Travis Hearn comes back to Rock Island

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By Ann McGlynn | Thursday, March 15, 2007 1:36 AM CDT | () comments

Travis Hearn is home.

The mother of the high school football player paralyzed from the neck down during a game this past fall said Wednesday that her son was “ready to return” as she talked via cellular telephone from the front seat of an ambulance on the road between Chicago and Rock Island.

“I am happy to have him home,” Colleen Stovall said of the final leg on a rehabilitation journey that has taken them to three hospitals in three cities over six months.

Hearn and his mother will be living in an apartment at Friendship Manor until a new house, specially built for Travis’ needs by Habitat for Humanity, is completed at the end of May, she said.

Hearn was expected to meet his team of caretakers Wednesday afternoon, she said. He will have 24-hour care at first, and it eventually will be scaled back to 18 hours a day.

Stovall has learned how to take care of him as well, she said. A specialized wheelchair is on order.

Hearn’s spinal cord was injured in a Sept. 22 Rock Island High School football game. He is paralyzed from the neck down. He first was treated at Trinity Medical Center-West Campus, Rock Island, and then moved to Kindred Hospital in Sycamore, Ill., for more specialized care. He transferred to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, considered the premier facility of its kind in the country, during November.

His days at the institute were spent in physical and occupational therapy, Stovall said. A school tutor instructed him and will continue to do so now that he is back in Rock Island.

Hearn has struggled with specific medical issues, including kidney and blood clot problems, she said.

While Stovall hopes her son eventually returns to Chicago for more rehabilitation, she is looking forward to him getting out in the community as he readjusts to his hometown.

Stovall repeated that she deeply appreciates the financial and emotional support that people in the Quad-Cities have given her and her family. For example, she said, two families have sent her son cards every week since he was injured.

“The community has been wonderful,” she added. “We are so grateful.”

Ann McGlynn can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@qctimes.com.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Travis Hearn’s temporary home will be at Friendship Manor until construction of a specially designed house, sponsored by Habitat for Humanity, is completed at the end of May.

Cards and letters can be sent to:

Travis Hearn

c/o Friendship Manor

1209 21st Ave., No. B106

Rock Island, IL, 61201