Excerpts from the pantagraph.com:
Wearing a Chicago Cubs cap and shirt and a smile, Norman Wilson was ready to take off for Monday night’s Cubs game. All he needed was a little help from his team.
His family and caregivers made sure he had everything he needed for the trip to Chicago. And there were LeRoy Ambulance emergency medical technicians and Bloomington Fire Department firefighter/paramedics to transition Wilson from his hospital bed in a small Bloomington apartment to a stretcher that was placed in one of LeRoy’s ambulances for the trip.
The EMTs and paramedics/firefighters had worked with the Cubs to reserve space for Wilson and a reclining stretcher in the left field bleachers at Wrigley Field. That way, he could watch the Central Division Champions with his friends — the EMTs and paramedics/firefighters.
They weren’t making the trip because they were told to do it. They were taking Wilson — a lifelong Cubs fan — to his first game since he was left paralyzed from the chest down after a hit-and-run accident on Easter 2007.
Wilson has loved baseball since he played catch with his father and grandfather while growing up in Chicago. He loved the Cubs and grew up going to games and watching them on television.
Nine years ago, Wilson was struck by a vehicle as he walked home. After months of inpatient therapy, he was able to get off a ventilator and moved in with his mother. His goal is to be able to use a wheelchair and to get back into child care.
That’s what has impressed LeRoy Ambulance EMTs who transport him several times a month to doctors’ appointments, Bloomington paramedics who take him to the emergency room as needed and others who help to care for him at the hospital.
Chris Dunning came up with the idea to take Wilson to a Cubs’ game and worked on details with firefighter/paramedic Greg Fisher. Their colleagues joined the effort.
“Before I die, I’ll be able to say that I went to a Cubs’ game the year they went to the World Series,” Wilson said.
