Sudden waist-down paralysis strikes popular local mechanic
GoFundMe set up for Orum family, who run Canard Automotive, LaSalle Towing
An auto mechanic since he was 18 years old, Rick Orum realized a lifelong dream of operating his own garage two years ago when he and wife Manila opened Canard Automotive on Malden Road. Last year, the 52-year-old added LaSalle Towing to the family business plan.
“He’s been a mechanic and a towtruck driver his entire life,” Manila said. “It was always his dream to be his own boss.”
The dream has turned nightmarish since Rick became paralyzed from the waist down just a few days after Christmas. Manila had to close the garage while other drivers try to keep the towing operation going.
“It’s been crazy,” she said of their lives since the morning of Dec. 27. “And it’s been devastating.” Rick got up ready to head back to work after enjoying four days off for the holidays. At first, he felt a little weak in the knees but that quickly changed to excruciating pain.
“He collapsed on the bed,” Manila said. “It all happened very, very quickly.”
The days that followed in hospital were filled with tests, MRIs, steroid injections, a lumbar puncture and plasma exchanges. They ruled out pinched nerve and slipped disc. Finally, doctors diagnosed transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder that causes inflammation of a section of the spinal cord that can result in paralysis. Transverse myelitis basically interrupts the messages that nerves in the spinal cord send through the body.
It can be brought on by infection, an immune system disorder or as a complication to multiple sclerosis. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason for the affliction. Some people recover fully, others don’t.
“There’s a chance for recovery and that’s what keeps his head up every day,” Manila said.
Rick is undergoing rehabilitation at the Prince Road campus of Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and has regained slight movement in his left leg.
Manila said his rehab has been held back as caregivers struggle to regulate his blood pressure. Sudden drops in pressure have caused him to black out during therapy sessions.
“He hasn’t made much progress because he hasn’t had much rehab,” she said. “I want aggressive therapy.”
Now, she’s being told he could be coming home within a couple of weeks.
They are a blended family with six children, three still living in their Amherstburg home, a side split that needs retrofitting to accommodate a wheelchair. Reluctantly, Manila launched a GoFundMe page to help not only with renovations but ongoing costs related to therapy and medications.
As small business owners, a lot of their medical expenses are out of pocket.
“I am very uncomfortable with it,” Manila said of the public plea for help. “I’m good at donating not receiving.”
The fundraising page mentions the family has been “forced to deal with yet another tragedy.” In September 2015, Rick Jr. suffered catastrophic injuries when he was struck by a car while riding his bicycle to work. As a result of the collision, he had to have his left leg amputated.
“I didn’t do a GoFundMe page then, but I have nowhere to turn now,” Manila said. “I want Rick to know people are rooting for him, to show him he does have support from his customers and his friends.”
Manila said her husband has a good sense of humour and he’s a “sucker for kids and animals.” The GoFundMe page describes him as “selfless” and always willing to “give the shirt off his back. I am counting on the good he’s displayed in his life to be returned 10-fold.”
Anyone looking to help can go to gofundme.com/ricks-fight-backfrom-tm.