KARL CHRISTENBURY

Disabled man, 75, needs home improvements

Karl Christenbury, 75, who suffers from mental retardation due to oxygen deprivation at childbirth, is put to bed by niece Karen Rea.

By BARBARA MARSHALL
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Two inches keep Karl Christenbury from a better life.

That’s the height of the threshold to his Century Village condo in West Palm Beach. But when you’re 75 and in a wheelchair, it might as well be a mountain.

Karl has had a mild mental disability since birth. He receives help and socialization from Seagull Industries for the Disabled in West Palm Beach, where he spends his days at the organization’s Achievement Center.

But each afternoon when the center’s bus drops him off, his waiting nurse or his niece, Karen Rea, must recruit a second person, usually a neighbor, to help lift Karl into his home.

Some days he waits for assistance in hot sun and pelting rain.

A wheelchair ramp is the solution, but it must be custom-built and installed because of the shape of the condo’s entrance, said Rea, who tries to care for Karl and another elderly family member who lives nearby.

Christenbury has had long-time nursing care.

Then there is the bathroom. A moldy mess after sewage flooded the condo during Hurricane Wilma in 2005, it was only partially rebuilt when the contractor took the down payment and fled the country, according to Rea. Repair estimates are about $5,000, which she doesn’t have.

Karl shouldn’t be left alone, but Rea often has no choice. She just started a full-time job. In the past two years, state budget cuts have slashed his weekly nursing care by 10 to 15 hours, she said.

When she can, Rea spends the night at Karl’s. Sometimes his long-time nurse, Donna Palanche, takes him home to her house. But several nights a week, he’s left alone in his broken hospital bed until the morning nurse arrives to prepare his breakfast.

Rea sorrowfully considers the grim possibilities: a fire, a fall, illness in the middle of the night.

“Karl is a sweet soul who could really use some help,” she said.

KARL’S WISH
A small, custom-built wheelchair ramp to allow Karl Christenbury, 75, to easily come and go from his Century Village condo and to get to Seagull Industries for the Disabled, where he spends his days. Currently, it takes two people to lift him and his wheelchair over his apartment’s threshold. Mentally disabled at birth, Karl has fallen several times recently and shouldn’t be left alone. Karl’s storm-damaged condo needs extensive bathroom repairs. And since state budget cuts reduced his nursing care, he spends several nights a week alone, confined to his bed. Extra nursing hours would give him more of the companionship he craves. Karl also needs a new hospital bed.

NOMINATED BY: Seagull Industries for the Disabled Inc.