Woodland chiropractor facing long-term paralysis after diving accident
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 11:36 PM PDT
By Thacher Schmid
Printable version
E-mail this articleWoodland chiropractor Jason Holdahl wasn’t afraid to treat patients suffering from the most severe spinal injuries.
“It’s not like a lot of chiropractors like to do work on me, because my back is all fused — it’s kind of scary for them,” said Nancy Simmons. After a car accident 28 years ago, Simmons had to learn to walk again with a cane. Last year, she again lost feeling in one leg, and Holdahl helped her get back on her feet.
In a cruel twist of fate, Holdahl, 32, suffered a severe spinal injury of his own Saturday afternoon. While diving off a family boat moored at Sauvie Island near Portland into too-shallow water, Holdahl broke a vertebra in his neck, said close family friend, Kim Bailor. He may face long-term paralysis.
Bailor said Holdahl was preparing to pick her up at the Woodland dock when the accident occurred. She said he had dived there “many, many” times before. Tammy Wallace, a massage therapist who shares an office with Holdahl, described the injury as shocking for a man she knew as strong, healthy and careful.
“It was an area of the river that he dove into quite often,” Wallace said. “The week prior, the water was 7 feet deep and the water changed and the river was only 3 feet deep.”
Records from the Northwest River Forecast Center show the average depth of the Columbia River at St. Helens, Ore., — a couple of miles downstream from Sauvie Island — dropped significantly in recent days. The average depth between high and low tide went from about 9 feet on July 5 to about 5 feet Saturday.
Holdahl was able to scream for help after surfacing but could not move his body below his chest, Bailor said. He was taken by helicopter to Legacy Emanuel hospital in Portland, where he underwent emergency surgery Saturday night. He remains in stable condition in the hospital’s intensive care unit, but his exact prognosis was unclear.
“He knew which vertebrae he injured,” Bailor said. “He knew exactly what he had done, and what was going to be the impact.”
‘The irony of it’
“He knows the spine, and that is the irony of it,” said Sheila Peraza of Ridgefield. Peraza met Holdahl as a client but eventually became a family friend, and her voice broke as she spoke about the tragedy Tuesday. “He’s this man that dedicates his life to people having healthy spines, and now we’re all just waiting to see what his is going to be.”
Bailor set up a fund in Holdahl’s name at Columbia Bank in Woodland to help pay medical bills. Holdahl’s wife Joelle and the couple’s four children, all between 5 and 10 years old, have no health insurance, and Holdahl’s practice was the family’s sole income.
“Being self-employed and having that many family members, (health insurance) is very expensive,” said Wallace, the massage therapist. She and Holdahl have shared an office on Goerig Street for the last four years. “He’s not the kind of chiropractor who’s in it for the money, he’s in it to help people.”
Joelle Holdahl remains at Legacy Emanuel with her husband.
Holdahl’s friends and coworkers are still struggling with the news, but hope for the best.
“It absolutely breaks my heart and makes me sick to my stomach,” Bailor said. “My hope is that he can recover enough to be able to someday continue his practice. It may be in a different fashion.”
“It’s really freaky, and really sad. But really, you know what, if anybody can overcome it, he’s a really strong guy. As a community, we’ll rally around to support him and his family,” Simmons said.
Assistance fund
Donations can be made to Jason Holdahl Recovery Fund through Columbia Bank in Woodland or at www.jasonholdahlrecovery.com
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