North Texas veteran moves into custom-built home made for a hero
HEATH – There are about 5.3 million veterans who live with a disability in the U.S., and one in eight of those is considered 100% disabled. This creates obvious challenges for these veterans and their families when trying to live in a world that isn't built for their challenges.
On July 29, Staff Sgt. James Carey and his family moved into their brand-new home that was custom-built to accommodate him.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation is giving the home to the Carey family mortgage-free.
"This is a huge game changer for me," he said.
"The world isn't really made for people with disabilities," said James mother, Kim Carey.
Fifteen years after a tragic accident took his ability to walk and made seeing and speaking a struggle, James Carey still knows how significant this day is.
"We didn't completely fall apart, but we had a lot of dark days, and there were a lot of times where we didn't know how it would turn out," said Kim Carey.
James' mother, Kim, and the rest of his family have struggled alongside James since he nearly drowned during a training exercise at Camp Pendelton in California. While he escaped with his life, he was left with traumatic brain injuries affecting nearly every aspect of his life.
"We got a phone call that James had had an accident," Kim Carey said. "We didn't have much detail, but we got on a plane that day and went to the hospital and we saw James there in the hospital in a coma and with all the tubes and wires and you don't really know what to expect."
But the home the family moved into was custom-built for James Carey – that includes wide doorways built for wheelchairs, an automatic sink, a roll-in shower and even a specially designed microwave.
"We were just talking about on the way over here that this is the light at the end of the tunnel. We can't give James his eyesight back, and we can't give him his ability to walk again, but we can give him everything else that makes a guy happy thanks to this wonderful experience. It's just like the icing on the cake," said Kim Carey.