Public Employee Press

Family built on hope
One day at a time, paralyzed ferry crash survivor struggles toward independent living.

By JANE LaTOUR

Every afternoon, James McMillan left the Fulton Fish Market where he worked as a loader and headed for home on the Staten Island Ferry. He almost missed the boat on Sept. 15. “I just caught it,” he said. “The bell rang and I ran past the gates as they were closing.”

As the boat neared the dock, he stepped down onto the main deck — moments before the crash that killed 10 people and injured 72.

“I watched as the boat hit the pier, he explained. “It literally jumped.”

Buried under debris and lying in darkness, his thoughts turned to helping the victims: “I asked a young woman to help me get up so I could help the injured. She said, ‘You are one of the injured.’ There was lots of screaming and bodies were lying on top of each other.”

Mr. McMillan’s sister, Valerie Blanding, a member of Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549, saw the accident on television at the Melrose Center in the Bronx where she works as a Jobs Opportunity Specialist, along with another sister, Maryann McMillan.

“I saw someone being taken off with sneakers like my brother’s. Fifteen minutes later my mother called me, hysterical. That’s when I realized — it was my brother,” she recalled.

Mr. McMillan was one of the 27 injured victims taken to Staten Island University Hospital where he underwent surgery. “My spinal cord was severed from my neck,” he explained. “I’m a paraplegic from the neck down. I have no use of my right hand and little use of my left hand.” After five months in Mount Sinai Hospital for therapy, he is now living at home in the Bronx with his father and mother.

“I didn’t want my son to go to a nursing home,” said Mrs. McMillan-Sambriski. “Although a home health attendant helps us care for James from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., we really need 24-hour assistance. But we’re not eligible because we don’t have room to sleep someone,” she explained.

Toll on family
The stress and strain of everyday care has taken a toll on her. “I had a heart attack and just came out of the hospital,” she said. “We’ve had plenty of experience coping,” said Valerie Blanding. Four years ago her son, 27, was shot and paralyzed. Maryann McMillan’s daughter, Octavia, 11, has cerebral palsy.

Now James, 40, is learning to live with the consequences of that fateful trip on the ferry. “I used to help my nephew all the time, but I couldn’t feel his pain,” said James. “This is a new start of my life. I’m a Muslim. I believe in the Higher Spirit, and that’s where I reach.”

Faith is a source of strength for the whole family. “We do believe in a higher power. I think that’s what helps me and what helps us all,” said Valerie. Pain and struggle have done nothing to diminish the banter that passes between this big sister and her baby brother. “I thank God for my family and my friends,” said James. “Without them, my situation would be very different. In a short time, I’ve come a long way.”

“My primary goal is to be independent,” he said. Every week he attends Mount Sinai’s Do It group, an outpatient program for individuals with spinal cord injury. There he’s learning how to use a voice-activated computer.

The biggest obstacle now facing the family is to find wheelchair accessible housing for James.

“There are a lot of people out there like me,” he said. “It’s not their fault they’re paralyzed. There should be more people and more organizations to provide support.”