ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997 TAG: 9703310040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: JACK CHAMBERLAIN SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
They're apprehensive about taking him home, but they have reluctantly concluded that the rehab center has done all it can.
Jason Rooker is coming home.
Less than a year after a near-fatal accidental hanging at his Pulaski County home that left him severely brain damaged, Jason will be leaving Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center, where he has been for nine months.
His parents, Greg and Fran Rooker, said they expect to bring Jason home next week after he is weaned from most of his medications. The family is also hurrying to complete the remodeling of a bathroom and his bedroom to accommodate his handicaps.
Jason, who turned 11 Nov. 7, still can't talk, eat or control his arms or legs. He is fed and medicated through a tube in his stomach. The Rookers had hoped he could stay at the center at least until June, so they would not have to worry about enrolling him in a school program right away.
But Jason's progress, encouraging earlier, has been slow. His parents now accept the idea that his therapy can continue just as well at home. Jason watches TV. He smiles and laughs. But at the end of February, his mother still was gently flexing his legs when he arched and stiffened in apparent frustration.
"We're ready to try something else," said Greg, owner of the Southwest Virginia Enterprise in Wytheville and two other weekly newspapers.
The Rookers also have been under pressure from their insurance company, Trigon, which has continued to pay for Jason's care on a month-to-month or week-to-week basis. But the possibility of coverage ending has persisted for months.
"Dealing with Trigon is just one of those things, anymore," said Fran Rooker, who has spent most of her days in Charlottesville since Jason's accident June 13. "You just deal with it."
Rehab and medical care had run about $1,000 a day, but several months ago Trigon negotiated with the Kluge center to cut the charges in half. The Rookers said the center has assured them that Jason could stay at no charge, if necessary, until it is medically safe for him to go home.
Meanwhile, a special wheelchair Jason will need at home has been delivered; the chair cost about $4,200. A special shower chair with head support and straps, which cost about $400, has been ordered. Insurance paid for neither.
The Rookers are apprehensive about taking Jason home, but they have reluctantly concluded that the rehab center has done all it can for their son. Most of the center's 20 or so patients are recovering from crippling auto accident injuries.
"We haven't done the seven days, 24 hours a day," Greg Rooker said, referring to the around-the-clock attention Jason requires.
"It's like getting up [at all hours of the night] for an infant," Fran Rooker added. The Rookers said many friends in the New River Valley have offered to help so they can take occasional breaks.
The couple plan a trip to Philadelphia in late April for a week of training at the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. The training will cost them about $1,200, not including hotel and meals. The institutes, founded in 1955, work mostly with victims of anoxia, total deprivation of oxygen to the brain. The treatment is similar to "patterning," retraining the brain by repetitive exercises.
At their Claytor Lake home, the Rookers and others will work with Jason to retrain undamaged parts of his brain to take over physical functions he has lost - chewing, swallowing, talking, using his hands and legs.
"If Jason has the wherewithal mentally, this will work," Greg Rooker said. "If not, it won't."
Jason, an active fifth-grader at Bethel Elementary in Montgomery County, nearly died when he accidentally hanged himself with a toy lasso. His parents revived him; he was flown by helicopter to Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital, where he was in a coma for nearly three days last summer.
For as long as he's been at the Kluge center, his mother has been at his side up to 12 hours a day. One week a month, Greg has taken over while Fran spent time at home with their teen-age daughters, Jennifer and Stephanie, students at Radford High School.
Besides medications and tube feeding, treatment at the center included physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, with some subtle improvement.
"He's learned to stick his tongue out," Greg said. "It sounds like a simple thing."
It's simple but encouraging, the Rookers said, because it shows that Jason can learn to voluntarily respond to stimuli, such as a lollipop.
Greg and Fran Rooker say they are sure their son will regain the use of his hands and learn to walk again, even if with the aid of a walker, in five or 10 years.
That is their hope. That is their prayer.
Jack Chamberlain, a retired writer and editor for The Roanoke Times, lives in Lancaster County.
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