Second Half volunteers help paralyzed Henrico man

The second half of Chris Tompkins' life isn't playing out the way people would have expected, either before or after the injury that left him paralyzed.

Before his bicycle accident nearly two years ago, Tompkins, 62, was in perpetual motion — taking long bike rides every weekend, singing in the One Voice choir, pursuing photography as a hobby and working for the state as an environmental engineer.

Now that he needs a wheelchair, he's perpetually hoping for progress — and getting it, thanks to a support system wrapped around a group called Second Half.

Thirty-five men from Second Half share two-man shifts visiting Tompkins for an hour five days a week to help with his rehabilitation. Their connection began as a religious one, but they've adapted it to answer Tompkins' need for daily stretching exercises to keep his joints flexible.

"The group helped him get this far," said Mahshid Soltanian, a physical therapist at The Laurels at University Park, where Tompkins now lives in western Henrico County. "The emotional support, the physical support, friends coming over and giving him energy every day, him getting up and making an effort every day, that's good for everybody. It's important to get therapy so when you regain the [use of a] muscle you have enough flexibility to use it."

Tompkins feels blessed, and often so does the group that supports him.

Second Half is a group of about 60 men, mostly retired, who meet every other Wednesday to share prayers and personal testimony. It grew out of Needle's Eye, a lunchtime ministry for business people that's been operating for 32 years.

"It was never a service group," said Gordon Prior, who organized Second Half in 2002 after retiring from his dental practice. "We wanted to know what God's plan was for the rest of our lives. It could be anything."

Prior knew Tompkins through St. Giles Presbyterian Church and had kept track of his progress after the April 4, 2009, accident in Hanover County.

From VCU Medical Center, Tompkins went to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta for intensive rehabilitation. He came back to Richmond for a brief stay at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center and then moved to The Laurels at University Park in July 2009.

"Would you be comfortable including him in our group?" Prior asked members of Second Half. "We could go to him and share with him what we do at our meetings. We did that in the beginning.

"Then I asked him, 'Chris, is there anything else we could do besides the fellowship?' He said, 'What I really need, if I could get someone to keep my arms and fingers stretched and more supple in between physical therapy, it would be a tremendous help.' "

Johnny Gray and John Karsten were the pair working with him on a recent morning. Tompkins gave them instructions as they raised his arms above his head.

"Keep my elbows straight," Tompkins said. "Take the hands higher and higher."

"It's a problem if you're not loose," he explained. "You can't do as much. That's why the stretches are so wonderful." Plus, it feels good.

He has 20 percent to 50 percent sensation below his shoulders, he said. Shoulder level and above "is where I have a lot of feeling. It feels really good to be massaged where I have feeling."

Tompkins is an incomplete quadriplegic. His injury occurred at the C3-C4 vertebrae in his spine. Actor Christopher Reeve, who later died, had a complete break at the C1-C2 vertebrae and needed a ventilator to breathe. Tompkins is able to breathe and talk on his own.

His fingers are bent, but they relax a bit as the gloved volunteers rub his hands with cocoa butter. In the 16 months that Second Half has been working with him, he has developed enough mobility in his arms and hands to guide his motorized wheelchair, use a computer and feed himself using a special brace. When he arrived at The Laurels, the only way he could maneuver a wheelchair was to use puffs of breath to operate the controls.

Now he can generate the equivalent of 40 watts of power on a push-pedal rehabilitation machine.

He's working on standing and taking a few steps. "I feel like I weigh 300 pounds," he said after the physical therapist helped him put on a gait belt and get up from his wheelchair.

"He's been quite an inspiration for us," Soltanian said. "He never gives up. He comes up with new ideas."

"That's the key," Tompkins said. "Never give up."

Tompkins has support from his wife, Ginny, and son, Rob, in addition to the staff at the Laurels and the Second Half group. St. Paul's Episcopal Church provided a handicapped-accessible van for him to use. He and his wife sold their house, and she moved into a condo that can accommodate his wheelchair.

"Now I have nothing," he said, "but I have everything I need."

"Most quadriplegics don't have a real good support system," he added. "One of my goals is to help them. My heart goes out to all these people."

The Second Half session ends with a prayer. They pray for guidance for the nation's leaders, for a peaceful resolution to the problems of Egypt and other places in the world. They pray for each other. They give thanks.

"We probably get a bigger blessing going over there than he does," Prior said. "He's very inspirational, always positive. He prays for us probably more than we pray for him.

"It's been a real positive in a lot of lives."

kcalos@timesdispatch.com

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