’m needy now. I’m the one people gawk at.”
Harris weighs a slim 165 pounds, down from the 215-pound muscular frame he had before his vehicle crashed.
He loved physical activity. He loved to dive, explore caves, climb and cycle.
He was the strength coach at the University of Maine-Presque Isle, for a year and for four years at UMaine-Orono for several sports.
“I’ve bench-pressed 480 pounds, squatted over 700 (pounds) and dead-lifted 550 (pounds),” Harris said. “I was beat in the finals of the 1987 State of Maine Arm Wrestling Championship.
“I was a weight-lifter and bodybuilder,” he said. “And doctors said if I didn’t have stout neck, I would be dead.”
He spent nearly six weeks at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Orono and then was transferred to New England Rehabilitation Hospital of Portland for about 2 1/2 months.
“I’m still adjusting to it mentally. It took me months before I came home, and then it’s been a struggle every day,” he said.
“But then the state gave me this bad-ass turbo, arrow, electric, sip and puff wheelchair.”
And soon he, his wheelchair and support crew will be winding their way from northern to southern Maine.
He set up a base camp at his home with Linnet Devlin and his daughter, Alexandra Harris, coordinating communications. He said they will be calling towns and media outlets along his route to let them know he is passing through.
“I will spread awareness of stem cell research,” Harris said. “I am paralyzed from the neck down, but that doesn’t mean I have to lie down.”
jsmedley@sunjournal.com
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