PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — For the past 15 years, Jeremy Ray had worked as an industrial and commercial journeyman electrician in and around the Austin, Texas, area. Some of the projects he was involved with over the years included changing and revamping clean rooms for Samsung, construction of the Circuit of the Americas racetrack in Austin, and projects at Hewlett-Packard and the University of Texas, among others. In recent years, he also had taken an interest in becoming a certified safety and health official, but fate had other plans.

On March 5, 2016, Ray suffered a severe spinal cord injury as the result of a motorcycle accident.

In the accident, he sustained multiple rib fractures and two collapsed lungs. The spinal cord injury was in the T-5/T-6 area, so doctors fused from T-4 through T-8. Unfortunately, an infection set in near the incision site, so Ray had additional surgeries and went on IV antibiotics for a total of about 10 weeks.

The house he and his wife would occupy needed a number of alterations, and insurance didn’t cover any of them. While undergoing rehabilitation at the Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research in Houston, the Ray family came across the Joseph Groh Foundation while researching potential assistance. They petitioned the foundation for an exterior ramp, changing out the carpet for hard surface floors, widening the home’s interior doors, and completing a bath remodel that included a roll-in shower. Meanwhile, Ray had also requested a shower chair from a Texas rehabilitation organization, because insurance did not see this as something medically necessary.

Thanks to many donors, the Groh Foundation was able to meet Ray’s request. After months of taking bed baths, Ray was delighted when he was finally able to take a regular shower.

Publication date: 5/17/2017

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