Paintsville Hearld
By Loretta Blackburn
September 3, 2003

A facility's response to a call for independence

Overcoming obstacles is a way of life for Tina Jackson, of Louisa, who was born with cerebral palsy and suffered a stroke at the age of 24. But the drive to be independent that had carried her through life's difficulties was threatened when her doctor told her she would have to have a feeding
tube. Jackson began her story through a voice machine Thursday, typing carefully, but resorted to using sign language, which her husband, Mark Jackson, interpreted for her.

Living on her own since she was 18 years old, except for the last five years in which she has been married, Jackson said she has always been used to doing things on her own, despite the physical obstacles she faces."My parents taught me to depend on myself," she said. Although suffering from cerebral palsy and a stroke, which took away the use of one of her arms and her ability to speak, Jackson has managed to live independently. But when her doctor told her needed a feeding tube, Jackson feared the device would immobilize her. At first she said no, and took speech therapy for a year in an attempt to regain the ability to eat. But she was slowly starving to death and after a year,
she agreed to have the tube inserted into her stomach. When she came home from the hospital, Jackson had an intravenous pole to circulate food.

"I couldn't go anywhere,"Jackson said.

Her physician told her she could get a tube and cut her feeding periods to three times a day, but Jackson said she still had a difficult lime as she only has use of one hand and had to depend on her husband to hold the tube while she poured the nourishment in.

Mark Jackson had met his wife when he found a three-wheel cycle for her five years ago. He altered the tricycle to accomodate her balancing problems by attaching a lawn mower steering wheel.

"Now everyone can see me coming," Tina Jackson said.They started riding together and later married. Having suffered some bruising to his brain as a result of a motorcycle accident in 1980,
Jackson said he knows the importance of independence to one faced with obstacles. Therefore, when a therapist trained him in how to help his wife feed herself, Jackson said he took out a pencil and paper and drew up a plan that would allow Tina Jackson to feed herself. Jackson said the thera-
pist told him the plan looked good on paper, but he would have to see it work.

You'll see it work," Mark Jackson said he told the therapist.

Jackson went to work and came up with a feeding tube holder, which Tina Jackson can
use on any reasonable surface, and it would allow her to feed herself without assistance. The
therapist was impressed, Jackson said, and so was everyone else who saw the device.
After several suggestions regarding patenting the idea, Jackson said he contacted an
attorney, who said he would have someone draw up a model for the process.
"I told him I'll take it to my people," Jackson said. Having attended a drafting
technology class under Judy Blanton at Mayo Technical School, Jackson took the device
to Blanton and asked her to help him develop the plans for a patent. Blanton said she took the
opportunity to use the manufacturing process of the device as a class project and let her class
draw the individual parts. "They got to see that a part they made had meaning to someone," .
Blanton said. "That's what you do in the real world." Manford McCarty's class also got involved
in the process by making a replica of the device with a 3-D printer, Blanton said. In 18 years of teaching, Blanton said she had never seen a better project, because the students saw first-hand what drafting is really about. Mark Jackson's patent is currently pending and he said he hopes the feeding tube holderwill bring independence tosomeone else.

As for Tina Jackson, she has once again found independence through her husband's inven-
tion and has gained 20 pounds since she started using it. She praised her husband for his cre-
ativity.

"I can give him a hammer and a pile of wood and tell him what I want," Jackson said.

In describing his motivation for the project that has proven so useful to his wife - and pos-
sibly for others - Jackson said he saw a need and rose to the occasion.

He said his wife's mother calls them soul mates, but he thinks they both have a lot in common
as their accidents have made them value independence. "We fill up each other's gaps," Mark Jackson said after reading his wife's signing.