Chantelle Grafton works for the provincial government as a water management and flood response/mitigation specialist and sometime next year she expects to complete her masters degree in water resource policy.
She earned her black belt in karate six months ago and between her shifts working at home and the office downtown she currently spends six hours a week teaching martial arts at the non-profit Nechako Karate Club that her husband Warren operates.
Chantelle also finds time to write policy papers on patient rehabilitation care for the Canadian Health Standards Association.
The 33-year-old Prince George native become somewhat of an expert on that topic ever since a mountain bike accident four years ago that left her a quadriplegic.
On June 15, 2019 , while practicing a drop on a trail at Valemount Bike Park she crashed and landed on her head, fracturing her C1, C2 and C3 vertebra, and her high-level spinal cord injury left her without motor ability below her shoulders.
Warren, who had been waiting for Chantelle to descend the mountain came back and found people performing CPR to bring her back to life. She was eventually flown to Edmonton, where the extent of her injuries was determined.
“They basically said, if she lives, she might not want to,” said Warren.
The harrowing story of the Grafton’s recovery together and Chantelle’s determination to return to a productive lifestyle was told Thursday to a packed audience at the ninth annual UNBC Timberwolves Legacy Dinner.
They talked about date nights at the ICU in Edmonton where Warren would bring in a home-cooked lasagna and a couple cans of beer when she wasn’t supposed to be eating, on doctor’s orders, and how she weaned herself off her ventilator while Warren kept the surprised respiratory technologist distracted.
“There’s not a lot of good stories out there for people in situations like this, especially for breathing, and we did find one story of someone who took a year to get off a ventilator,” said Chantelle. “The goal was to get off and we didn’t have a timeline.”
The day it finally happened, after two minutes without the breathing tube, Chantelle’s blood oxygen saturation levels dropped below 90 per cent and the technologist wanted to reinsert the tube but Warren would not let him and physically kept him away from Chantelle. Eventually her oxygen levels climbed and each day she could go a minute longer breathing on her own until eventually the minutes stretched into hours. Once she was off the breathing tube, they could move to G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre in Vancouver, where they learned how to live with her disability.
“It’s like going back to high school, you’re with similar like-minded people going through the same thing, its awkward, it’s weird, it’s uncomfortable, but you’re powering through it,” said Chantelle.
Warren works as a hydro geologist as a partner for Western Water, which provides water supply consulting for smaller municipalities in north centre B.C. He spent nearly a year by Chantelle’s side as she recovered in hospital while their friends and family in Prince George worked to bring them back home.
“Every time they’d come to see us, our friends would hand us wads of cash,” said Warren. “In the end Prince George raised $140,000. Everything worked out so well. There are so many people to thank.”
Friends and co-workers helped find them a wheelchair accessible home and built them a ramp. Then they packed up their old house and moved their belongings into the new house before they flew back to Prince George.
Chantelle, a College Heights Secondary School graduate, and Warren, a Kelly Road grad, are both UNBC alumni. Warren is a former national-level athlete who competed internationally in karate and they met at a jui jitsu class at the Northern Sport Centre.
For Chantelle, returning to work was her driving ambition and she did that just 11 months after the accident during the pandemic lockdown when much of the rest of the world was being forced to work virtually, so it was the perfect time for her to phase back into her job.
In karate, Chantelle had already achieved her brown belt before the accident. To get to her black belt she had to pass a written test that showed she knew all the movements required and her instructor’s approval led to the upgrade. Warren agreed he would train to make the provincial team one more time, but only if Chantelle was his coach.
She wondered how the karate kids she teaches would react to having a paraplegic giving them instructions but it wasn’t a problem.
“I was definitely missing that part of my life and it was actually very therapeutic to yell at children, it was very motivating and it worked very well,” said Chantelle. “Kids adjust very quickly and then they move on, and that was refreshing.”
Chantelle uses a head array to control her movement in her wheelchair and while going for rides in a four-wheeled mountain bike she refers to as “Bike Tyson.” Panels built into her headrest are proximity sensors which detect her head movements, back-and-forth and side-to-side, and that sends signals to the motors that power the chair or bike.
She started out using “sip and puff” technology which relied on the force of her breath to control chair movements, but it was a lot more difficult to control.
“She flew into a lot of walls,” said Warren. “She laughs a lot and a laugh is an exhale.”
She also has used a chin-operated joystick to control assistive devices but the head array works best for her.
For her computer work, Chantelle has a straw joystick which controls the clicks of her mouse and she types words by speaking into a microphone using software that converts her voice into text.
“She’s just as fast on the computer as I am,” said Warren. “Talking and dictating is easy for her but editing is very time-consuming, so she has to try to get it right the first time to be productive.”
The Graftons had three longterm care options for Chantelle when it came time to leave G.F. Strong. She could spend the rest of her life institutionalized, go home and hire a full-time care aide, or have several part-time health care workers work part-time shifts to help her through her daily tasks. They chose the latter.
Through the province’s Choices for Supports in Independent Living (CSIL) program they receive money directly from the Northern Health Authority, which allows clients to manage their own home support, The Graftons use that money to pay the part-time salaries of four nurses whose nursing credentials are not recognized by the Canadian health care system and they take turns looking after her. CISL is cheaper and more humane than keeping her in an institution and the programs gives the Graftons the flexibility to schedule nursing care as it is needed. Chantelle still requires a ventilator at night and at certain times of the day to help her breathe.
It was announced that Canadian Tire Prince George store owner Selen Apay and UNBC will split the cost of a $25,000 assistive bike, to be used on the adaptive trails around Prince George by anyone who needs it.
All money raised at the Legacy event will fund student awards for the T-wolves varsity basketball and soccer teams.
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