A long, hard road to recovery for Seaford resident Jeremy Loud

Seaford resident Jeremy Loud has been on a difficult — yet persistent — quest to walk again after a pool accident almost four years ago left him confined to a motorized wheelchair.

Loud has been commuting with his wife, Jackie, more than 200 miles twice a week to undergo physical therapy at Project Walk, a paralysis recovery center in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. He said the facility provides exercise focusing on strengthening his core, and with some assistance, he said he’s able to stand on a treadmill and pedal an exercise bike — but acknowledges that he still has a long road ahead.

“The rough part about spinal cord injury is it's a slow, slow process,” he said. “It's not something that's going to happen overnight. I have to keep reminding myself, ‘I'm not running a race, I’m running a marathon.’”

However, Project Walk is not covered through insurance, and the Loud family must pay $240 for a two-hour session. In addition to tolls and gas, each commute they take to the recovery facility costs them around $400, but they said the trip is worth it.  

“He’s been going since May of last year, and that's where his progress has really come in,” his wife said.

Loud’s uncle, Chris Amato, has also seen how much progress he’s made since going to Project Walk. Amato became legal guardians to Loud and his sister Nicole after their mother died in 1987 when Jeremy was 9 years old. Though not directly related, Amato considers them his children.

Loud’s progress at Project Walk has been tremendous, improving his balance and regaining the use of his arms, according to Amato.        

“All those things are making him be able to function at such a higher level than he was able to do,” Amato said. “We're just hoping that it continues to the point where he gains a lot more independence.”

To help provide more sessions for him at Project Walk, Amato and his wife, Linda, have reached out to The John Theissen Children’s Foundation to set up a raffle and auction fundraiser, which will take place at Mulcahy’s Pub and Concert Hall in Wantagh on Sunday, March 3.

Loud said he’s thankful for all the help he’s received from the community in organizing the event.

“Everything seems to be pretty unbelievable,” he said. “Everybody's pitching in and donating baskets.”

Insurance has covered Loud’s rehabilitation at Northwell Health STARS Rehabilitation in East Meadow, but his wife said limitations have been placed on what he can do during therapy.

Loud’s life changed over the Labor Day weekend in 2020 when he broke his C5 and C6 vertebrae during a pool accident in Amato’s backyard. He said he doesn’t remember much about what happened, and none of his family members saw the incident. But he was found at the bottom of the pool and was pulled out and given CPR.

First responders arrived and rushed him to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bethpage. From there, he was transferred to Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, where he underwent two surgeries to his neck. Afterward, he attended NYU Rusk Rehab in the city for two months of physical therapy before returning home around Thanksgiving in 2020.

“I could barely sit up, I could barely talk without passing out,” Loud said of his recovery. “Everything was extremely hard to do in the beginning.”

Jackie Loud said their son Hunter was born eight weeks after the accident.

“When Jeremy first came home, he couldn't hold him,” she said. “He couldn't feed him, he couldn't do anything.”

“I was afraid to hold him because of the lack of strength,” Jeremy Loud said. “I literally felt like a piece of pasta, flailing all over the place.”

Since the accident, he’s struggled financially, despite receiving disability checks and with his wife working. They are now converting their two-story home so that it’s more wheelchair-accessible, and he hopes to see changes in the state for more wheelchair accessibility in buildings and public spaces.

Loud added that he would like to see a little more flexibility from the banks during these tough times.

“When this happens to somebody and you're a homeowner, there's just no forgiveness from the banks as far as trying to work with you with a payment or mortgage,” he said. “It's just unbelievable how expensive everything is, and now it's a fixed income, for me, anyway. It's not easy having two small kids, and being injured, but we’re doing the best we can.”

For more information on the March 3 fundraiser, visit tinyurl.com/day-for-jeremy.