Dalton Dague
Dalton Dague on his new FES bike
Dalton Dague knew what he wanted to do at an early age. In grades 10, 11 and 12 he studied to become a diesel mechanic at the Mount Vernon, Ohio career center. Following high school graduation, I became a diesel mechanic for CTS Trucking in Mount Vernon. He then went to work for Thayer Power and Communication, a premier provider in the power and fiber construction industries. He helped keep the machines running that helped build overhead power, fiber communication and underground piping.
Just before Mother’s Day 2023, he had an accident riding his UTV!
The vehicle flipped on its side and the next thing he knew, he was waking up on a ventilator at Grant Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He had incurred many injuries, multiple broken ribs and fractures in various places along his spinal cord. At first, doctors thought he had severed his spinal cord completely. After a number of surgeries doctors found the spinal cord was not completely severed, thereby offering hope for some level of subsequent recovery. He was however paralyzed at T4, which made him a paraplegic.
He was released from the hospital one month later to The Ohio State University rehab center in New Albany. There, therapists worked with him using a FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation) cycle because of the incredible benefits it could afford someone like himself. Benefits include reducing the severe muscle spasms he experienced in his back, reducing muscle loss, increasing blood flow and range of motion. Because of the improvements he experienced, his therapist strongly advised that he get an FES cycle at home to continue the improvements. That was completely beyond his financial capability, and that is when he learned about our foundation.
Thanks to our terrific donors, we were able to grant his request!
“Right now, I am permanently in a wheelchair, and I have had a hard time dealing with that,” Dalton said. “I have to keep watch on my feet every day to make sure they do not start turning blue because of lack of blood circulation. I have bladder and bowel issues, and so much pain and muscle spasms,” he continued. “I have seen what FES therapy can do for my body, however. I will use this bike to help myself learn to walk again, and when I do, I am going to walk into that doctor’s office that told me I would never walk again and tell him to look at me now! I am only 22 and I have a lot of life to live yet, a lot of goals in life to meet,” he said.