JAMESTOWN, N.D. - This Thanksgiving, Steve and Thea Klose were with their son, Shane, at his bedside as he started the long road to rehabilitation after being paralyzed from the chest down.
Shane, a 17-year-old junior at Jamestown High School, suffered a broken neck after a Sept. 23 car accident. He finally moved out of the intensive care unit Monday at Sanford in Fargo to Gillette Children's Hospital in St. Paul.
"Thanksgiving is a day on the calendar; you can have it any day you want," Steve said.
Right now the family's main concern is Shane, who is making progress.
"He's still Shane; he's still our son," Thea said. "He's very positive right now, which is the best thing because that's part of your rehab."
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He has some movement in his arms, and as therapy progresses, he may get more movement back. His parents are also hopeful that he'll be able to breathe without the help of a ventilator soon.
"It's an unknown game. We don't know what's going to happen for sure; even the doctors can't tell us what's going to happen," Steve said. "That's one of the hardest things, to not know what he's going to get back."
The amount of time it'll take for Shane to complete rehabilitation is also unknown at this point.
One thing Steve and Thea do know is the type of person Shane was before the accident.
Shane planned to attend college to become a trauma nurse. He was a certified nursing assistant at Eventide Hi-Acres, a teacher's assistant at Roosevelt Elementary School and someone who cared for other people, his parents said.
Thea said he never could bring himself to hunt, because he couldn't kill anything.
They also said their son's kindness has been showing through with the support of friends and family so far during this ordeal.
"There has already been a lot of people that have contacted us that we know that are going to be there to help," Steve said. "It's just great all the people that have actually come forward with all of this."
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Even after a Saturday benefit meal and silent auction, there's still a long road to go. Steve and Thea will return to their jobs next week. Later they will work on remodeling their home to fit Shane's new needs after he finishes physical therapy.
Still, their son's positive attitude helps keep them motivated, they said.
"It's just something that happened, and we're all going to have to deal with it, and every one of our family is very supportive," Steve said.
From 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday at Shady's there will be a benefit spaghetti feed and silent auction to help with Shane's medical costs. Admission is $8 for an adult, $20 for a family, $4 for children 6-12 and free for children under 5.
