How a Spinal Cord Injury Survivor Is Helping Others Afford the High Cost of Rehabilitation
Key takeaways:
After Anthony Purcell was paralyzed from the chest down in a 2010 accident, his family learned how expensive it is to recover from a spinal cord injury.
They started a charity to help other spinal cord injury survivors pay for rehabilitation.
Anthony, who married in 2017 and has a daughter through in vitro fertilization, says he doesn’t want others with spinal cord injuries to feel trapped in a wheelchair.
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When Micki Purcell told her son she wanted to start a nonprofit to help people who, like him, had had a life-changing spinal cord injury, he wasn’t interested.
A year earlier, in February 2010, Anthony Purcell had misjudged the depth of the Atlantic Ocean when diving. He injured his back, losing the use of his legs. After 6 weeks in the hospital and more than a year in physical rehabilitation, he was still in rough shape. His body, as his mother says, had the “consistency of a noodle.” His mind was in even worse shape.
“When people see someone with a spinal cord injury, they see the physical: ‘Oh, wow. That person’s in a wheelchair because he broke his neck or back. That sucks,’” says Anthony, now 36. “But the real battle is in the brain. Your whole world gets flipped upside down. Your mental health just plummets.”
Micki, however, was undeterred. “Trust me,” she says she told her son. “You’ll appreciate this once we start.”
Micki founded Walking With Anthony, a nonprofit that supports people who have suffered traumatic spinal cord injuries. She is the president, and Anthony is the executive director. The organization has helped more than 200 individuals. Its support takes many forms — including specially equipped cars and resources to make homes wheelchair accessible — and often covers physical rehabilitation expenses.
Walking With Anthony customizes its awards. Its average grant is $10,000. It receives hundreds of applications through its website each year.
Anthony, who initially avoided involvement in the program, is now all in. In addition to the grants, he and his mother provide support to the injured and their families. Among the lives this work has changed? His own.
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“The way I looked at life before my injury is so different from the way that I look at my life now,” he says. “After I got hurt, I was obviously way more depressed. But as I came out of it, and I started helping people and seeing the impact I could make on people’s lives, … I feel like I’m happier today than I was when I had both legs that were working.”
Insurance plans can fall short on rehabilitation costs
Walking With Anthony often focuses on rehabilitation costs. That’s because Anthony knows firsthand that even the best insurance plans can fall short.
After 3 months in the hospital, Anthony started rehab. His insurance ran out after 20 sessions. At the time, he couldn’t stay in his wheelchair without being strapped in.
But his parents had the money to get their son what he needed: It cost $40,000 for him for 2 more months of physical therapy. Then they spent $50,000 to finance another year of outpatient therapy 3 times a week.
“My family was fortunate that they had the money for me to continue rehab, but a lot of families don’t,” Anthony says. “We created this charity to help people live a better life.”
The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center collects national spinal cord injury data. It says that 18,000 Americans suffer a traumatic spinal cord injury annually. The organization says that 305,000 Americans are living with a traumatic spinal cord injury.
The annual living expenses that are directly attributed to spinal cord injuries vary based on the severity of the injury. They are significantly higher in the first year of recovery. The organization says living expenses in the first year of recovery can be more than $1 million for someone with tetraplegia — also called quadriplegia — which is paralysis to all four limbs. That estimate was $447,000 in 2023 for someone with paraplegia — paralysis of the lower part of the body. These estimates do not include indirect costs, such as loss of wages.
Dedicated to helping others with spinal cord injuries
Walking With Anthony relies on private donations. It also hosts fundraising events nationwide, including golf tournaments. Among the organization’s high-profile supporters: former NBA player John Salley.
A recent video highlighting Walking With Anthony’s work includes the stories of individuals they’ve helped. Among them are Rachelle Chapman, who was paralyzed from the chest down during her bachelorette party in 2010, when a friend playfully pushed her into a pool, and Brett Gravatt, a former Penn State soccer player who was paralyzed during a 2015 snowboarding accident.
More recently, Walking With Anthony worked with former San Francisco Sgt. Kevin Brugaletta, who was paralyzed in March 2023 when a tree fell on his patrol car. His wife, Brittany, was almost 9 months pregnant with the couple’s second child. When she gave birth, hospital staff pushed the couple’s individual hospital beds together.
“It’s really a remarkable story,” Anthony says. “This couple’s incredible.”
A GoFundMe for the Brugaletta family has raised $280,000. That’s a significant amount, but Anthony says many more families are in need of help.
“It breaks my heart because we need to help them,” he says. “But we can only help them so much.”
Celebrating the little things
Families of the newly injured often reach out to Anthony, The first thing he tells them: “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.” He also tells them to wait until their loved one is ready before making an introduction.
“I remember when I was in the hospital, and the last thing I wanted to do was talk to somebody in a wheelchair,” he says.
But when Anthony connects with someone struggling, he listens. He answers questions. He says that life changes after an accident but it can still be good. He might tell them about the first time he was able to put on a shoe. It took him 20 minutes. When he did it, the medical staff around him applauded. He might share that he had to “relearn everything.” But with time, he did.
He might talk about his work or his family. He and wife, Karen, had a daughter, Payton, in March 2023. They were able to conceive on the sixth round of in vitro fertilization, a story that made it on ABC News as a Father’s Day feature.
Anthony says each milestone since his injury has made him appreciate how far he’s come and how he can give others hope.
“I try to make them feel that their [lives are] not over,” he says. “Celebrate the little things, and the big things will follow.
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