After six weeks in the hospital, Juan Rubio was out and finally got a real meal: a take-out steak from a nearby Shari’s.
“It’s my first real food today,” he said Dec. 13 from his hotel suite, hours after being discharged.
Juan, his wife, Lindsey, and their two girls, 10-year-old Ashlee and 4-year-old Isabela, split a room at the Candlewood Suites near the airport while they wait for their east Vancouver house to be remodeled and plan for an uncertain future.
On Oct. 30, a couple of hours after Juan started his work day at the Lagler dairy farm in Brush Prairie, a hay bale fell on him, breaking his spine and leaving him paralyzed. Those bales weigh more than a thousand pounds, and he doesn’t really remember what happened.
It’s clear, however, that he and his family will have a lot of adjustments to make. Getting in and out of their sport-utility vehicle when leaving the hospital was a small battle on its own, Lindsey said.
“It’s the first day, and just getting out of the car, it’s hard. It’s not like, ‘Oh, let’s go to the store,’ ” Juan said.
“Yeah, a five-minute trip takes a least a half hour to an hour,” Lindsey said.
Meeting Juan’s medical needs has been a struggle.
Earlier that day, it took a half hour of pleading on the phone with workers’ compensation, then more back-and-forth with the pharmacy, she said, to grab just one of Juan’s 12 different prescriptions.
First, workers’ comp needed a special number, then the pharmacy needed some other number. Eventually, Lindsey just paid in cash to see about a reimbursement later.
“I need to be at the hotel, he’s in pain — I’m not doing it,” she said. “And that was just one prescription.”
Later, Lindsey said they had been wrangling with the state Labor & Industries department to get a shower and toilet chair for Juan. They finally got one approved last week, but it has to be built and shipped out of New York, so it likely won’t arrive until next year.
They’re trying to take on each issue one by one, she said. The first step of any plan is to get out of the hotel.
Workers’ comp will pay for home modifications, Lindsey said, to a limit. Doors need widening, and there’s no bathroom or bedroom that can accommodate Juan. The estimate they got for the house came to about $57,000, not much over the maximum workers’ comp will pay.
Then comes paying for everything else.
Tidewater Shipping adopted the family as part of an annual program, providing some Christmas gifts for the girls. An online fundraising account set up by relatives had raised more than $13,000 as of Monday. Between that and workers’ comp, Lindsey hopes they can pay for the home remodel and other expenses.
Lindsey learned from Labor & Industries that their insurance, which the family had through Juan’s job, had been canceled. But because Juan was hurt on the job, the insurers had denied all of their claims to that point anyway.
Lindsey, who works as a server at Rib City, and the kids were able to get insurance through the state. She also found a plan for Juan, but at a greater cost. Because he got his permanent resident status just this year, he’s disqualified him from any state health care plan.
She tried to get federal benefits though the state, but because of the money raised online, they’re ineligible, she said.
When it comes to his health, Juan said he’s doing fairly well. He experiences some pain from the nerve damage.
“Other than being in a hotel, I’m fine. I mean, I didn’t die, so that’s a plus,” he said.
Longer term, Lindsey said she hopes they can get a retrofit for their SUV so Juan can drive again. The family enjoys traveling. They went to Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho; Vancouver, B.C.; and San Francisco all this summer.
There also are more medical concerns ahead. When doctors installed some hardware in Juan’s spine, he came down with a staph infection.
Now the question is whether to keep Juan on oral antibiotics for the rest of his life, Lindsey said, or remove the hardware.
“So then you go through rehab and everything all over again,” Lindsey said. The doctors haven’t made that call yet.
Lindsey joked that cooking will be a lot easier now. Juan’s injury damaged, perhaps permanently, his sense of taste and smell.
“He’s visualizing that it tastes good,” Lindsey said. “I’m a horrible cook, so you can’t complain when I make Hamburger Helper.”
