Plummeting dreams, soaring hopes: Rehab helps Charlie
Stone recover from devastating accident
| With a charming smile, Charlie won the hearts of many staff members during his stay at LLUMC. |
Nothing excites 24-year-old Charlie Stone more than pulling the throttle of a PC 12 Pilatus and hearing it roar to life. As a little boy, he would watch planes fly at a nearby airport and dream. Someday, he would fly too.
Posters of airplanes and toy models filled every corner of his room. At 14, Charlie began taking flight lessons, pursuing his dream of being a pilot. \
Accepted to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, Charlie was on top of the world. Four years later, a weathered pilot and flight instructor, Charlie graduated and began an internship with Native American Air Ambulance. To support himself, he took a side job delivering planes to purchasers and giving them flight lessons.
Charlie was doing what he loved best. His long-awaited dream had come true.
On August 10, 1999, Christine McKellar and Brandon Lang were attempting to picnic at Lake Mead, but it was far too windy. While packing their things to leave, they saw a plane fly overhead, tilt a wing in acknowledgement, and then disappear over a ridge. Although she did not witness anything, Christine suddenly had a sense something was wrong. "That plane just crashed," she told Brandon.
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| Charlie faces his next big challenge: learning to fly again. |
Jumping into their car, they raced over the ridge. A gut-wrenching site awaited them--mangled steel, once the body of a plane. Without wasting a minute, Brandon extricated two bodies.
While he doused both with ice water, Christine took off to find the nearest phone and dial for help. Checking the logbook for names, Brandon found one--Charlie Stone.
At University Medical Center Las Vegas Trauma Center, where a helicopter had transported Charlie, his family and friends prayed as he swung on a pendulum between life and death. Questions raced through their minds--how did this happen? Would Charlie live? If so, what would be his quality of life?
Charlie's plummet had caused massive injuries: two crushed legs, emaciated eye sockets, multiple facial injuries, as well as extensive head injuries. His heart was unstable. Doctors weren't giving him much hope. But after a month, and with much prayer, Charlie stabilized.
Now the next big challenge awaited Charlie and the Stone family--months of intensive rehabilitation to help him regain whatever functions he could. But they did not want to settle for just any rehabilitation facility.
"We wanted a place with a Christian presence where we could openly express our faith in God's healing power," says Charlie's mother, Joyce Stone. "After we checked several programs, we decided to send Charlie to Loma Linda because we felt like the Lord's presence was there."
A small army of health professionals--physical, occupational, and speech therapists, as well as nurses, doctors, and neuropsychologists--immediately started Charlie on the grueling recovery process.
"When Charlie came to Loma Linda," physical therapist Lisa Cuccia remembers, "he was very disoriented. He had a back brace, couldn't sit up, and had to be log-rolled out of bed. Each day we put him through rigorous exercises that were exhausting for him. Charlie was anxious and driven to do things right. Each tiny improvement was a big deal to us. Any function a person can regain is monumental. I didn't think a person in his condition would do as well as he did, but he really surprised us."
"I just kept pushing myself like it was school," explains Charlie. "I did my best and tried not to let anyone down."
"The entire rehabilitation department was filled with an energetic staff who provided an environment of fun and healing, which helped to motivate Charlie," tells Joyce.
Three weeks before he left Loma Linda, Charlie began to remember what had happened to him. "I'd see helicopters flying overhead at the hospital and see the brace surrounding my legs and one supporting my back. I knew I'd been in a crash, and I never wanted to get near a plane again."
On the day of the crash, Charlie had gone up as a passenger to instruct a gentleman who was purchasing a Cessna Cardinal 177. Charlie is still unable to remember what happened in the cockpit. Unfortunately, the gentleman flying the plane did not survive the crash.
With a lot of hard work from Charlie, his family, and the health-care professionals at the Loma Linda University Rehabilitation Institute, Charlie made great strides. Soon, to everyone's surprise, Charlie learned to navigate with a walker. "We taught him to balance," tells Lisa, "which is difficult for people with head injuries. We practiced going up curbs, like the one at his house. These things seem little but are crucial to rehabilitation."
Finally, after eight weeks of intensive therapy, Charlie was ready to leave Loma Linda and continue his rehabilitation at a place closer to his home. With his zest for life, good humor, and hard work, Charlie had become a favorite at Loma Linda. Therapists and other staff members crowded the hallway to say goodbye and wish him well.
"Over the weeks Charlie was at Loma Linda, the staff prayed with us and provided not just physical care, but joy and energy and prayer," relates Joyce.
Charlie continues his recovery and is able to walk unassisted. "In the hospital," says Charlie, "I didn't want to have anything to do with flying, but I have changed my mind. All I ever think about is airplanes, so I have to keep pushing myself. I want to fly again." With the countless odds he has already defied, for Charlie, the sky really is the limit.
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