A traumatic car accident 30 years ago has left a New Iberia man paralyzed and inspired to lend a helping hand.
70-year-old Jan Nicholson launched Disability New Beginning Not End, a non-profit for persons with disabilities and their families to improve the quality of their lives earlier this year.
"I was in a car wreck," Jan said. "We were taking about 12 or 13 kids in a Car-a-van to a tennis tournament, and it was raining real, hard and we hydroplaned."
Jan said the weather conditions that day back in 1992, changed his life forever.
"We went off the highway and our Suburban caught on fire and you know, [I'm just] lucky to be here," Jan said.
During the accident, Jan was not the only person to sustain injuries.
"One of my sons broke a collarbone," Jan said. "My wife had a lot of bruises and then I had another son that had a head injury."
Today, Jan's son Blake is his full-time caregiver.
Even though three decades have gone by, Blake said he still remembers the accident.
"I had a little bump on my forehead," Blake said. "Both my older brother and I, we were in the middle seat of a Suburban laying down and the luggage kind of fell on top of me and my older brother kind of helped pull me out of the vehicle, but both of us walked away from the vehicle."
With 30 years of experience as a quadriplegic, Jan said he understands how difficult life can be for people with disabilities.
"We have a website so if somebody’s wondering about urinary incontinence and they’re paralyzed, they can go to our website," Jan said. "We usually have a video or good information where they can go and get what they need."
Jan and Blake are reaching out to the community and local organizations for donations to support the non-profit.
Jan said voice-automated equipment helps him send emails, answer the phone, control the temperature in his home and be as independent as he possibly can.
However, he said wants to pay these services forward by taking similar burdens off of others.
Anyone willing to donate to Disability New Beginning Not End will help provide voice-automated equipment and other household necessitates to persons with disabilities.
"There's so much more to life than you're envisioning," Jan said. "You can make it an end, but you can also make it a new beginning."
