Quad's Story

Michael Vanderbosch
"Quad"
A Quadriplegic To everyone that hunts from a treestand, Where a safety belt. I was 14 years old when I bagged my first deer and I was in a treestand hunting with a bow. In New York State you can only hunt big game with a bow until your 16, Then you can use a gun, during gun season. But after that I was sold on bowhunting (from a tree) back then I was told deer didn't look up. For years I had done most of my hunting from a tree, I fell a couple times but I didn't get hurt bad, because I wasn't up very high and lucky. I fell asleep a lot and believe me it's an eerie feeling when you wake up around twenty feet in the air and I'm sitting on a little seat with nothing around me, but I never learned.

When I was thirty two years old my wife talked me into buying a safety belt before I went hunting in PA. A bunch of us went their every year, There bow season started a few weeks before ours. We would go down on a Friday evening and the next morning is opening day, But most of us didn't hunt the first day, We spent most of the day getting camp ready for the week and do a little scouting, They're was only a couple hours of daylight left, I went out to check out an area. I have a real light portable climbing treestand that I always carry on my back whenever I go out. I found a spot that looked good so I decided to get up in a tree. I left my new safety belt in my jeep, I figured if I did get in a tree it wouldn't be for very long anyway, that was a mistake I'll never forget.

I had a few does pass by, But I wanted a buck. The next thing I know I'm on the ground, if I had my safety belt on I would of been hanging from the tree instead of laying on the ground paralyzed. I laid on the ground for about five hours and four hours of that time was after dark. The guys figured I was either tracking or dragging a deer so after dark they ate dinner and after an hour they figured they had better start looking for me. They had an idea of about where I was and when they got there I could hear them yelling for me but I didn't have enough wind to yell back at them. After they finally found me my brother and a couple of the other guys took their coats off and covered me up with them. A few of them stayed with me and the other guys rushed to town for help and it was a good forty-five minute drive down the mountain and into town. By the time an ambulance got up the mountain and got there they said hypothermia had already set in. After getting back in town I was mercy flighted to a Buffalo hospital. This hospital specializes in spinal cord injuries and it was determined that I suffered a twisted cord. They said I was C 3-4 quadriplegic and that I would be paralyzed for the rest of my life. I spent six months in the hospital before I went to a rehab hospital in PA I spent two months there before I returned home.

People always told me that safety belts were too restricting, so I never considered getting one. It's apparent that the people that told me that never had a store bought belt. When I bought mine I tried it out before going hunting and it was better then not having one at all. I could actually lean forward and have a lot more movement for shooting and didn't have to worry about falling. Don't take it for granted that nothing will ever happen to you like I did, or in a split second you could wind up seriously injured or dead. It is a fact that most serious or fatal hunting accidents are caused from falling from treestands.

Nine years later, 1996 NY state past a law that a quadriplegic can use a modified crossbow in archery season if you have no movement to pull a trigger. It has to be fired by breath, Sucking on a vacuum tube. I bought a new crossbow and my brother Tom, a machinist and a friend Joe Zontek began cutting up and modifying my bow. To make a long story short, Tom rigged it up so the vacuum senses a small electric motor which is powered by my wheelchair and activates the trigger. I aim with my chin and suck on the vacuum tube when I want to shoot.

My first season I past up a nice doe because it was only my 5th time out and I only had one tag. Later in the season I had a buck 15 yards from me, but not in front of me. They have to be in the direction my chair is facing is to get a shot. That was my 96 season, But I was just glad to back in the woods watching nature again. Tom built me a trailer for hunting in that you pull with an ATV that spring so I could be free to hunt any area I wanted. Then he modified a mossberg 500 12 gauge shotgun with a 50 cal. muzzleloader barrel on it, We tried a deer slug but there was too much recoil and you can't use a rifle in this area.

1997 was better year for me getting out hunting with the camo trailer that I drive in and hunt from when I get to my spot. Tom took me on a Buckmasters disabled hunt in Michigan, I got a boar with the bow and a ram with the muzzleloader. Then in October our archery season starts, western NY. I past up a few fawns and hit a 4 point in the shoulder, but he's still running. I got a spike and doe with the muzzleloader.
Mike

If anyone has any questions E-mail me at mikevan@froggernet.com

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