A 21-year-old Santa Barbara man continues recovering after suffering a serious spinal injury when he fell off a third-story balcony during a house party in Montecito last year.
Wyatt Dennett, a Class of 2016 Santa Barbara High School alumni, was placed in intensive care at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital after an accident left him paralyzed from the chest down on Oct. 26, 2018.
Dennett broke six vertebrae in his neck and woke up in the hospital unable to speak. He needed a ventilator machine to breathe.
He is currently stable, but doctors aren’t positive how much mobility he’ll get back. Dennett now has regained some use of his right arm, and he can feed himself.
“I’m just a normal 21-year-old dude going through it, who can’t move his limbs very well — yet,” Dennett said during a fundraising gathering Thursday at the Impact Hub in downtown Santa Barbara. “Be grateful every day for what you have, what you can do, and what you were blessed with because you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.”
He receives 24-hour care, and only a portion is covered by insurance.
Immediately after the accident, he spent a few months in the hospital’s care. He was in and out of consciousness.
“I had to communicate to my family through my eyes in the beginning,” Dennett said.
The pain was immense, and he described attempting to channel the feeling by focusing on the red light on a smoke detector inside his room.
When he went to the rehabilitation facility, he experienced more pain and intense headaches when the doctors drained his spinal fluid.
“In my new room, there wasn’t a smoke detector with a red dot,” he said. “I experienced a lot of pain. I’d say that was the most difficult part.”
Dennett recalled the frustration he felt by not being able to scratch his own face while in the hospital. He was unable to move at the time.
“I couldn’t itch it by myself,” he said. “Over the course of this journey, through this accident, I learned to be more patient.
“With increased patience comes decreased anger and frustration,” he continued. “That’s what I have learned.”
Friends and community members have rallied to help Dennett and assist with his medical expenses.
His future was moving into an assisted-living facility for the elderly after medical doctors said he could transition to long-term care.
That’s when Santa Barbara residents Eileen and Tom Ochsner opened their home to Dennett, and the couple invited him to move in.
The Ochsners have known Dennett since he and their middle son were kids.
“When we first heard about his accident, we knew right away that we wanted to take Wyatt in,” Eileen said. “We have always had a soft spot for him, and he’s a special boy. We felt blessed that we had a house that was accessible.”
Both Dennett and Eileen spoke to a packed crowd at a fundraising event this week at Impact Hub Santa Barbara.
The standing-room-only event drew more than 50 supporters.
Dennett spoke of overcoming pain, feeling gratitude, and his perspectives on the community and his life.
“The capability of humans is greater than anyone can imagine,” Dennett told the crowd. “Love you guys.”
He was met with thunderous applause after his remarks.
Money donated at Thursday’s event will be used to cover Dennett’s medical expenses and personal care.
Carter Soto set up a GoFundMe campaign that, as of Friday, had raised more than $39,000 toward its $45,000 goal.
Click here to make an online donation.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
