Resident remobilized with new accessible van
Almost a year after her car accident, Valerie Joseph finally got her sense of independence back.
The Tamarac resident was left without a modified van when another driver slammed into the vehicle while she was on her lunch break with a coworker. It had been Joseph’s source of independence since it was first donated to her in 2005 with preexisting wheelchair accessibility.
Joseph was previously diagnosed with a large tumor on her spinal cord at the age of 16 and was left paralyzed from the neck down following nerve damage and two surgeries. Having regained some movement in her arms over time, she is now considered to have incomplete quadriplegia.
The damage to the vehicle appeared to be minimal after the accident but it was enough to make Joseph return to a time in her life when she depended on transportation services that could sometimes be unreliable.
“It changed my life drastically. You go from being independent for so many years to now being completely dependent on a taxicab,” Joseph said back in December.
On top of that was a hefty price tag of roughly $70,000 to replace and modify a new van. Joseph’s insurance covered a portion of this cost but she was left to somehow come up with the remaining amount, eventually turning to GoFundMe for help.
Her friends and family, as well as colleagues at Florida Atlantic University in Davie, rallied behind her in hopes of reaching a total of $48,700 through the campaign. But Joseph wasn’t able to reach this goal, as only a little over $3,000 was raised.
It wasn’t until people reached out and suggested that she try applying for help with the Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation that Joseph finally had hope that things would change for the better.
But it was a long wait until she got approval in May. After an additional three months, the new van was finally ready.
“Getting the van back, the independence, being able to come and go as I please, it’s amazing,” said Joseph. “When I leave work at 5p.m., I’ll be able to grab my keys and go home. I don’t have to sit and wait.”
junreyes@sun-sentinel.com