Disabled & Making a Difference: Man Awakes a Quadriplegic with Incredible Story "The Squeaky Wheel"
Pam Vetter
January 08, 2008
Screenwriter Tom Brady, who wrote "The Hot Chick," "The Animal," and recently directed another comedy, "The Comebacks," has been collaborating with Shaughnessy on the dark humor that bleeds from the "Squeaky" pages of his book. After Brady's first read, he told Shaughnessy, "I wanted more."
Shaughnessy, a long-time resident of Honolulu, Hawaii, wrote "The Squeaky Wheel" in 2005. As an actor, director, writer and Irishman, sharing his story in book form was a natural progression. "I wrote the book because I wanted people to know what we (quadriplegic, persons with disabilities) go through in the course of a day," Shaughnessy said. "It´s not easy but I´ve lived with my situation for 24 years. People are destroyed after acquiring any disability like mine. Society has no common sense, no manners, and little etiquette in dealing with someone in a wheelchair or any of the other disabilities. It´s frustrating and you get jaded. But, I am a contributing member of society."
Shaughnessy was only 14-years-old when he was hit by a car while riding his bicycle in Minnesota. "The car was driven by a nurse. She saw me laying in the ditch and left the scene. She left me in the ditch to die. A nurse! A guy came by and heard me moaning in the ditch and saved my life. I was laying face down a few inches from standing water where I would have drowned," Shaughnessy said. But, he walked out of the hospital a month later scarred and wearing a neck brace on his first day of high school.
"At the age of 24, I began to get a numbness in my right finger. The doctors found a cyst had developed in my spinal canal from the original accident. The doctor told me I needed surgery or I would be paralyzed. He never advised me of the risk that I could end up paralyzed with the surgery," Shaughnessy said. "When I awoke, I was what they call a high-functioning quadriplegic."
Four months later, the numbness returned, the paralysis increased, and Shaughnessy lost more function. He moved from a manual wheelchair to an electric wheelchair.
After the injury, Shaughnessy went back to college. He had been auditioning and acting in Minneapolis in community theatre. Soon, he started working with Mark Medoff, who wrote "Children of a Lesser God."
"Working with Mark was incredible. ´Children of a Lesser God´ was the first Broadway play that dealt with disability. The film, although taken away from Mark and a tremendous disappointment to him artistically, was an important film in that it did what Mark insisted Hollywood do: Cast an actor with a disability. It was a milestone film that it showed an actual individual with a disability. Something that had not been done for decades," Shaughnessy explained. "Nothing seemed impossible to me. I didn´t think it was special at the time; I was just living and doing what I wanted to do. I earned two Bachelor´s degrees, a Master´s degree in Hawaii, and I founded the Open Door Theatre for performers with disabilities. I traveled back and forth between the mainland and Hawaii, but eventually settled in paradise in Honolulu. I enrolled in Law School and loved it."
Shaughnessy earned his law degree and was the class speaker at graduation. "Later, I was in the hospital for five weeks and all I could do was flirt with my nurse, Amy. We started dating. I invited her into my life, despite all the struggles. Within two years, I had a graduated from law school and married Amy on a beach in Honolulu. My family came to Hawaii for the graduation and the wedding and it was perfect. Life was good. Amy was working as an oncology nurse and I was working as an attorney. We adopted a child and named him Amadeus -- God's beloved. Then, the unthinkable happened and Amy was diagnosed with cancer. She was sick in the hospital for months. I wound up in the same hospital for something else and I died. The attending doctor looked at the clock on the wall to give my time of death, but another one of Amy´s co-workers said she could not go one floor up and tell Amy, who was upstairs on another floor fighting cancer, ´We killed your husband.´ I had stopped breathing and my heart had stopped. They fought and brought me back," Shaughnessy said. "Amy was the happy ending to my book, but what do you do when your happy ending dies?"
On February 26, 2007, four days after his father died, Amy died from cancer. She was only 45. "It´s hard to watch someone you love in so much pain. I thought about the options, but I had Amadeus to live for and so much to do. God was always pulling my strings. Our son is now six and although he lived through the horror of watching his mother die, he´s wonderful," Shaughnessy said. "My hope is for the book to be made into a film to help society see people with disabilities as people."
As for Hollywood, Shaughnessy believes there needs to be an increase in visibility of the people with disabilities to encourage acceptance in the real world. "Hollywood needs to make it fair for performers with disabilities. We need more opportunities. The exposure has grown, but not enough. We had some major films such as ´Ray,´ ´My Left Foot,´ and ´Born on the 4th of July.´ We need more. Some lucky actor will get to play me in the movie," Shaughnessy said with a laugh. "The book starts with me waking up from surgery, but it also includes times when I was roller-skating around the lake or riding bicycle for miles."
Shaughnessy, with his many accomplishments, is making an impact by inspiring both able-bodied and disabled communities. "I never saw myself as going through major accomplishments, but it´s so much more significant because of where I sit. One of my friends reminded me that I did everything anyway despite the wheelchair. It was innate. The title of the book, ´The Squeaky Wheel,´ includes elements of my wheelchair and my ability to speak out."
For people with disabilities, who are sometimes indoors more often than in public, Shaughnessy encourages them to live their lives like everyone else. "If you spend your life being angry, inside you´ll miss life. Go out, you´re entitled. We want you around. Participate in society. If anyone acts bothered by your presence, just tell them, ´Kiss my wheelchair!´"
For more information about Brian Shaughnessy's book "The Squeaky Wheel - An Unauthorized Autobiography" visit www.SqueakyWheelBook.com.
For more information about Performers with Disabilities visit www.PerformersWithDisabilities.com.
Pictured: Brian Shaughnessy and George O'hanlan Jr.
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