Budget ends the only therapy for paralyzed girl

The state no longer will pay for massages that made a difference in the teen's life.

By ERIN SULLIVAN, Times Staff Writer
Published December 1, 2007

TAMPA - Jessica Carnal spent the last 14 years in bed, paralyzed after a near drowning as toddler. Her limbs became so rigid that rolling over in bed would pop a hip out of its socket.

Michelle Wyman, a licensed massage therapist, changed all that. Her firm hands, scary at first, slowly began to ease Jessica's stiffness.

A year and a half later, Jessica's range of motion is now 80 percent instead of 10. Her leg, once all but immobilized, can now be stretched across her body and up toward her chest. Her daily seizures dropped from 14 to three or four.

But Jessica's last massage was Thursday.

State-mandated budget cuts mean no more funding for the therapy Wyman provides to Jessica and others with disabilities in Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas.

About 600 patients in Florida used the massage therapy program, which was covered under Medicaid, said Melanie Etters, a spokeswoman for the Agency for Persons with Disabilities.

Last year the agency had a $100-million deficit; this year it is expected to be $153-million. Cuts had to be made, and massage therapy was one. The agency is urging caregivers to look into other forms of funding services.

"It is a valuable service to some people, and it does provide benefit," Etters said. The agency, she said, is mandated by law to stay within its budget.

"We are in a tough situation," Etters said.

Wyman, 40, visited Jessica three times a week in the four-bedroom mobile home in Town and Country she shares with her mother, stepfather, sister, uncle, three cats and a dog.

"All right, baby," Wyman said Thursday as she worked on Jessica. "I'm going to turn you over now."

Jessica's heartbeat was slow. Her hazel eyes were opened halfway.

"She is in heaven," said Jessica's nurse, Eunice Williams, as she watched Wyman work on Thursday.

Jessica's mother stood at the foot of her bed.

"This poor child has nothing else in her life," said Laura Streeter, 45. "And they're taking this from her."

Jessica was 4 when she fell into a backyard pool. Her family found her floating facedown in the water. Doctors told her mother then that there was no hope. The ventilator keeping Jessica alive was turned off.

But she kept breathing.

Today, Jessica communicates by holding her breath, which sounds alarms from the machines hooked to her body. She does this when the volume on her audio books is too low or if a nurse doesn't put them on right away. She likes Harry Potter and Eragon and listens to them over and over.

She also rolls her eyes when she doesn't like something, like commercials.

Stuffed animals and angels line the walls of Jessica's room. Her dolls live in one corner.

Jessica's body remains small. She has grown a little more than a foot since the accident, when she was tall for her age at 3 feet.

She weighs about 100 pounds, but that is hard to tell since Jessica leaves her bed only for doctor's appointments.

The family has to get an ambulance to take her there, because it doesn't have a handicapped-accessible van or a special wheelchair that will carry the machines that feed Jessica and are a backup for her lungs if she stops breathing.

She has had more than half a dozen surgeries since the accident - and as many near-death scares from infections and such.

The family doesn't have the money to pay for massage therapy.

Streeter works 16-hour shifts at Tampa General Hospital on Saturdays and Sundays. Her husband works two jobs, as an auto mechanic and then stocking shelves at Winn-Dixie.

But Wyman has grown close to Jessica. And she is determined to keep helping her.

Wyman is going to keep visiting her once a month, on her own. It's not enough, she says, but it will have to do.

Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this story. Erin Sullivan can be reached at esullivan@sptimes.com or 813 909-4609.

[Last modified November 30, 2007, 23:26:56]