Disabled Blue Bell Native Strives for Independence
George Butera, a quadriplegic, is working to make a home of his own.
February 27, 2000
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer
Author: Melia Bowie
WHITPAIN – For 32-year-old quadriplegic George Butera, the answering machine says it all:
“You know, it’s been over 10 years and I’m not even trying to get to the phone anymore,” he says on the recording. “Leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
Like Butera, the message is blunt yet tinged with humor.
The answering machine has become indispensable for the Blue Bell native, who works as a computer programmer at Aetna U.S. Healthcare, maintains his own Web site, teaches and lectures widely about spinal cord injuries, and now is close to achieving his goal of independent living.
Paralyzed from the chest down, Butera is preparing for renovations to begin Wednesday on a one-story, three-bedroom, yellow rancher he purchased three years ago.
But he and his friends are still trying to acquire the necessary lumber, plumbing, concrete, windows, and other building materials. Contractors estimate renovations to make the $100,000 home accessible for Butera will total more than $80,000.
Butera, who lives with his parents now, said the delays have been frustrating and stressful.
Breathing into an air-pressure-controlled mouthpiece, Butera gave a brief tour, pointing out where hallways must be widened and walls must come down, and where the roll-in shower and wheelchair ramps will go.
He remains optimistic, relying on his sense of humor and on the network of friends and coworkers who have supported him.
Butera needs help to accomplish even the smallest and most personal of everyday tasks – from getting dressed and combing his hair to eating and scratching an itch he cannot reach with the wheelchair’s mouthpiece.
Still, Butera said, the misconceptions strangers have are amazing.
Yes, he can talk. Yes, he can and does work. Yes, he is dating.
He is quick to correct those who confuse his condition with paraplegia.
“Paraplegics, they’re only half-paralyzed,” Butera quipped. “I try not to do things halfway.”
Often, strangers are too nervous to question him, but his friends quickly attest that anything goes with Butera.
“He’s a unique person, just no-holds-barred,” said Wit Hammond, Butera’s best friend and founder of the group Friends of George Butera, which has raised more than $40,000 to help defray his expenses.
“It’s very hard to offend me,” Butera said. But he concedes sometimes things can get awkward.
“One time a coworker was going down the stairs and she was saying how she tripped and almost broke her neck, and then she looked at me and said, ‘Oh, my God.’ ” recalled Butera. “I just laughed and said, ‘Yeah, I hate it when that happens.”
On his Web site (http://www.voicenet.com/~buterag), Butera posts information about his life, his family, the latest news on spinal cord injuries, common questions, and a “Brushes with Stupidity” page that humorously recounts his trials with ignorance, adversity and the absurd. The site also describes his accident.
It was 1986 when Butera, an 18-year-old Temple University freshman, joined a group of friends on a trip to the Shore. They cruised to Ocean City with a simple plan: get some sun, meet some girls, catch some waves.
“I was heading down to the water and decided to dive in,” recalled Butera. “I’d done it hundreds of times before.
“I’m not sure if it was the wave itself or I hit the sandbar, but I broke my neck between the third and fourth vertebrae,” he said. “It was just a freak accident.”
He spent the next six months in the hospital. Contrary to his thoughts immediately after the accident, Butera said, life went on. In fact, life became a lot more focused.
He eventually returned to Temple and earned degrees in marketing and management in 1992.
Next came the job hunt. Aetna hired him and has since been an exemplary employer, he said.
Long proficient in using a mouthpiece to control a computer mouse and software that connects him to a work phone, Butera also has mastered time management.
Besides a full work day that begins after his standard two- to four-hour morning preparations, he juggles his speaking engagements, social life, church, Web site and, of late, his new house.
If things go well, this spring he and his long-distance girlfriend, Laura, an elementary school teacher in Georgia, will move into the renovated home.
Just a mile away from Butera’s family, the dwelling is the final step in a difficult journey.
“This is probably the last of the major goals I set for myself when the accident happened,” said Butera. “Just getting into the swing of living there, that’s the short term, but the long-term possibilities are endless.”