By Maia Szalavits, Photo: Walter Zerla/Getty Images, The New York Times, March 7, 2022
Doctors didn’t think Brent Slone would survive his gruesome 2011 car crash. His car flipped after he swerved to avoid a stalled vehicle. His spinal cord was compressed. He broke several ribs, a shoulder and a knee. One lung collapsed. A shattered pelvic bone ruptured his bladder and seriously damaged his spleen, kidney and colon.
Miraculously, Mr. Slone avoided brain injury. However, he was paralyzed from the waist down. After months of painful physical rehabilitation, he went home to his wife, Sonya Slone, and their 6-year-old daughter. When he had appropriate pain care, Mrs. Slone said, he was able to be a loving and involved father.
But in 2017, the clinic he attended cut his pain medications by more than half overnight. He tried to remedy the prescription by calling and even showing up in his wheelchair. Still, he was told he wouldn’t receive any refills until an appointment six days away. In agony, he texted Sonya: “they denied script im done love you.” He died by suicide in a local park.
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