Beginning with the first placement in 1979, Helping Hands' mission has been to provide assistance to people with the greatest needs: people who have become quadriplegic (paralyzed from the neck down) as a result of an accident, injury, or disease. There are currently over 200,000 people in the United States who have become paralyzed as a result of a spinal cord injury, with an additional 12,000-15,000 new injuries occurring each year. Most people are between the ages of 16-26 at the time of their injury.
Since that first placement, Helping Hands has expanded the group of people we help to include others with severe mobility impairments. Recipients have included individuals with multiple sclerosis, diabetic neuropathy, Lou Gehrig's disease, and polio. Occasionally, monkeys with special needs (e.g. diabetes, Rheumatoid arthritis) may be placed with an individual who lives with other more moderate disabilities.
All recipients must meet a strict set of qualifications designed to identify those people who will benefit most from the unique emotional and task support that a monkey can give, and those situations, which provide the highest quality of care for the monkey helper.
Ned Sullivan
In June of 2005, Ned Sullivan was your average 22 year-old finishing up his final classes at the University of Arizona where he was in his senior year. He was a communications major specializing in sports marketing and was interning with Sports Illustrated on Campus. Unfortunately, a life-long epilepsy condition reared its ugly head and Ned suffered a seizure one morning while driving and crashed his car into a brick wall going approximately 40 mph. Paramedics had to bring him back to life at the scene and rushed him to the local trauma center. In short, he suffered extensive internal injuries, brain injuries as well as severe spinal cord injuries leaving him in a life and death scenario for several weeks. The phone call that every mother dreads came that afternoon at 4:00 to Ellen Rogers, Ned's mother back in Boston, who was told to come immediately.
While the University Medical Center in Tucson was excellent, doctors there as well as in Boston deemed it crucial for his long-term recovery to get home to gain the energy and support of the rest of his family and friends. So, while he was still in critical condition only able to communicate by blinking his eyes, Ellen brought him back home to Boston via a MedFlight to Mass General. While Ned was just stable enough to be transported the prognosis was grim. Doctors agreed that he would be on a ventilator for the rest of his life and he would have no movement of any of his limbs. Ned would never be able to talk, eat or drink - all of his physicians referred to it as a "devastating injury."
But it was during the long months of intensive care at Mass General that Ned started to surprise everyone. One day as one of his respiratory therapists was working with him she noticed that he was actually breathing on his own just a little bit and he was not using the ventilator 100% of the time. With this new-found glimmer of hope and a lot of work, Ned was able to be removed from the ventilator completely - much to the shock of doctors who had just told Ned and his family that this would be impossible.
Unfortunately, Ned was still unable to talk, eat, or move. He communicated by blinking and through the use of a spelling board and eventually mouthing words but it was difficult at best and very frustrating for him.
Ned was at a crossroads in his recovery and he needed to go to a place where he could receive specialized care for spinal cord and brain injury. After a lot of heartfelt thinking, Ned was again transported by MedFlight to the premier spinal cord and brain injury hospital in the country- The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA.
Rehab at Shepherd proved to be helpful for Ned with many specialists working tirelessly with him although the prognosis was still not good. His injuries were so severe and the neuropathic pain that he suffered frequently overwhelmed him.
However, one day Ned shocked his physical therapist and made a slight movement of his upper left arm by himself. After that, he made dramatic breakthroughs that were truly astonishing to the doctors, nurses and all those around him. Within a few days the therapists started to feel his muscles firing and then he suddenly started talking. A few weeks later, he was able to swallow and eat soft foods. All who witnessed Ned's progress said it was a miracle. The long-term prognosis turned from grim to hopeful.
It was at this time - and what some would call a sign from above- that Ned's sisters back home in Concord, MA were introduced to Helping Hands during a school assembly on spinal cord injury prevention. Of course they were instantly taken with the concept of having a monkey help their brother and the family began actively corresponding with the organization.
Ned continued his journey leaving Shepherd and traveling back to Boston and this time entered the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital where he stayed for another 5 months to continue his rehab closer to home. There he began to move his hands and arms and even the muscles of his legs and feet.
Ned finally came home to his family in Concord, MA in May of 2006. Back home, while Ned's motor and sensory capabilities have continued to improve, he still suffered enormous neuropathic pain caused from the regeneration of the nerves. As the signals from the brain to his limbs are reconnecting, they cause terrible burning, lightning-like pain requiring huge sums of medication to simply function.
While Ned does get out of the house sometimes, with the occasional trips to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts, his world is pretty much limited to his home in his power wheelchair or his bed and brightened by visits from friends and relatives.
Faced with some long lonely days at home Ned started to become really excited about the idea of having a monkey in the house - first and foremost to be a companion and then perhaps to help him with some small tasks. Most importantly the monkey would be his to train, love and care for - a very empowering objective, giving him the ability to manage and lead in his otherwise completely controlled life.
Ned and his family worked with the staff from Helping Hands and met with them over various occasions to discuss all that is entailed in training and living with a monkey. In December 2006, Kasey, a capuchin monkey trained by Helping Hands, arrived in her new home with Ned and his family.
Ned and Kasey have developed such a special bond over the 9 months they have been together. Helping Hands staff knew that Ned would be a successful recipient because of the hard work and dedication he shows in all aspects of his life - especially in his ongoing rehab. Furthermore, Ned has proven to be incredibly intuitive and caring when it comes to Kasey's needs and her care.
In February 2006, Ned and Kasey were filmed for the NBC Evening News with Brian Williams. Additionally, Ned has become an influential presence meeting with Helping Hands donors and attending events such as our spring Red Sox event at the team's Disability Awareness Night.
Ned recently said of his experiences with his new companion and helper: "Kasey is awesome - over the last 9 months since she came to live with us, she has become a real friend who helps me take my mind off my pain with her entertaining antics and her loving nature. I am so fortunate to have her."
We at Helping Hands feel so fortunate to have Ned as part of our family and look forward to hearing about his stories of Kasey for years to come!
Craig Cook
Craig Cook is used to the world shaking - after all, he lives on a fault line in California. Seismic events aside, however, Craig's life has been shaken off its foundation twice. Both times carried with them lifelong consequences, and were it not for the first, he might never have been touched by the second.
The first tremor occurred just weeks before Craig's 30th birthday. A car accident rendered him paralyzed from the chest down, with limited dexterity in his hands. Soon, all that he had come to call his life - a fruitful career as a plastics engineer, a house and vacation home, a fiancée with whom he was planning a marriage and her son whom he regarded as his own - were gone.
Upon meeting Craig for the first time, however, the first thing one notices is his resilience. He quickly shelved plans to return to engineering and instead began trading stocks. He hired a network of caretakers and built a new, accessible house. He again became a frequent sight at restaurants and dance clubs with his friends, as well as at Anaheim Angels ballgames. Still, something was missing. The companionship that he took for granted while he was able-bodied became even more apparent.
"Man, was I in a funk," Craig says, in his Southern-California drawl. "I had great friends, things were starting to look up, but I was just blue-just funky."
In an effort to cheer Craig up, a friend suggested he apply for a helper monkey the friend had heard about on television. Craig applied without much expectation of success, but with a touch of defiant hope. Impressed by Craig's application video, the staff of Helping Hands hoped he would be the organization's first official California placement, but at that time the laws prevented all helper animals except seeing-eye dogs.
However, one day in 2004, the ground shook again.
The phone rang. On the line was Placement Director Megan Talbert. Megan explained that finally California's laws would allow a helper monkey. Craig would soon meet Minnie. "At first it was disbelief-but then it turned to panic," he laughs. "I've never had a pet aside from a cat. How was I going to take care of a monkey?" Helping Hands worked with Craig to build a nurturing, safe environment for Minnie and prepare her for the specific tasks he needed - picking up his phone or turning on the computer, his connection to the outside world. At the same time Craig learned how to understand Minnie's moods and preferences. "She didn't know what to make of me at first. She spent some pretty good time sizing me up," he says, "but now, I couldn't imagine life without her. She's my best friend."
A year after receiving Minnie, Craig joined the Helping Hands Board of Directors, sharing his unique insight as a monkey recipient. Craig advocates for the program publicly, as well-whether giving an interview to the Christian Science Monitor, NBC's Today Show or answering a curious friend's question. Craig never hesitates to discuss how Helping Hands has changed his life. "Minnie and I share a bond I never knew I would ever have," says Craig. "We're a pretty awesome team together."