Third floor, please
<p>Rod Mitchell explains how a spinal stroke affected his life two years ago and the ways he has coped with the paralysis since the incident. Mitchell, who hasn't been in upper level of his home since his stroke, had a lift donated to him and installed in his home Friday.</p>
<p>Lyall Wohlschlager, manager of Mobility Concepts, assists in the final wiring phase for the install of a wheelchair life in Rod Mtichell's home Friday.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Aug. 31, 2010, around 7:45 a.m.
Rod Mitchell remembers the date, the time, well.
He was sitting on the couch, ready to read the newspaper in a favored upstairs room, when he decided to get a glass of water.
"I started to get off the couch. Instead of going up, I went straight to the floor. No warning, no headaches, no nothing."
"I told Kathy, 'I'm having some kind of upside down stroke.'"
He guessed right.
It was then, as he lay on the upstairs floor of his Stanley Hill home, his legs suddenly unable to move, he thought he was going to die.
"I could feel the tingling moving up my body," he said. "It was an ominous, black, dark feeling."
Mitchell felt no physical pain as he struggled to pull himself forward with his arms, while wife Kathy dialed 911. He didn't know what was happening to him, but he knew it could kill him.
That tingling kept crawling slowly up his body, and there was nothing he could do about it.
"This thing is going to hit my heart, and if that doesn't do it, it's going to take my brain out," he thought. "I'm dying."
Mitchell would survive what doctors said was a rare spinal stroke. He would spend weeks in hospitals, a year in rehab. But he won't walk again.
Since, he hasn't returned to that treasured home on the third floor of his Lambert Lane home - where he and Kathy loved to read the newspapers and watch TV - his wheelchair unable to navigate its way up stairs.
Until Friday.
That's when volunteers installed a new, free chairlift, in place of those stairs.
"I have not been to the couch since Aug. 31, 2010," he said, grinning. "Today will be the first time."
And how does that feel?
"I'm exhilarated, absolutely wonderful," the 70-year-old Mitchell said as he sat in his wheelchair in the kitchen, waiting for crews to wrap up their project.
Kathy was pleased, too.
"I'm so excited for Rod to go up there," she said.
It was Kathy who read a story in The Press earlier this month that reported ElderHelp of North Idaho and Mobility Concepts were looking for a few good seniors in need of a free wheelchair lift valued at $5,000.
EZ-Access, a company in Algona, Wash., was giving away two of the lifts in this area. In exchange, the recipients would be provide feedback on how it worked, basically a field test for the equipment.
Those interested had to live in Kootenai County, be at least 55, meet income requirements and there was another catch: They had to be in a wheelchair.
"When I read that, I actually got chills. It described him," Kathy said.
"I fit that MO right down the line," Rod said.
A few phone calls later, the date was set for the lift to be installed in the home the Mitchells purchased in 1968.
Jason Mitchell, representative with EZ-Access, said the vertical lift in the Mitchell home is named "Passport." All told, the company gave away five test units, "so we understand what they're doing and why. We can go back and make tweaks."
Then, they'll begin to market the lifts.
Once the stairs and ductwork were removed from the Mitchell home - labor donated by Coeur d'Alene Craftsman - the lift fit perfectly.
"This is exactly what we hoped for," he said.
The first run didn't quite go as hoped. Mitchell rolled into the lift, the guard rail closed, the "up" button was pushed, but the lift only went about a foot before stopping, a dead battery from a morning of trying it out.
"We'll leave you there until morning," Jason Mitchell joked.
"Give me a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk and I'll be OK," Mitchell responded, smiling.
Mitchell, former owner of Music City and all-around handyman, loved his career. He worked for the business 16 years before buying it.
"I couldn't have drawn out a better scenario for me. Most people have to go to work. I was just tickled to go to work."
Despite being paralyzed from the chest down, Mitchell remains positive, optimistic and chipper. He's thankful for the use of his arms, and feels blessed by the family and friends - Lake City Community Church built a ramp and cover off the back door - that circled him.
He told a story of being in his wheelchair at church, when a small girl came up and asked, "Gee mister, what happened?"
Mitchell, and others in the room, roared with laughter.
"You could get depressed, but I wasn't. I believe that was definitely my faith in God," he said.
Even when he believed he was going to die on that morning nearly two years ago, he was not afraid.
"It's been an adventure of life and death," he said. "So here I am, and happy to be here."
Time to read the newspaper, and watch TV.
Upstairs.