Antioch man works to recover from spinal cord injury
He never even knew what a quadriplegic was, but for 36-year-old Antioch resident Eric Knutson that knowledge came with a price.
On July 8, 2007, while hosting a party for his wife, Jacqui Barabas, at his childhood home on the Chain O' Lakes, Knutson dove off a tree swing and into the water effectively breaking his C-4 spinal vertebrae which left him paralyzed and unable to move from the neck down.
"I saw a flash of light and I tried to get up out of the water, but I couldn't move anything but my head. It was pretty scary," recalled Knutson.
Barabas immediately jumped into the water, turned him over and held him until the ambulance arrived. Knutson was airlifted to the Froedtert Spinal Cord Injury Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. After reviewing his X-rays, the doctors broke the devastating news.
"They told us he would never walk again; that he was lucky to be alive because just a fraction of an inch higher and his windpipe would have been crushed," said Barabas who describes Knutson as the ever "energetic, do-it-yourself kind of guy" who had enjoyed an active lifestyle prior to the accident, playing soccer and keeping up with his 8-year-old daughter, Jenna.
Following eight grueling hours on the operating table where the doctors fused his second vertebrae to his sixth using two titanium rods, Knutson spent three weeks recovering in the Neural Intensive Care Unit and then an additional six weeks at the Froedtert rehabilitation center.
During Knutson's recovery, a minor miracle happened; he started to get some feeling back in his limbs. This led the doctors to reclassify him as an "incomplete" spinal cord injury case.
According to the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale, people with complete injuries, those consisting of complete loss of muscle control and sensation and no motor or sensory function, may recover, on average, only 8 percent of their lost function. On the other hand, people with incomplete injuries, or those consisting of muscle paralysis, muscle weakening or impaired sensation, can actually recover as much as 59 percent of lost function and possibly more given certain treatments.
"So there was and is tremendous hope for him," Barabas said.
To date, Knutson can move both his arms, can move his legs during physical therapy and basically has sensation throughout his body.
Recently, Knutson was accepted into an innovative new program called "Project Walk" created by the Project Walk Institute of Spinal Cord Injury Recovery in Carlsbad, Calif. Considered one of the most experienced, exercise-based spinal cord injury recovery centers in the world, the program is dedicated to setting the standard in the field of spinal cord injury recovery. The center documents numerous cases where their treatment has led to a significant difference in the lives of spinal cord injury patients and for this reason, it is Knutson's principle hope for recovery.
"Unfortunately, there is a tremendous amount of cost that goes along with a spinal cord injury. You just name them and they are there," said Barabas, noting that each trip to California costs them an average of $5,000. On Jan 26, friends and family held a fundraiser to help raise money for Knutson's recovery.
"I have certainly had those days where the wall looked too big," Knutson said. "But then I look at Jenna and I look at Jacqui and it makes no sense to me thinking those things. I'm going to walk again, I know that."
To help Eric in his plight, donations can be made payable to the Eric R. Knutson Trust Fund at America United Bank and Trust, 485 Lake St., Antioch, IL 60002.
For more on Eric's story go to www.everyoneforeric.com or call (847) 838-4947.