01945 Winter 2018_V3

20 | 01945
Ben breaks barriers
Most people view going to
college as a rite of passage.
For Ben Farrar and his
family, it's a small miracle.
"I'm doing things I would never think
I'd be doing a few years ago," said Ben,
22, now a student at the University of
New Hampshire. "Going back to school.
Being on my own. Living independently.
I live my life like any other college kid
would."
Ben was rendered quadriplegic during
a school exchange program in France
near the end of his senior year of high
school in 2015. The students arrived on a
Saturday, met with their respective host
families for sightseeing the following day,
and arranged to meet at the beach that
afternoon.
Ben, who was wearing a t-shirt and
jeans, walked into the ocean to cool
off. He got to a certain point and dove
forward, head first. As his head hit the
water, a wave crashed over the back of
his neck and the force drove his head to
the bottom of the ocean, said his mother,
Yunita.
"It was a freak accident," she said.
"That split second that he chose to
dive in and that wave — his head hit
the sand and he immediately became
quadriplegic."
Ben later told his mother that he was
underwater when he realized he couldn't
move his body. His next thought was that
if he was under water and couldn't move,
he would die.
Not knowing what happened, his
friends initially thought he was goofing
off and sat on his back. When he rolled
over, they knew something was wrong
and the three girls carried him out of the
water. One, a lifeguard, used her leg as a
stint to keep his neck straight.
First responders could have taken
him to two different hospitals. Lucky,
they determined he needed to go to the
hospital that specializes in this type
of trauma, said Yunita. Immediately
after arriving, Ben had an operation to
stabilize a bone that had been crushed
BY BRIDGET TURCOTTE
and was protruding into his spinal cord.
"If they had taken him to the local
hospital in France, they would not have
been able to do the operation," she
said. "He would have died from the
transport."
Yunita was at brunch with her
husband and four children in Montreal
when she got the call. She imagined he
had a few broken bones or a sprained
ankle, she said. She never expected to
step off the plane and find him lying in a
bed connected to wires and tubes.
In most cases, they would have
induced a coma, said Yunita, but Ben
was able to keep himself calm and keep
his blood pressure down. It wasn't until
he suffered from an infection from
inhaling the sea water that they induced
a coma.
After 6½ weeks in France, he was
airlifted back to Boston, stopping in
London, Iceland, and Newfoundland.
The trip took 20 hours and in that time,
nobody moved or talked to Ben, said
his mom. He developed a sore on his
coccyx, which developed to a stage four
wound.
The flesh of the wound essentially
died because of lack of blood flow, said
Yunita.
In September 2015, Ben had surgery
to clean out the wound and cover it with
skin.
He was treated at Massachusetts
General Hospital for 10 days before
he was transferred to Spaulding
Rehabilitation Hospital. Five-and-a-half
months and countless physical therapy
sessions later, Ben finally went home.
"It was amazing to have him home,"
said Yunita. "We didn't know day-to-day
if he was going to be OK until they let
him go and leave the hospital."
From there, Ben had health scares
here and there, but he was determined
not to let his new reality hold him back.
Rather than going to college with his
friends in the 2015-16 school year, he
waited on his eligibility results for a stem
cell replacement study at the University
of Miami. When he wasn't chosen for
it, he decided to shift his focus on his
education, he said.
He took online classes at North Shore
Community College during the Fall
2016 semester and made the Dean's List.
From there, he decided he would attend
the University of New Hampshire to
study finance.
"I'm not 100 percent sure what I want
to do, but one thing I think I would be
good at is advocacy or helping people
who have spinal injuries by setting up
foundations and stuff like that," said Ben.
Ben has joined a fraternity and met
many new friends. Over the past two
summers, he spent time at Empower
Spinal Cord Injury Camp, where he
kayaked with friends. He hopes to learn
to sail in the future.
"The first time was nerve-wracking —
my accident happened in water," he said.
"I didn't know if I would be comfortable
getting back into it. Once I did it, I was
like, 'I could do that again.' I had a ton
of fun."
Ben said he has learned that he can
do everything he did before his accident,
he just has to put in the time and effort
to learn how to do it differently.
He spends nine hours a week at
Project Walk in Stratham, N.H., an
activity-based recovery program that
helps increase mobility in clients who
have spinal cord injuries and other forms
of paralysis.
"Once he's done with school, there
might be a cure out there for him," said
Yunita. "And if there is, we want to send
him out there in a wheelchair and have
him come back home walking. That's our
vision. So we need to keep him strong."
The three-hour sessions are not
covered by insurance and cost $110 per
hour, said Yunita. The physical therapy
that is covered by insurance is only
45 minutes long and is not sufficient
to maintain Ben's strength, she said.
The community has stepped up with
fundraisers to help pay for the sessions at
Project Walk.
"It's awesome to know how many
people are still pulling for me out there,"
said Ben.
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