All one Wadesboro resident wants for Christmas is to be mobile again.
It’s been five years since Brandon Murdock, 31, wrecked his vehicle after it began snowing in Morven on Jan. 11, 2011. The former welder shattered four vertebrae in his neck in the accident and has been confined to a wheelchair ever since.
Doctors told him he would never be able to do anything more than blink his eyes, but today, Murdock can move his head and arms.
While Murdock’s current condition is better than his original prognosis, he is still unable to do what he wants most: to play with his young daughters.
Murdock said he is rarely able to leave his room at Anson Health and Rehabilitation in Wadesboro (formerly Lillie Bennett Nursing Center). After his accident, his first wheelchair was damaged when it fell over while he was riding in a van.
It had only been fixed for four or five months when his wheelchair messed up again. Murdock said he was largely confined to his bed until the rehab center was able to provide him with a spare wheelchair.
“If I don’t have my chair, it’s like taking away your legs,” he said. “I was so happy this morning when they found this little thing, just so somebody could roll me outside and sit.”
While he is grateful for the substitute, Murdock said it still leaves him fully dependent on others around him. His first wheelchair used a head array so he could move wherever he wished, but the spare model requires him to find someone to push him if he wants to leave the room.
Murdock can move his arms a limited amount, but is unable to wheel his own chair. Ideally, his next wheelchair would have a hand control rather than a head array, since he believes he has regained enough control in his right hand to be able to direct the chair.
Since Murdock requires full care, he is unable to live with his parents, but since he is in a nursing facility, he said Medicare and Medicaid won’t buy him a new chair. Murdock said some people in the facility have the nicer wheelchairs, but that they received them when living at home before moving into Anson Health and Rehab.
Without an automatic wheelchair, Murdock said he is stuck in his room other than going to doctor’s appointments. His daughters, Aaliya, 8, and Briannon, 4, have already asked him about going to the Christmas parade.
“A parade don’t mean anything to me, but to be able to go with my little girls means a whole lot,” he said. “Because I can drive my wheelchair from here to there, if I had a wheelchair that would go.”
When she visits, Aaliya asks him about leaving the room for everyday activities. “She comes in Friday nights sometimes and stays on Saturdays, and she’ll be like, ‘Hey, Dad, let’s get up and go outside,’” Murdock said. “And for the last two weeks, I’ve had to tell her, ‘Baby, I can’t.’”
Murdock said he has a rough past and was a meth cook for 10 years, but now he speaks to children to give his testimony and to caution them to avoid his mistakes.
“A lot of people in this county know me as a different person than I am now,” Murdock said, adding that he now speaks to youth groups and school children. “I’ve turned over a whole new leaf from what I used to be.”
Murdock was unsure of exactly how much his ideal chair would cost, but he and his father, Wayne, estimated that a new one would cost roughly $40,000.
He would be fine with a used chair, pointing out that some families still have the chairs their loved ones used before they died.
“There’s people with chairs, families who have still got the chairs,” Murdock said. “I mean, a brand new chair would be great and awesome, but if I could just get the word out, you never know what will pop up.”
Murdock’s wish is to get a new wheelchair before the Christmas parade so that he can take his daughters and so that he can go to his uncle’s house for his family’s Christmas celebration.
“I want to be able to go home for Christmas,” he said. “I’ve had a real, real rough week mentally, and I usually don’t have that. I’m pretty high-spirited to be in the condition that I am.”
As he is unable to use it, Murdock said he can donate a scooter chair to someone who needs it.
To make a donation to help Murdock purchase a new wheelchair, visit www.gofundme.com/uw7uj3vw or search the zip code 28170 on the website to bring up Wadesboro campaigns.
As of 1 p.m. Monday, the online crowdfunding campaign had raised $325 of Murdock’s $20,000 goal and had been shared 145 times on social media.
Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.