by Cathy Cuff-Coffman

Caring Toward the Future

How one family came together to support their own

In April 2019, life was marching along at a fair clip for the Speanburg family of four. Kit Speanburg had a busy career as an area relocation manager, and his wife, Jennifer, was a key player in the Pittsburgh area hospitality and service industries.

Their daughter, Christina, was almost 21 in 2019. She had just earned her associate’s degree and received her RN nursing license.

And the youngest Speanburg, Chris, was the archetypal high school teenage boy.

In 2019, Chris, then 15 years old and a sophomore, was an exceptional student who “ate life.” He was a member of the Moon Area High School Marching Band, hoisting the mighty sousaphone. He was also a valued member of the honors chorus, an actor in school plays, and a member of the school’s diving team.

Tumbleweed Connection

Chris’s love for diving and attention to detail led him to join a local gymnastics club, where he theorized that gymnastics would help his diving form.

However, during a routine vault practice, things went wrong.

Chris’s father, Kit Speanburg, recounts: “Chris was practicing a vaulting tumble, something he’s done many times, but on the last one, he over-rotated, landed on his neck, and broke his spine.” That spine break translates to a breakage of Chris’s fifth cervical vertebrae (C5), which crushed his spinal cord in that area.

“I was in the parking lot, texting Chris: ‘I’m here to pick you up! There’s an ambulance in the way.’” Kit Speanburg had no clue the ambulance was there for his son.

Chopper Flight

The elder Speanburg received a call from the EMTs, notifying him that his son Chris was injured. Speanburg sprinted into the school just in time to join Chris on the chopper flight to the only hospital in the area equipped to operate on spinal cord injuries for young people: UPMC Children’s Hospital.

Chris’s spine is fused from C4 through T1, and his spinal cord injury (SCI) is classified as incomplete.

(For a comprehensive explanation, see Flint Rehab’s excellent guide detailing a C5 SCI.)

Chris Speanburg’s hospital stays differed slightly from the “typical SCI patient.” Chris’s mother, Jennifer, points out her son was a 15-year-old teenager with a young man’s body. “But his injury–a broken neck with a spinal cord injury–made initial treatment at UPMC Children’s Hospital a necessity.”

Kit and Jennifer both recall how chaotic the trauma floor felt. “It’s crazy when you get [your loved one] to the hospital,” says Kit. “I have only little bits and pieces of memory of that night because it was a little traumatic.”

He says the EMTs warned him about the “organized chaos” they’d encounter once the helicopter landed.

Doctor Onslaught

“They said, ‘When we get in the building, there will be doctors from every department you can imagine, and they will all come in the room.’” Speanburg remembers feeling bombarded. “One by one, they assessed Chris and determined if they needed to be there,” remembers Kit Speanburg. He also remembers Chris laying there, being quite calm and cooperative.

Left with Neurology

“And so, one by one these doctors assessed Chris– there had to have been 50 people waiting for us,” says Speanburg.

Ultimately, Chris was left in the care of a neurologist. “They took him for a CT scan and then an MRI,” recounts Kit Speanburg. “They didn’t even get the MRI. They got the CT results and immediately took Chris to surgery.

“The surgeons put a plate in the front of his neck to stabilize his spine that night,” offers Jennifer Speanburg. “Chris’s C4 vertebrae was smashed in half. I’ve never seen a broken bone like that before!” she says.

Like most spinal cord-injured patients, Chris was also fused above and below his injury. So, his rods go from C3 to T1 to stabilize his neck. Although his spinal cord is severely compromised, it is not severed, so he is classified as an “incomplete injury.”

Extended Stay

Chris stayed at UPMC Children’s Hospital for 51 days. The lengthy stay, explains Jennifer, is because Chris developed fluid in his lungs.

It’s a blessing that the Children’s Hospital allowed parents to stay. Jennifer Speanburg could “pull up a cot” and stay overnight with her son whenever she wished.

Jennifer took advantage of that perk and slept in her UPMC Children’s cot for Chris’s six-week admission.

Christina Speanburg, armed with her nursing license, was able to translate the myriad of tests, procedures, and demands placed on Chris’s physical self and on Speanburg’s financial resources.

“He was having trouble swallowing and breathing,” says Jennifer.

Chris’s lungs and epiglottis were “a mess,” says Jennifer, “and that had to be cleared up before he could go to rehab.”

In the end, right after Memorial Day weekend, the care team finally put a tracheotomy in, and Chris was at rehab on June 6th. “So, he was at rehab within a week,” says Jennifer.

Chris eventually went to the Children’s Hospital Rehabilitation Unit to continue healing and learning a new way of life. Jennifer was Chris’s constant companion. “The benefits for me were countless,” she relates. The Speanburgs were not going to hire outside help to care for Chris.

Roomies!

Jennifer took advantage of her time in the hospital and learned all the proper ways to care for Chris and his injury.

While Chris and Jennifer were at the Rehab hospital, which lasted four months, and Christina was working as a nurse, Kit Speanburg set his sights on the future. He became the “general contractor” in modifying Speanburg’s home to accommodate the power wheelchair Chris would need. (He could devote his time to this project because his job had been eliminated due to Covid. Kit quipped: “Who needs a relocation specialist when nobody is moving?”)

“We had to make some decisions very quickly,” says Kit. “And so, over those six months, she was at the hospital, and I was at home supervising the remodeling of the entire house.”

Kit explains that he did his fair share of demo work. “I gutted a lot of the house, and as I was doing that, I realized we are trying to figure out everything from scratch!”

Kit says one of the biggest challenges was getting info from the doctors. “Where will Chris’s [abilities] be in a year? Five years?”

Now the Speanburgs realize those are unanswerable questions.

Home Decisions

From a practical standpoint, the Speanburgs had to make quick decisions early in the process. Christina had moved out, so they had some extra real estate.

Kit made some bold decisions, especially with the bathroom setup. Kit also took into consideration Chris’s age. “He was a teenager, and he’s gonna want to be upstairs sometimes.”

Creative Funding

And Kit realized it was going to cost a lot of money.

Kit ran through a litany of community support that was in full force for fundraising. Chris’s activities all ran fundraisers. The Primanti Brothers ran fundraisers.

The Speanburgs estimate the fundraising netted them $100,000. Several contractors donated their time. Kit did a lot of the drywall and painting work.

“Gosh, I must’ve lost 20 lbs. during that time!” jokes Kit.

“I was still working all day, coming home at night and doing all this stuff,” he says.

“It was a crazy six months until the day Chris came home,” says Kit. “We were just about ready when he came home—it was good enough for him to come home.”

“And that started developing the routines with Chris that keep us in line,” says Jennifer. While Kit was working on the house, Jennifer was with Chris and the rehab team, learning as much as she could in tandem with Chris.

“I got to learn everything from the doctors and the nurses, ask a lot of questions, and offer my perspective,” says Jennnifer, “on what would be easiest to continue doing at home and be a part of the care process that Chris went through in the hospital.”

Divide and Conquer

Jennifer learned how to give Chris his bowel routine. “The nurses taught me how to do that, and it’s still my job. Chris does it when I’m not here, which is twice a year. That’s so that’s kind of my routine, but he learned how to be very good by helping him take a shower.

“So he does the showers, and I do the bowel routine,” says Jennifer.

And to come full circle, Kit is the Certified Mobility Consultant with MobilityWorks in Robinson Township. His position as a relocation specialist was eliminated due to Covid. “I was looking for a job, and since I am familiar with the needs and wants of the disabled community, the position seemed like a natural fit.”

The Robinson Twp. location is a new outlet for MobilityWorks, and Kit says the store has grown. He’s proud to note that his MobilityWorks location is part of a coalition with The Ryan Shazier Fund for Spinal Rehabilitation.

Kit is also on the board for the Pittsburgh chapter of the United Spinal Association.

Man of the Decade

As for Chris? “Ah…this is who this was for,” says Jennifer.

Chris is now 20 years old. He’s grown “into” his body and has made some impressive strides.

  • He has a driver’s license and drives himself places.
  • He plays wheelchair rugby and is the youngest on the team.
  • He’s employed as a research assistant for UPMC Mercy’s Model Center for Spinal Cord Injury, where he works with the new trial participants.

“Chris goes into the hospital twice a week to go to work,” says Jennifer. “He drives himself to work, and that’s amazing!”

According to Jennifer, Chris is also the only peer mentor/support they have at Mercy.

“He goes into the hospital and talks to people that are new to spinal cord injuries,” says Jennifer. “And he’s the only peer support person on their payroll,” Jennifer says.