Paralyzed Turner woman returns to UNH for college

DURHAM, N.H. – Monica Quimby wheels out of an elevator and into a University of New Hampshire auditorium. She takes notes as the bio-chemistry professor lectures about the amino-acid sequence.

After class, she smiles and chats with other students.

Quimby, 20, has come a long way since she was paralyzed in a Jan. 28 skiing accident.

The wheelchair-bound Turner woman spent weeks flat on her back and months at a rehabilitation center. This fall, she returned to college.

She’s also driving again.

Her silver Honda has hand controls instead of foot pedals. She shows off her college pride with a license plate that reads: “WILCAT” for UNH’s wildcat mascot. She drives to classes that are far away on campus. If classes are close, she takes the wheelchair.

Being back on campus means big adjustments. At home she had constant support from her parents, Nadia and Scott Quimby. Here, she’s pretty much on her own.

When it’s time for class she wheels out of her dorm and down the hall, greeting friends with a cheery “hi!” Before reaching the parking lot she has to open doors. She does that by turning her wheelchair slightly allowing room to open a door and pass through. “A lot of doors don’t have push buttons” that automatically open doors, she says.

In seconds she is beside her car. She opens the door, lifts herself from the wheelchair to the driver’s seat, then pops the wheels off the chair, which folds up and goes in the front beside her.

As Quimby drives, she brags about her campus. “I love the architecture. That’s one of the things that drew me here. They’re always building and adding on.”

Each building has six or seven handicapped parking spaces, which are usually enough. But on this day, all of the handicapped spaces are taken.

“This is what happens,” she says. “People who aren’t handicapped park there.”

Other adjustments have included changing her schedule because some buildings don’t have elevators, only stairs.

She’s had to sharpen time management. Doing about anything from a wheelchair takes more time.

“Before, I’d wake up and roll out of bed,” Quimby said. She now needs almost an hour and a half to get ready in the morning. “The whole using the bathroom and taking a shower thing takes longer. Patience.”

She’s glad to be back at college, but her first weeks have challenged her.

“It’s hard. Not just the adjustment, but living on your own and realizing you actually have to deal with it, day after day. Already I’ve had a couple of breakdowns.”

When she needs to cry she goes to her room or talks to friends.

Before she became paralyzed she’d go running for therapy. “Now I’ll go for a drive,” she says.

So far her classes are going well. Her professors are understanding, but don’t give her special treatment. “Their attitude is, ‘You’ve got a brain, two arms to write with, you’re treated just the same,”‘ she says.

Quimby lives with seven other girls in a five-bedroom suite. She likes being back with her friends, who have been understanding, she says. “When I was in the hospital they came and said, ‘You can live with us.’ They really welcomed me back.”

Two of her exercise machines, one that holds her up and a $4,000 specially-built stationery bicycle, are in a hall. She works out on those daily.

In addition she walks two or three times a week using her leg braces and walker. “I can walk 350 feet now. That’s my new benchmark. I try to beat it every time.”

Within three months she intends to walk with a cane instead of a walker.

She missed her spring semester but because she took two summer classes after her freshman year, she’ll graduate almost on time, in the spring of 2008 or a few months after. “It didn’t set me back as far as I thought.”

Her major is molecular, cellular and development biology. After graduation she plans to go to grad school to study stem-cell research.

“I want to help myself and others doing science and research. I love it.”