Photo: Tracey Benson Photography
When Owen O’Neill began working in 2002 as a nurse for a hospice in Palm Beach County, Fla., he was moved to help his recently deceased patients' family members with a heartbreaking request.
Unable to bear looking at empty wheelchairs or hospital beds, grieving loved ones often asked if O’Neill, now 55, would remove the equipment they no longer needed.
He resisted at first, gently explaining that it “wouldn’t be appropriate to take anything” from their homes. But before long, he was loading the equipment into his jeep — and later a truck for larger items — and delivering them to patients he’d met at the low-income clinics where he volunteered and who couldn’t otherwise afford them.
“Their eyes,” O’Neill tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, “would always light up.”
The number of lives he’s changed is staggering. O’Neill’s team has supplied over 18,000 children and adults with everything from adaptive strollers and wheelchairs to walkers and hospital beds.
“There’s no reason why people should struggle to get this equipment when it’s so accessible,” says O’Neill. “It’s a simple, low-cost solution that can help people not only recover faster but also improve their quality of life.”
Jennifer Martinez/JLM Communications
One of those recipients is Zoe Vera, a perky 8-year-old with limited use of her arms and legs due to cerebral palsy. Her grandmother, Lynn Vera, who adopted Zoe, first learned about O’Neill’s organization from her granddaughter’s physical therapist several years ago.
O’Neill has since provided Zoe with an activity wheelchair, an adaptive bicycle to help her strengthen her leg muscles and a beach wheelchair.
“We’re so grateful,” says Lynn, 59. “It’s a full-time job butting heads with insurance companies that don’t want to pay for stuff. With Clinics Can Help, I just make a phone call and they make it happen. I feel like we’re part of their family.”
About eight years ago, Gisela Rabi’s son Micheal, 17, became part of that family. Because he has brittle bone disease, Michael is unable to walk and about the size of a 3-year-old. Thanks to Clinics Can Help, he’s received wheelchairs, ramps, an adaptive toilet and a $7,000 gift through the organization’s Christmas in July program.
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“I cannot be more grateful for that place,” says Rabi. “They are very friendly, they have compassion and they just try to help.”
“People come to us every day with donations,” O’Neill says. He maintains a warehouse full of the donated supplies and a cadre of volunteers and staffers who clean and refurbish the equipment.
“I love what I do and I wouldn’t want to do anything else,” says O’Neill, who recently launched a new campaign to provide cribs for families in need. “It’s all about the giving. We’re making a difference and to me, that means everything.”
source: people.com
