Beating the odds
Story created Mar 11, 2008 - 09:15:28 CDT.
Randy Fangman
A motorcycle accident
at the age of 19 threw Randy Fangman's life into a tailspin. Now 50 and still
battling medical problems, he proves a positive outlook can change your life.
Randy Fangman, 50, of Britt, is a lesson in overcoming adversity.
A motorcycle accident in June 1977 left him confined to a wheelchair. Instead of
becoming bitter and depressed - he changed his career focus. And five months of
battling infection, plastic surgery and bed rest in 2007 and 2008 has served as
a reminder of how lucky he truly is.
“Maybe I'm just blessed with this attitude,” Fangman said. “The accident was
definitely life-changing, but you can't sit around and mope. You need to pick
yourself up and find something to do.”
Fangman had his life all mapped out. After high school he said he half-heartedly
took business classes at Mankato State University in Minnesota with the
intention of going into business with his dad, who was a farm equipment and auto
dealer. He said it took about a year after the motorcycle accident that left him
a T4 paraplegic to pull his life back together.
He went to North Iowa
Area Community College for mechanical design, earned an associate of arts degree
and eventually got a drafting job at Kiefer Built in Kanawha.
Fangman went back to school, taking classes at night, and earned a teaching
degree. “I was qualified to teach K-9, but I never used my degree. I did
interview and made the final four at Corning, Iowa,” Fangman said.
However, the job hinged on also being the girls basketball coach. He grinned and
said, “I told them I was more a wrestler. So, I didn't get that job.”
For the past 11 years he has been a designer in product development at Winnebago
Industries in Forest City.
“Being a paraplegic was not an issue, not for me anyway,” Fangman said when
asked if being paralyzed from the chest down was a huge detriment to getting
jobs or being involved in activities. “Getting into places, (up stairs, through
doorways), was the biggest challenge.”
“But I'm pretty
satisfied. It (the accident) put me in a different direction - this is something
I never planned on,” Fangman said.
Instead of letting his disability control his life Fangman took control of his
own destiny. He has served as president of the Britt Jaycees, been a Grand
Knight in the Knights of Columbus, served as chairman on the Mechanical Design
Advisory Board at NIACC and sat on the West Hancock School Board for seven
years. “My teaching degree helped me out there. I could see where teachers were
coming from,” he said. “That was a lot of fun.”
He has also found time for entertainment and good friends. “I have several
friends in Lake Mills and have gone drag racing with them for the last 20
years,” Fangman said.
And he has been a member of the Hawkeye Wrestling Club for 34 years. “This was
the first time in 33 years I missed a wrestling meet at Iowa City. It really
killed me because I love going to college wrestling. I've always loved the
sport,” Fangman said.
He has had to miss a lot of things since September 2007.
He said stomach pains led him back to his doctors at the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minn. where a routine physical turned up a more serious problem - a
pressure sore.
“They put everything else aside,” Fangman said. “Being a paraplegic, a pressure
sore is very detrimental. It's the first time in 30 years I've had one.”
That discovery led to over four months of bed rest, hospitalization, isolation
wards and surgery. During the time the sore was healing, Fangman said he
developed bladder infection, which in turn led to his only kidney shutting down.
He was shuttled back and forth between St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester and
Hancock County Memorial Hospital in Britt. The internal infection caused the
healing pressure sore to become reinfected and to spread. Doctors finally told
him that surgery was the only option.
Two surgeries were scheduled for January 2008. The first would clear away the
infected tissue and rearrange muscle mass and the second, a skin flap, would
stretch the healthy tissue and stitch it together.
“I didn't
realize the extent. I didn't know what a flap was,” Fangman said. He was in
shock a few weeks later when curiosity led him to start feeling around and his
hand met with a mass of stitches. Doctors later told him he had over 100.
Fangman finally saw pictures a week ago. “My butt looks like Route 66,” he said
with a chuckle before getting back on a more serious note.
“To tell you the truth, I've never really had a bad day. But after finding out
abut this and finding out about the bed rest - that was a really a low period,”
Fangman said. “Lots of people have been affected by health issues, but I've been
blessed.
“Going to Hawkeye wrestling tournaments and drag racing, I'm blessed I could get
out. It's what you make of it.”
He said he is go grateful for the outpouring of support over the last several
months. “The nurses at the Britt hospital and Mayo - I couldn't ask for anything
better. For all the cards and prayers while I was in Rochester and the number of
people who took two hours to drive to Rochester - multiple times. It made the
time pass more quickly,” Fangman said.
“I like to be up and around. I never want this to happen again.”
One of the highlights of Fangman's hospital stay in Rochester came in the form
of a phone call from a very unexpected source.
“One night I was laying in bed and I got a call from someone claiming to be
Walker Force,” Fangman said with a grin. He explained that Force is the brother
to dragracer John Force, 13-time funny-car world champion. “He told me who he
was and I thought it was a friend pulling a trick on me. I started laughing and
he said, ‘You don't believe this is Walker do you.'”
Fangman said he played along until he started asking Force questions only he
would know the answers to. You can imagine the surprise and thrill of talking to
the brother of one of his racing idols. He learned later that his friend John B.
Johnson had written a letter to the Force Racing Team, asking them to please
give his buddy a call.
Fangman is finally back home, under strict doctor's orders, and is anxiously
waiting his return to work. “I'm anxious to get back, especially with the
economy the way it is,” Fangman said. “At Winnebago it's not a good time to be
off work with all the layoffs. We lost five in our group.” He feels fortunate
his employers have been so supportive.
The motorcycle accident changed his life and the past several months have taught
him to count his blessings. There is a lesson here for all of us.
For Fangman, attitude is everything. “I always told my mom that on my tombstone
I want it to say, ‘If you can't stand up - Stand out.'”
Friends schedule benefit to help Randy
A benefit will be held to help defray medical costs and support Randy Fangman,
who has been out of work fighting illness for six months.
The dinner and auction will be held at Izaak Walton at Rice Lake Sat., March 29.
The meal will be served from 5-7 p.m. The auction begins at 6:30 p.m.
If you have an item to donate to the auction, or if you are interested in
helping collect auction items, please contact Pam Divan at
pdivan@winnebagoind.com or Jane
Luppen at
jluppen@winnebagoind.com