Deerfield Valley News Article

Friends join forces to help young native of the valley
By Mike Eldred

DEERFIELD VALLEY- Friends and neighbors are rallying to help Steve Wallace, a 27-year-old former valley resident who recently suffered a spinal cord injury in a skiing accident at Squaw Valley, CA.

On Thursday, April 3, Wallace was involved in what his longtime friend Adam Palmiter says was a "freak accident." During a steep descent, both of Wallace's skis came off and he hit the ground hard. As a result of the accident, he sustained broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and four broken vertebrae. The broken vertebrae damaged his spinal cord.

Wallace was airlifted to a hospital in nearby Reno, NV, where he had emergency surgery on his back. Before the surgery, Wallace had no feeling in his legs and, although the surgery was successful, it isn't clear whether he'll regain the use of his legs. "He's healing, and now he has movement in his right leg and some sensation in his left leg," Palmiter says. "Right now there's so much swelling and bleeding that they have no idea what the prognosis is."

Wallace's father, Jeff Wallace, says doctors initially gave his son a 50/50 chance of walking again. The fragmented vertebrae had injured the spinal cord in three places, but it hadn't been severed - meaning there was a possibility of regaining some mobility or sensation. "After a few days, when he could wiggle his toes, doctors said that improved his prognosis, but they didn't say what that meant."

Jeff Wallace says he has reason to be optimistic, but for now his son is learning to deal with life in a wheelchair at a rehabilitation center in Santa Clara, CA.

Steve Wallace grew up in West Dover, attended Dover School, and graduated from Wilmington High School. He also attended Stratton Mountain School and their alpine racing program. Many valley residents may also remember Wallace from his winter job at World Class Ski and Sport, or his summer gig as manager of the Haystack Golf Course Pro Shop. "Skiing and golf have always been his life," Palmiter says.

Last fall, Wallace left the Deerfield Valley for Squaw Valley, where he met up with a number of friends from the area who had also made the move out west. He got a job in the ski shop at Squaw Valley and, at the time of his accident, was looking forward to working at the local golf course during the warmer months. "He was looking for a change," Palmiter says of his friend's move. "He wanted that big mountain terrain."

But at the time of his accident, Wallace didn't have any health insurance available through his employer, and didn't get any on his own. "Health insurance is so expensive now," says Palmiter. "The cheapest thing you can get is $300 a month, and that only covers catastrophic. When you're a young guy, you don't expect anything catastrophic to happen."

Jeff Wallace says some of his son's medical bills will be covered by Medicaid, something for which he's grateful. "They took him by helicopter to Reno, in Reno they did the surgery, and they flew him to rehab, all on the promise that he would be a Medicaid patient," he says. "It's nice to know your kid's not going to die while waiting for something to come through."

But despite Medicaid, Wallace says the family is facing staggering medical bills. Medicaid only pays direct treatment costs; it won't pay for the air ambulance, at $10,000 per trip; it won't pay for equipment; and Wallace says he isn't yet sure if Medicaid will pay for rehabilitative services. "Medicaid won't pay for the $6,000 wheelchair," he says. "I had no idea wheelchairs cost that much."

Next week, Steve Wallace will leave California and head for the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA, one of the country's leading rehabilitation hospitals. The cost for treatment at the center is $550 per day, Jeff Wallace says, and it isn't clear how much, if any, will be covered by Medicaid, or how long Steve Wallace will spend in the program.

When Wallace's friends learned of his financial predicament, they jumped into action. Palmiter and another friend, Jeremy Gustie, have created a Web site that will serve as the hub for their fund-raising effort, as well as a way to keep in sync with Wallace, and friends in Vermont and California.

A group of friends in California have already organized a spaghetti supper fund-raiser for Tuesday, May 13, and Dover resident Tallu Pelletier is planning a golf tournament fund-raiser here in the valley.

Palmiter says the effort has just started, but he and others are ready to pitch in and fill the coffers. "Steve's going to have enormous medical bills; they're already in the hundreds of thousands," he says. "We can't be with him so we're trying to do everything we can to help in ways we can."

Wallace's friends are asking the community for donations and fund-raising. Anyone interested in helping with a donation or fund-raising event can visit the Web site at www.supportsteve.com.

Donations can be made to the Steve Wallace Fund savings account at Chittenden Bank, or sent directly to The Steve Wallace Fund, 44 Castle Hill Rd., Wilmington, VT 05363.

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