Darrell Gholar’s Struggle to Survive, Thrive
To survive is to change. That is a basic tenet of life as we know
it. Adapt or die. Everyone from Marcus Aurelius to Stephen Hawking
to Floyd Mayweather Jr. has famous quotes on the subject. What then
could be me more deeply frightening than a fait accompli, something
that happens to you that cannot be changed, something that happens
that can never be undone no matter what you do?
There might be an answer. If anything, the worst situation -- or at least the one that is more maddeningly frustrating -- is a situation in which something can be changed but the power to change it is out of your reach.
Consider the case of Darrell
Gholar. He was an NCAA All-American wrestler at the University
of Minnesota, a two-time United States Greco-Roman national
champion and an alternate on the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team. He was
also a World MMA Free Fight champion who appeared once in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship, losing to Evan Tanner at
UFC 18. In addition to an entirely respectable, pioneering career
in mixed martial arts, Gholar was named by the National Society of
Poets as one of the world’s top 500 living poets in 2003. He also
made it through an extremely competitive selection process to be
awarded a writing fellowship from the Walt Disney Company.
However in December 2013, Gholar, who has a family history of high blood pressure, suffered a massive stroke due to complications from the condition. He was unconscious for several days, and when he awoke, he was completely paralyzed on the right side of his body. Doctors were shocked he had survived.
Yet there was Gholar, faced with what seemed like a fait accompli.
“I was so scared. I started working out right away,” he said. “It was the only thing I knew to do.”
Unfortunately, like most Americans, Gholar did not have insurance that would continue to pay for his rehabilitation past a certain, small number of visits. Enter Sean Entin. In 2011, Entin, a successful businessman and entrepreneur, suffered a massive stroke of his own. He was completely incapacitated, unable to walk, use the phone, read, write or even recognize his family. Entin does not put much stock in the concept of a fait accompli. He was also fortunate enough, due to his success in business, to afford private rehab.
“I spent hundreds of hours learning how to walk again,” Entin said, “and I know that if those hours had been cut in half I wouldn’t be walking today.”
Studies show at least 5.3 million Americans currently live with disabilities that they incurred as a result of Traumatic Brain Injury. Many people think TBI and its consequent disabilities cannot be changed. This is not true. Through intense therapy, these sequelae can improve in many cases. However, many TBI sufferers, like any cross section of Americans and like Darrell Gholar, either do not have health insurance or have health insurance that ceases to pay for ongoing therapy once the “acute” stage of any illness is past.
“The fact remains,” Entin said, “that if a person with a TBI does not have good health insurance or allocated funds, they may never reach their full potential again. I know that there are people who can’t walk right now because of their TBI. I also know that without the proper therapies, they will be left in their wheelchairs with very little hope of a promising future.”
Never one to rest on his laurels, Entin started the Move2Improve Foundation, which launched officially in June. The goal of the foundation is to raise funds for TBI sufferers who do not have the means to continue to pay for their therapies -- to help people who, without them, would be forced to live with their disabilities as if they were a fait accompli, trapped by their inability to get the help they need to recover.
Move2Improve is a new organization and can naturally only take on a small number of cases in its infancy stages. However, a unique aspect of the foundation is that it also acts as a hub through its website, connecting potential donors to the websites of other TBI survivors and allowing people to pledge support directly. Move2Improve takes no portion of these direct donations for its own fundraising purposes, and the sky is the limit in terms of how many TBI survivors can be linked through the Move2Improve hub.
“I don’t want survivors [of TBI] to just survive,” Entin said. “I want them to thrive.”
Currently, Move2Improve has directly taken on three individual cases, including that of Autumn Hampton, who fell from her horse three weeks shy of her 18th birthday and who doctors gave a one-percent chance of survival. Hampton has made incredible strides, yet still has a long way to go. Move2Improve has also taken on the Gholar case.
“Insurance companies give the basic minimal therapy and number of days due to the cost, which does not give the survivor enough time to be functional,” Entin said. “For example, one year past my stroke, I had the luxury of meeting Sylvia Arellano, a neuro-physical therapist who took me from walking crooked with a cane to driving. Darrell is one year past his stroke and receiving no therapy and barely walking with moderate assistance.”
Gholar approaches his rehabilitation with the same gusto he took on his MMA training. Though he is doing it on his own, the 52-year-old still works out two or three times a day.
“I bought a book about rehabilitation, and I’m trying to do what it says,” he said. “I don’t know if what I’m doing is right, but it’s all I can do. I have to.”
To learn more about the Move2Improve organization, visit www.m2i.org. For additional information on Hampton and to view her Move2Improve recipient video, visit http://www.m2i.org/autumn-hampton/. To read more about Gholar or to donate to his rehabilitation, visit www.darrellgholar.org. Sherdog.com founder Jeff Sherwood serves on the board of directors for Move2Improve.
There might be an answer. If anything, the worst situation -- or at least the one that is more maddeningly frustrating -- is a situation in which something can be changed but the power to change it is out of your reach.
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However in December 2013, Gholar, who has a family history of high blood pressure, suffered a massive stroke due to complications from the condition. He was unconscious for several days, and when he awoke, he was completely paralyzed on the right side of his body. Doctors were shocked he had survived.
“They told me that they were surprised I could even talk,” Gholar
told Sherdog.com.
Yet there was Gholar, faced with what seemed like a fait accompli.
“I was so scared. I started working out right away,” he said. “It was the only thing I knew to do.”
Unfortunately, like most Americans, Gholar did not have insurance that would continue to pay for his rehabilitation past a certain, small number of visits. Enter Sean Entin. In 2011, Entin, a successful businessman and entrepreneur, suffered a massive stroke of his own. He was completely incapacitated, unable to walk, use the phone, read, write or even recognize his family. Entin does not put much stock in the concept of a fait accompli. He was also fortunate enough, due to his success in business, to afford private rehab.
“I spent hundreds of hours learning how to walk again,” Entin said, “and I know that if those hours had been cut in half I wouldn’t be walking today.”
Studies show at least 5.3 million Americans currently live with disabilities that they incurred as a result of Traumatic Brain Injury. Many people think TBI and its consequent disabilities cannot be changed. This is not true. Through intense therapy, these sequelae can improve in many cases. However, many TBI sufferers, like any cross section of Americans and like Darrell Gholar, either do not have health insurance or have health insurance that ceases to pay for ongoing therapy once the “acute” stage of any illness is past.
“The fact remains,” Entin said, “that if a person with a TBI does not have good health insurance or allocated funds, they may never reach their full potential again. I know that there are people who can’t walk right now because of their TBI. I also know that without the proper therapies, they will be left in their wheelchairs with very little hope of a promising future.”
Never one to rest on his laurels, Entin started the Move2Improve Foundation, which launched officially in June. The goal of the foundation is to raise funds for TBI sufferers who do not have the means to continue to pay for their therapies -- to help people who, without them, would be forced to live with their disabilities as if they were a fait accompli, trapped by their inability to get the help they need to recover.
Move2Improve is a new organization and can naturally only take on a small number of cases in its infancy stages. However, a unique aspect of the foundation is that it also acts as a hub through its website, connecting potential donors to the websites of other TBI survivors and allowing people to pledge support directly. Move2Improve takes no portion of these direct donations for its own fundraising purposes, and the sky is the limit in terms of how many TBI survivors can be linked through the Move2Improve hub.
“I don’t want survivors [of TBI] to just survive,” Entin said. “I want them to thrive.”
Currently, Move2Improve has directly taken on three individual cases, including that of Autumn Hampton, who fell from her horse three weeks shy of her 18th birthday and who doctors gave a one-percent chance of survival. Hampton has made incredible strides, yet still has a long way to go. Move2Improve has also taken on the Gholar case.
“Insurance companies give the basic minimal therapy and number of days due to the cost, which does not give the survivor enough time to be functional,” Entin said. “For example, one year past my stroke, I had the luxury of meeting Sylvia Arellano, a neuro-physical therapist who took me from walking crooked with a cane to driving. Darrell is one year past his stroke and receiving no therapy and barely walking with moderate assistance.”
Gholar approaches his rehabilitation with the same gusto he took on his MMA training. Though he is doing it on his own, the 52-year-old still works out two or three times a day.
“I bought a book about rehabilitation, and I’m trying to do what it says,” he said. “I don’t know if what I’m doing is right, but it’s all I can do. I have to.”
To learn more about the Move2Improve organization, visit www.m2i.org. For additional information on Hampton and to view her Move2Improve recipient video, visit http://www.m2i.org/autumn-hampton/. To read more about Gholar or to donate to his rehabilitation, visit www.darrellgholar.org. Sherdog.com founder Jeff Sherwood serves on the board of directors for Move2Improve.
