Remembrance Garden Dedicated To Parsons

BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--From Plymouth County Commissioner Anthony O'Brien:
Register of Deeds employees and title examiners held a dedication of a Remembrance Garden at the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds office in Plymouth Wednesday, August 24 in memory of Marilyn Parsons, a title examiner for 40 years, who died last year after suffering a stroke while working in her garden.
Parsons was an avid gardener widely known for sharing plants with family and friends.
The small Remembance Garden includes a Kwanzan Cherry tree, bench, and flowers. Materials were either donated by local businesses or purchased from donations by her family, current & former co-workers, and friends who also attended the dedication.
Pictured above, left to right: County Register John Buckley, Marilyn's husband Russ Parsons, Project Committee co-chairs Ellen Kennedy and Tiara Tracy, and County Commissioner Anthony O'Brien.

Irene Knocks Out Trees, Power Across South Shore

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—Douglas Avenue resident Lucy Nugent knows exactly why her electricity has been out since 1 p.m. Sunday.
Nugent was on the second floor of her home at 14 Douglas Avenue sewing when a large, and old tree (pictured at top) was knocked over, taking down electrical lines with it during a wind surge as Tropical Storm Irene roared up the East Coast, leaving more than 700,000 customers in Massachusetts without electricity during the height of the storm Sunday, Aug. 28.
“There was a thud…and a noise like a muffled crash and then the lights, and everything went off,” Nugent said.
Nugent said being without power has been “no big deal,” and expects, and hopes, her electricity will be restored by nightfall.
Surrounded by Winter Street and Howard Street, Nugent said areas all around Douglas have electricity, but Douglas seems to be on its own.
“We must be on some type of grid of its own,” Nugent said.
As of about 11:45 a.m. today, National Grid reported more than 77,000 power outages in Plymouth County, including more than 27,000 in Brockton, 6,500 in Pembroke, nearly 5,700 in Scituate, and nearly 10,000 more in East Bridgewater and Bridgewater.
Hayward Street, on the West Bridgewater border, was closed to traffic as crews worked to clear utility lines of trees and restore electrical service to the area. (Pictured at right)
By the time Irene reached Massachusetts it had been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm and although she did not reach the destructive force felt during Hurricane Bob in 1991, and Gloria in 1985, it has been reported Irene is responsible for 18 deaths along her path and severe flooding in coastal areas including Long Island and Cape Cod, and surging, deadly rivers in Vermont.
From Virginia to Maine, residents are taking stock of the storm the National Weather Service estimated cut a swatch more than 300 miles outward from its center.
Logan Airport in Boston canceled more than 15,000 flights and Amtrak canceled service on most of the East Coast and as of this afternoon, Amtrak service is still not at full-capacity.
During the height of the storm, sheets of rain pummeled the South Shore as wind wildly whipped trees and shrubs.
Blue Hills Weather Observatory reported winds up to 81 mph. Gusts averaged 40 to 60 mph throughout the day.
Birute Silvia, a Keith Avenue extension resident, sweeps sticks, twigs and leaves that have been left on her driveway.
She is concentrating on the small debris, because the more than 30-foot tree that came crashing down from her neighbor’s yard has bisected her backyard and crushed numerous shrubs, plants and decorations in her award-winning gardens.
(Pictured at right)
Like thousands of others, Silvia, 72, said she is learning the steps she now has to take to contact her homeowner’s insurance and figure out who is responsible to pay for the damage to her garden from her neighbor’s tree.
“It is what it is,” Silvia said.

New Technology, Battles For Programs In ER Doc's Future

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the the third article in a three-part series about Dr. Gary Witman, an emergency room doctor at Good Samaritan Medical Center, who last summer lost the use of his arms and legs after a rogue wave paralyzed him while at the beach.
Links to previous articles and Dr. Witman's personal blog are below.



By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—Nearly a year since the accident that has left him paralyzed from the neck down, Good Samaritan emergency room Dr. Gary Witman has had his voice return after vocal cord damage and just Wednesday afternoon he was able to move his thumb—a seemingly small, but enormous feat during what is expected to be years and decades of therapy that will coincide with battles with health insurance representatives for costly programs Witman will need to regain whatever movement in his body he can.
“The first thing they say is ‘No,’ You have to fight for everything,” said Dee Dee exasperatingly when she talks about paying for Gary’s extensive, and expensive medical care during the initial two months of recovery and a year’s worth of subsequent rehabilitation that began last fall when Gary was flown from Massachusetts to Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado—one of the few spinal cord rehabilitation facilities in the U.S.
They would have loved to stay in Boston at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, well-known for physical and rehabilitative therapies, but Spaulding, Gary said, offers general care and he needed specialized treatment offered at Craig, and other centers like Shepherd Center in Atlanta or Kessler Institute of Rehabilitation in New Jersey. 4k3BqJaYF_Y/s1600/wedding2.JPG">
The Witmans—through help from family and friends--now have a handicapped van which they have used to travel to Los Angeles for daughter Samantha’s wedding, a week later to Philadephia for another wedding and Toronto, Canada for business reasons, and Baltimore, Maryland for a month-long battery of intensive therapies at Kennedy Krieger Institute.
Last fall when Gary had to leave Brigham and Women’s in Boston for Colorado for physical rehabilitation, the only available option was a medical evacuation flight via jet plane.
“It cost $18,000 to fly him to Colorado,” Dee Dee exclaimed. The flight was denied at first.
“What was he supposed to do? Take a bus," she said.
If an $18,000 flight wasn’t enough, during the 21 days Gary was in Brigham and Women’s surgical ICU it cost $15,000 per day, or about $315,000.
After countless phone calls and the help of Susan Brown, the benefits manager for Good Samaritan, the flight to Colorado was assured, however the battle over payments, Gary’s eligibility for government medical programs, and their desire to attain the best services, therapies, technology and rehabilitative programs—traditional or experimental--is expected to be a life-long, day-to-day battle.
"They deny, and deny, and deny," Dee Dee said. "You'd think they were they to help people. I think they get paid to deny," she said.
A recent study by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation found approximately 5.6 million people, or 1 in every 50 Americans, suffer partial or complete paralysis.
The number one cause of paralysis is from a stroke, followed by multiple sclerosis and then spinal cord injuries which are mostly caused by motor vehicle accidents, work-related incidents, and sporting or recreational activities.
Whether a paraplegic or quadriplegic, patients and their families face a mountain of costs, paperwork, and red-tape associated with their new lives in wheelchairs.
According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, the average first year costs for quadriplegics— is about $400,000.

“You have to stay on them. They say no to everything and hope you’ll go away,” Dee Dee said, vowing to fight for every therapy and every penny they are entitled to.
Mountains of costs are compounded by mountains of medical complications.
People who have been paralyzed have a multitude of secondary medical complications such as cardiovascular, respiratory, bladder and bowel function problems, sexual function and temperature control issues, skin care and bed sore worries, and loss of touch and feeling—a loss of sensation that is a new disorienting sensation for paralyzed people.
Depression is a constant plague for patients, and Gary said he counts himself lucky, because through it all he never became darkly depressed or, like so many others who have suffered catastrophic injuries, contemplated suicide.
“I wanted to live and I have so many people to thank for helping me get here,” Gary said—topping the list wife, Dee Dee, his children, friends and colleagues. ““I don’t think of myself as a quadriplegic or a tetraplegic,” he said. “I think of myself as someone who can’t do all the things I used to do.”
While there are a lot of things he can’t do, like ski down the slopes with Dee Dee or save patients in an emergency room, there are a lot of things he can do—especially with his mind—which both Dee Dee and Gary agree is a miracle that he didn’t suffer any brain damage.
After more than three months at Craig Hospital in Colorado many medical problems Gary suffered were resolved including, anemia and hypoxia, severe deficiencies of much needed oxygen to his body tissues; excessive edema or swelling caused by excessive fluids in body tissues; and the need to use a feeding tube for nutrients.
While medical problems were resolved, he underwent aggressive physical and occupational therapies designed to get him back into a “normal” role as fast as possible, but with the caveat that normal would be much different than a few short months ago before the accident.
“The reality began to set in that tetraplegia is a life-long condition and one is not going to get up and walk,” Gary said.
What has been a god-send is a computer and software that function on a “sip-and-puff” system that allows Gary to operate a motorized wheelchair and Dragon voice-activated software that lets him use a computer to surf the Web, communicate with family and friends on his blog, “The Life and Spines of Dr. Gary,” possibly rejoin the staff at Good Samaritan in some way, and create presentations like the one he gave about his experience in May when he returned to the hospital for the first time.
Technology such as Dragon software and the sip-and-puff wheelchair have made a marked improvement in the quality of life for many paralyzed people.
Medical advances have also changed the prognosis for spinal cord injured people.
A generation ago, patients with paralysis had few options to increase their mobility and advice was to not try, or shouldn’t or couldn’t try, because it wouldn’t help anyway—there’s no cure for paralysis.
Since, due to advocacy and fundraising by non-profit organizations like the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation numerous experimental methods have been initiated, and in some cases have helped some people actually walk again.
Functional electrical stimulation, the sending of an electrical current or wave to the muscles and nerves, has been an integral therapy since the 1980s when a paralyzed college student, Nan Davis made headlines in 1983 when she got out of her wheelchair and, powered by a special functional electrical stimulation system, walked to the stage to accept her diploma.
Since the ‘80s, functional stimulation has taken on many forms including a device used at home called an EMPI, and an exercise bicycle that has shown dramatic benefits, not only in increased movement, but offers the benefits of exercise—increased heart and lung function, building of muscle and bone mass, and improved strength and stamina—for those who cannot exercise on their own.
In Massachusetts the only functional electrical stimulation cycles to be found, Gary said, are at Braintree Rehabilitation Hospital in Braintree and Boston University Medical Center in Boston.
Dr. Steve Williams, chair of Rehabilitative Studies and head of New England Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center at BU Medical Center, has been treating Witman for many months now and is pleased with Witman’s progress which has gone from an A on the American Spinal Cord Injury Association, or ASIA scale, or having no movement below the neck at all, to a C, where there is some sensation below the level of injury.
However he doesn’t want to be too pessimistic or too optimistic, and notes spinal cord injury patients usually show the greatest amount of improvement in the first and second years after injury.
“He’s got a long way to go,” Williams said.
Williams said the stimulation cycle helps increase brain activity in an unusual way—through the soles of the feet.
“We don’t know how or why,” Williams said, but data has shown the pedals of the bike stimulate the soles of the feet which send electrical messages from the feet, up the legs, through the torso and to the brain and back.
Stimulation has been shown to increase nerve activity in the brain, which increases movement and range of motion, but it is a slow, grueling process, that for some can be miraculous, and for others, it all depends.
“Yes, I have seen people who have been paralyzed walk, but, like every person, every injury is different,” Williams said.
Dee Dee said the bike gives Gary an obvious lift and they have seen a noticeable improvement in all areas. “It’s very exciting when Gary is on the bike. He shows so much improvement,” Dee Dee said.
Williams said Witman’s case is unusual because Gary did not hit his head on the beach sand—which would have made sense that he suffered severe neck and spine injury.
Mind-boggling to all—medical personnel included—is that the wave caused the injury to Gary.
In most circumstances it is the impact the head, neck or spine takes from an accident, wave or otherwise that causes bones to snap or fracture causing pressure on the spine which results in paralysis.
The accident did not cause any bones to break or fracture, and there was no sign of injury to his vertebrae. What was found was a “perfect storm” of bleeding in his spinal cord from C-3 to C-5, and edema, or fluid, through the rest of the spinal canal caused by the force of the wave, only.
“When he was knocked down the bone moved against the spinal cord,” Williams said. When Gary’s spinal cord was pinched by the bone the cells it caused bleeding in the spine and cells--neurons—died because of the bleeding.
The death of the cells, Williams said, causes messages to be sent to the brain telling the brain the cells are now dead. Because the brain has been told the cells are dead, messages from the brain no longer tell those body parts to move because they will no longer work.
In essence, Williams said, communication to the spine from the brain no longer takes place.
The only explanation for Gary’s injury is that in 1994, Witman was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of one or more areas of the spine that can cause pressure on the spine which can result in paralysis.
He had surgery about a year later. Sixteen years later, Dee Dee and Gary hypothesize it was the stenosis and subsequent surgery that not only caused the paralysis, but probably saved his life because there was enough elasticity in his spine to prevent a death-causing fracture.



“If it was another person, that person probably would have died,” Dee Dee said. “It caused his injuries, but it probably saved his life. That’s the irony,” she said.
A creepy remembrance trickles in when the Witmans are reminded of the stenosis surgery.
When Gary was flown to Craig Hospital in Colorado for rehabilitation, the plane made a stop to refuel. The plane refueled in Rockford, Illinois, the same city signs of stenosis in Gary’s spine first appeared 16 years before.
Gary is willing to try cutting-edge and experimental treatments in his attempt to find a cure for his paralysis.
He has researched new advancements in stem cell research. Witman has his eye on surgically implanted spine electrical stimulation that in an article in Lancet medical journal in May helped a 23-year-old paraplegic, after more than two years of experiments and stimulation, stand, with assistance for balance, on his own two feet for about 4.25 minutes and was able to take a few steps.
Witman said he is willing to face experimental electrical stimulation to his brain, a risk he is willing to take if it will help him regain movement, or possibly walk.
“I’ll be a human guinea pig—what have I got to lose,” Gary said.

Click here to read Part 1 of Dr. Witman's story...

Click here to read Part 2 of Dr. Witman's story...

Click here to visit Dr. Witman's blog, "The Life and Spine of Dr. Gary B. Witman," ....http://garywitman.tumblr.com/

Unusual Earthquake Shakes East Coast

BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--The United States Geological Survey said an earthquake centered near Mineral, Virginia was felt more than 500 miles away in Boston and as far away north as Ontario, Canada, and south to Alabama.
The United States Geological Survey said the quake struck at 1:51 p.m. The strongest quake measured 5.8 and lasted 20 to 30 seconds, and was felt the most in Virginia, including Washington D.C., where several national monuments were cracked.
Survey officials reported two small aftershocks, of magnitude 2.8 and 2.2, within 90 minutes of the original jolt.
Buildings in Boston and up and down the East Coast were evacuated and many people were shocked at the sudden rumbling of the earth that, to some in Brockton, felt like a commuter train rushing through.
Cities and towns north and south of Boston reported rumbling and shaking for about 10seconds.
Media reports say it is the first time in nearly 100 years Boston and the surrounding area has felt an earthquake rumble through the area.
According to the USGS, historically 19 earthquakes of intensity V or greater, have centered in Massachusetts--unlike yesterday's rattling, which began in Virginia and sent seismic waves more than 1,000 miles away.
A shock in 1755 reached intensity VIII at Boston and was felt across the state.
In addition, Massachusetts was affected by some of the more severe Canadian shocks plus the earthquake of 1929 that centered on Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
The residents of Nantucket Island were jolted by a moderate earthquake on October 24, 1965.
Very slight damage, mostly to ornaments, was reported. Doors, windows, and dishes rattled, and house timbers creaked.

Life's No Beach After Paralyzing Accident

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second in a three-part series about Good Samaritan Medical Center emergency room Dr. Gary Witman, who last August was paralyzed by a wave during a day at the beach in Rhode Island.
Click here to read the first article...
To follow Dr. Witman's personal blog, "The Life & Spines of Dr. Gary Witman," click here...
By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—On Aug. 31, 2010, Good Samaritan Medical Center emergency room Dr. Gary Witman and his wife Dianne, better known as Dee Dee, visited some friends at a private section of Narragansett Beach in Rhode Island for his once-per-year visit to the ocean.
“Gary doesn’t like the beach. I love skiing. You don’t know how many accidents we’ve had (skiing),” Dee Dee said. “There’s so much irony in all of this,” she said.
Gary doesn’t particularly care for the beach and only goes once a year. Dee Dee loves the ocean and her friends had a cabana on a private section of Narragansett Beach that the Witmans once visited regularly until the town banned those not living in town from the privilege about 6 or 7 years ago.
The Witmans hadn’t been back to Narragansett Beach since the Town of Narragansett excluded non-residents from the section with cabanas.
Gary agreed to what was expected to be a fun Tuesday visiting with beloved friends from Pittsburgh, gabbing about family triumphs and disappointments, and splashing around in the beach’s waves that children and adults alike grab bogey boards and surf boards to ride the surges to shore.
It never crossed their minds one rogue wave, a day at the beach, would turn their lives upside down.
“Never, never, never take anything for granted,” Dee Dee said.
In many ways the Witmans were living the good life, an upper middle class, bordering on wealthy, American dream.
Gary, a much respected emergency room doctor at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton since 1997, worked as a resident at Brown University, and put people back together as an overnight shift emergency room intern--when he met Dee Dee also a working student. Witman worked the overnight shift at Good Samaritan until his accident.
His salary and private investments, and Dee Dee’s position as a political consultant afforded the family a beautiful home in Providence, the opportunity to send all three of their adult children, Samantha, 32, Zachary, 29, and Amanda Rose, 26, to college, and watch them build families of their own.
The couple enjoyed traveling and dinner parties and Dee Dee’s involvement as a volunteer in Rhode Island made the pair—both down-to-earth and funny-- an admired and well-liked two-some.
While there are still parties and the Witmans still travel—some for therapies and some for family events like oldest daughter Samantha’s wedding in Los Angeles—it is all much different, much more difficult, and much, much slower.
“It was such a freak accident, but we are living with it, we’re adjusting,” Dee Dee said after a recent physical therapy session at Braintree Rehabilitation Hospital, where Gary visits two or three times a week and travels 60-90 minutes from their home in Providence to Braintree or Boston University Medical Center for therapy unavailable in their home state.
“One day at a time,” Dee Dee said.
A year later, as Gary fights to regain some of his old life, now without the use of his arms and legs and confined to a wheelchair, and Dee Dee attends him 24-7 helping him eat, drink, bathe, change clothes, and nearly every other daily activity the vibrant couple once so easily enjoyed—they wonder why it all happened and have been spooked by some ironies and coincidences.
“It was a quiet day. The waves were quiet. They weren’t surging,” Dee Dee said, unusual for a beach with an ever-present instructor who offers surf lessons by the half-hour and hour.
Gary remembers the moment the wave crashed into him and sent him sprawling wildly. When the wave hit, Gary was bent over as he stooped to pick up Dee Dee’s hat that had accidentally fallen into the water.
The wave hit his upper body and he immediately knew he was paralyzed after hearing a “pop.”
Due to numerous reasons we posted yesterday Dr. Witman slammed his head on hard-packed sand. That did not happen--to the astonishment of family, friends and every medical person who has treated Witman--an added irony to the tragedy.
The injury was caused by the power and surge of the wave.
Unable to move or yell for help, Witman said he knew he was paralyzed and, while not a religious man—it’s never too late to learn he said--prayed someone would notice he was floating face down in the water quickly drowning.
“The lifeguards did nothing. They just sat on their butts,” Gary said. “It was Dee Dee and other doctors from California who happened to be there who saved me. The lifeguards just sat there on their chairs and none of them came to my rescue,” he said.
Before help arrived Gary nearly drowned in about 3 feet of water, about 50 feet from shore—no sharks, no power boats, he wasn't miles out to see in a 100-year storm. There was no apparent danger, except that Witman was paralyzed, face-down in the water helpless to help himself.
Dee Dee, who had been knocked over and washed up on shore by the same wave, turned around and looked for her husband of 36 years after recovering from her own spill.
She saw Gary face down in the water. She began to yell for help and raced toward Witman.
Other beachgoers also began to run to help the face-down floating doctor.
“Thirty-seconds of my life seemed like forever,” Witman said.
Torrents of thoughts ran through his mind as he waited for help. He envisioned himself like a rubber duck floating in a bath tub. He prayed for help. He had a darkly cheerful thought his life insurance policy would be ample for his family if he died. He didn’t want to die. He wanted to live, he thought as salty water filled both his lungs.
He passed out before rescuers reached him and he remembers nothing about being dragged to shore.
Dee Dee and the other beachgoers turned over Witman, allowing the water to clear and opening air ways to his seawater-filled lungs. Dee Dee and four others dragged Gary's motionless body to shore.
Still showing the sense of humor that has won them many friends, Witman said he and Dee Dee still joke about the tell-tale sign, that indeed, he had been paralyzed.
“What was most impressive to my wife was my presentation of priapism,” Witman said, using the medical word for an erection.
Dee Dee called 911. Fifteen minutes later a rescue team from Narragansett arrived at the beach. Witman was immobilized, placed on a board with his neck in a collar and was to be raced by ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital--a Level I trauma center 30 minutes away.
While in the ambulance and having regained consciousness, Gary said—along with asking Dee Dee to tell ER Chief Rick Herman he wouldn’t be able to work that night--he made the first demand of a long list of demands—often lifesaving--based on his medical knowledge.
Witman said he couldn’t breathe and knew he was having respiratory distress—a life-threatening condition-- and did not feel he could survive the 30 minutes to Rhode Island Hospital.
Upon his request, Witman was taken to South County Hospital, the closest hospital of any kind to the beach. Witman requested the attending emergency room physician perform an urgent intubation—the insertion of a tube down the throat to open air passages.
The procedure saved his life, but he lost his voice for about eight months because the tube harmed his right vocal cord.
It was the first in many gaffes by doctors and others that has left Witman with a less than exemplary opinion of some medical personnel and procedures, and a gloomy vision of what life is really like for a patient when it comes to medical care and paying for that medical care.
Within 24 hours he was stabilized at South County and Gary was eventually transferred to Rhode Island Hospital where he suffered more complications—including a barely-won bout with highly dangerous pneumonia that developed in both lungs from the ocean water that filled his lungs while he was floating upside down and helpless.
In his weakened and traumatic state the pneumonia could have, and almost did, kill him.
At Rhode Island Hospital, Dee Dee and son Zachary were told it was likely Gary would never be removed from a ventilator.
After three weeks in the ICU unit where he barely beat the pneumonia, lived on a feeding tube, had no bowel movement for nine days and his testicles grew to the size of tennis balls, Witman wanted out.
“Get me to Boston,” Gary told his family and friends, and they requested he be transferred to Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Transferring was not an easy process.
A medical helicopter was available, but he had to wait 18 hours before a pilot could be found to fly him to Boston.
Once in Boston, Witman said he has no memory of the first three days at Brigham and Women’s where he spent 21 days in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.
While at Brigham and Women’s the worst thing that happened—besides some visitors having their belongings stolen--was he caught a fever of 104.6 degrees—a volatile situation that could have killed him.
A cooling blanket could have helped, Witman said, but the resident who was working had no experience using one and only provided Tylenol which did little to bring the fever down.
“My son spent the entire night putting ice on my head,” Witman said.
There had to be a reason for the fever, Witman said, and it began to dawn on him the cause of the fever was an allergic reaction to an antibiotic he was prescribed to control infections.
Outside help was needed. Witman’s son Zachary worked the telephone lines until they could reach Good Samaritan’s Dr. Dan McQuillen, an infectious disease specialist and Dr. Derrick Crook, chairman of the Infectious Disease Department at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England.
As fever poured from Gary, Zachary iced his father’s head and the telephone lines buzzed in the darkness of the wee early morning hours between England, Boston and Brockton, and the group came to the conclusion Witman’s fever was triggered by the antibiotic.
The trio insisted it be cut-off and another administered in its place. The change was made, Gary’s fever broke, and with the fever’s departure went most of the life-threatening medical situations he faced during the two months after the injury.
Gary continued to recover and medical discussions shifted from fighting for survival to rehabilitation and physical and occupational therapies.
The next phase would perhaps be the worst: barring a medical miracle, the family would have to prepare mentally and physically for Gary’s life in a wheelchair, the household needed to be reorganized, work schedules juggled, and the war with health insurance representatives would be waged.
“When I was an emergency room doctor I never thought about the financial consequences of saving a patient—how much it might cost them later,” Gary said. “We’re learning,” he said.

Accident Doesn't Paralyze Witman's Fight

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—One wave.
One rogue ocean wave in Rhode Island last August 31 forever changed the life of Dr. Gary Witman, an emergency room doctor at Brockton’s Good Samaritan Medical Center, who in one surge of Mother Nature’s power has gone from a leading ER doctor to struggling quadriplegic—not only fighting for his life and to walk again, but also fighting for the medical care and denials of that care from health insurance companies.
“I only go to the beach once a year—and that day was it,” Witman said after a recent session at Braintree Rehabilitation Hospital, where he is undergoing extensive physical and occupational therapies.
Sometimes it is difficult for him to speak—although speaking is progress—and he practically lives in an electrified wheelchair that is now the only means for Witman to get around.
He uses a "puffer," or strawlike device to operate the wheelchair, and his wife of 36years, Diane, better known as Dee Dee, is constantly on the move helping him with all of the once-taken-for-granted needs of everyday life from helping Witman eat, drink, bathe, change clothes, get in and out of bed and run the household.
"This isn't love--it's more than love," Dee Dee said, as she wiped a drip from Gary's mouth as juice spilled from his lips and down his face.
"This is like. I love him, but I like him, too. This is companionship, friendship--this is committment," she said.
Unlike some of the thousands in the U.S. who suffer from quadriplegia—commonly called tetraplegia-- Witman, 61, a determined, sharp-witted, gregarious, and humorous father of three adult children, said while there are things he can no longer do, he will not be anchored by this enormous and unwanted change in his life.
He has no desire to stay home and wither away, and doesn’t care if people are uncomfortable seeing him wheel around hotels for his daughter’s wedding in California, or around the streets of his neighborhood in Rhode Island, or around the grounds of the hospital he expects to return.
“There was never going be retirement,” Witman said. “People tell me I should just retire, stay home, take care of myself. That’s what I’m doing. Taking care of myself. With or without this, I never intended to retire,” he said.
At the moment of the accident nearly a year ago, immediately realizing he was paralyzed and unable to move, roll over or yell for help during the time he was face-down in 3 feet of water only 50 feet from shore, Witman said he contemplated several things while waiting to die:
He was glad he took out a substantial life insurance policy for his family and that the universe is not in the control of humans.
“What I recall most was the sound of the waves and the fact that I was bobbing on the ocean like a rubber duck in the bathtub,” Witman said. “I felt absolutely helpless and awed by the power of Mother Nature,” he said.
Since the wave caused injuries to his spinal cord in several places, Witman, has made an amazing amount of progress, including the ability to speak eight months after the accident, he and Dee Dee have had a rude awakening to what it is like on the other side of medicine—including frustrating battles with insurance companies over services and rehab programs.
“I’m not only a doctor now. I’m a patient,” Witman said. “I’m on the other side,” he said.
While there is progress, Witman has a long way to go to reach some of the goals he has set for himself: possibly walking again and returning as a regular member of the Good Samaritan Medical Center staff.
He has been in touch with new hospital President Jeffrey Liebman to create some type of position that would allow Witman to use his keen mind, if not body, to help at the hospital where he has been a leader since 1997 when he joined the staff.
“We’re going to try to custom-shape something,” Witman said.
His friend and colleague at Good Samaritan’s emergency room Dr. Christopher Johnson said Witman’s accident was a shock to all in the close-knit Good Samaritan community.
When Witman gave a presentation to the hospital’s paramedic service in May, Witman’s wheelchair was surrounded by paramedics, doctors, nurses and other staff wishing him well and giving him kisses and hugs. (Photo at top with Dr. David Mudd, left)
“Through all of this, at some point he’s going to prevail,” Johnson said. (Pictured above)
Johnson said it is inevitable that Witman will, in some shape or form, return to the hospital as a doctor.
“He loves medicine and he has an unbridled and unmatched energy,” Johnson said. “He has dedicated his life to medicine. He’s one of those doctors you can call at 3 a.m. for help and he doesn’t mind,” he said.
Johnson said Witman is sorely missed at the hospital.
“He’s such an intellectual, so dedicated and he has so much knowledge,” Johnson said. “He’s really missed by the staff and patients,” he said.

AG Coakley Brockton Visit Highlights Copper Stripping Problem

BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--FROM ATTORNEY GENERAL MARTHA COAKLEY'S OFFICE:
Attorney General Martha Coakley Monday met with local officials and visited a three-family property in Brockton that was stripped of copper to highlight the need for legislation to address the illegal stripping and dealing of metal in the state.
The abandoned property is in the process of being repaired and renovated by Neighborhood Housing Services of the South Shore.
Coakley and state Sen. James E. Timilty filed a bill in January called An Act Regulating Secondary Metals Dealing which aims to address the illegal stripping and dealing of metal through the creation of a central Secondary Metals Computer Registry and an Abandoned Property Registry.
During the visit, Coakley toured the property to observe the damage caused by copper stripping. She was joined by local officials and legislators including Timilty and Brockton Mayor Linda Balzotti.
“This property highlights the serious issues that come with the stripping of metals from vacant properties,” Coakley said in a prepared statement.
“Metal stripping adds costs to the rehabilitation of these properties and can pose public safety threats due to gas leaks and structural damage caused by pipe stripping. Our legislation will provide law enforcement and communities with the tools they need to address metals dealing and continue to revitalize their neighborhoods,” she said.
Sen. Timilty, D-Walpole, said in a prepared statement he is proud to co-sponsor the bill with Coakley and Senate President Theresa Murray.
“My office has heard from historical societies, veterans groups, utility companies, sculpture artists, police chiefs, the brewers guild, and many others who support (the bill)," Timilty said.
"These much needed regulations intend to curb metals theft by going after those who profit from stolen goods, while protecting the legitimate secondary metals industry,” he said.
In the last few years, Coakley’s office has seen an uptick in reports of abandoned properties.
The mortgage foreclosure crisis has caused many properties throughout Massachusetts to be abandoned.
Many of these vacant properties pose a threat to public safety due to building code violations, dilapidation, and criminal activity such as theft, drug dealing, and arson.
Many of these properties have been significantly damaged by acts of vandalism, including the stripping of copper and other metals, which are then resold on the secondary market.
The City of Brockton has worked to sell, rehab or repair vacant and foreclosed properties.
Over the past three years, the Highland Goddard Street neighborhood of Brockton has seen a transformation.
When the City began neighborhood walk throughs and clean ups three years ago, there were 15 vacant homes in foreclosure.
Thanks to the efforts fo the City and non-profit and for-profit developers, today there are none.
Based on the experience of Coakley’s Abandoned Housing Initiative, two of the largest obstacles to revitalizing vacant residential properties in Massachusetts are the cost of rehabilitation and identifying the parties responsible for the property. The AG’s Abandoned Housing Initiative uses the state sanitary code’s receivership statute to assist cities and towns in rehabbing many of these problem properties. According to rehabilitation experts working with the AG’s office, the stripping of copper can cause up to $15,000 worth of damage to a residence, often times aiding in the conclusion that rehabilitation is not a financially feasible option.
An Act Regulating Secondary Metals Dealing has the potential to have a profound effect on the problem of abandoned and vacant properties in Massachusetts.
The new law mandates the creation of an Abandoned Property Registry, a two-year pilot program established and maintained by the Division of Banks to catalog all foreclosed, abandoned, and vacant properties in the Commonwealth.
The creation of the Abandoned Property Registry will assist municipalities and law enforcement officials in locating the owners of abandoned properties or the criminal offenders involved in stealing metal from such structures.
The legislation also establishes the Secondary Metals Computer Registry, which will be maintained by the Executive Office of Public Safety.
The Registry is designed to increase the availability of the records and identities of metal scrap dealers, sellers and their wares to law enforcement. The legislation also allows for more accurate record keeping and tracking of items and their sellers, so that stolen metals are more easily recovered.
Coakley testified in support of the legislation in July, and the bill is currently before Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure.