By Stacey Federoff
The Tribune-Review
WEST NEWTON, Pa. — Jackie Nader, who has camped out in a hospital waiting room for nine weeks since her son was paralyzed, said she is lucky.
Patrick Nader, a 23-year-old firefighter injured while responding to a call, is alert and can respond to his parents.
Throughout the ordeal, Jackie said, she has met other families who have lost their children.
“We’re lucky we can come in, we can talk to him, we can look him in the eye and ... he can tell us he loves us and we can tell him that,” she said, holding back tears. “It means a lot.”
Patrick Nader, a lieutenant with the West Newton Volunteer Fire Department, was paralyzed from the chest down on July 30 when his car hit a utility pole.
His father, Joe Nader, said it means a lot that the tiny town is supporting the family. A variety of fundraisers are being held to help defray hospital costs.
“We might be a small community of 3,000, but everybody has a big heart,” Mayor Mary Popovich said.
Through two events, a carnival at Filbern Manor, an elderly high-rise, and a car cruise, $1,205 has been raised.
“What I found so amazing, and typical of small towns, is so many different people getting together and contributing to the same cause,” Popovich said.
On the day of the accident, Patrick Nader had just made lunch at his home when the call came in: An elderly woman had gone over an embankment near the Youghiogheny River Trail.
Nader was driving his Mazda 6 west on Route 31 near Bible Alliance Church in Turkeytown. His blue light was activated, as he traveled at a “rapid rate” within a closed lane of a construction zone, according to state police at Belle Vernon.
As he crested a hill, Nader noticed a vehicle coming toward him in the closed lane and swerved to avoid it, police said. His car went up an embankment and hit a utility pole, then spun off and stopped in the roadway, with Nader trapped inside, police said. A medical helicopter flew him to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he remains in the Shock Trauma Treatment Center.
Jackie said her son, an emergency medical technician, realized the extent of his injuries, “He knew right away,” she said. “It was bad.”
His spinal cord was severed upon impact; three vertebrae were crushed, his mother said.
Nader, who has undergone two surgeries, can move his shoulders and arms.
“If he’s lucky, he’ll get his fingers back,” Jackie said. “Right now, he can do very little with them, but with the part of the spine that he damaged, he can have arm movement. ... He can lift his wrist, but the fingers are actually part of the injury that may not come back.”
Although he is alert and can mouth words, a ventilator assists Nader’s breathing. He is fed through a tube.
Jackie said it may be 18 months before they know how much feeling will come back to their son’s body.
Firefighters and others visit Nader. Elizabeth Dunlap, the fire department chaplain and pastor at the West Newton First Church of God, visits every week.
“You do what you can to try and make him laugh,” she said. “He’s got a long road ahead for such a young kid facing an uncertain future.”
Nader has been a firefighter since he was eligible to become a junior firefighter in high school, his mother said.
Joe Nader said his son was always light-hearted and never glorified what he did as a firefighter.
“He’d talk about it and tell us how he responded to the calls and would go in and fight fires, but at home he was never a serious person,” his father said.
The Naders said they appreciate the support they’ve received.
“We’re grateful for it and are overwhelmed at times,” Jackie Nader said. “People are good.”
Benefit events
These events will be held in West Newton to benefit injured firefighter Patrick Nader:
• On Sunday, eight area emergency service organizations will host a full day of activities.
7 a.m., pancake breakfast at the Youghiogheny Ballroom, 100 Riverside Drive.
8 a.m. registration for a poker run along the Youghiogheny River Trail. Participants can bike a 10-mile route or walk a 2-mile route. Event will begin at 10:30 a.m. Cash prizes, $50-$500.
After the poker run, live music, food and children’s games will be offered in the fire department parking lot before a “battle of the barrel” competition among 14 fire companies.
• On Oct. 16, Danielle Nader, Patrick’s cousin, will lead a “Zumbathon,” at the West Newton Gym on South Fifth Street. Minimum $10 donation to join the exercise dance program, 11 a.m.-to 12:30 p.m.
• On Oct. 23, Mayor Mary Popovich and restaurant owner Jim Sykes will host a “Pasta and Piano” dinner, 5-9 p.m. at Dairy-Land, 225 N. Water St.. Volunteers will serve dinners — spaghetti and meatballs or zucchini Parmesan — and Sykes will take song requests on the piano for donations. Reservations are suggested; call the restaurant at 724-872-5574.
• Beginning Monday, donations may be sent to the Patrick Nader Fund at PNC Bank, 200 E. Main St., West Newton PA 15089.
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