Brantly Poling, left, of Vienna sits in a replacement wheelchair Tuesday morning after one was built for him by Ken Bussart of Glouster, Ohio, right.
VIENNA, W.Va. — For most 3-year-olds, wheels are an adventure. They ride, they roll, wheels are the way from here to there.
Brantly Poling is not the typical 3-year-old, however.
Wheels are his transportion everywhere. Brantly, 3, was born with spina bifida and his wheels, and wheelchair, are his life.
“His wheelchair gets him around just about 96 percent of the day,” said his mother, Brooke, Tuesday. Brantly is paralyzed from the waist down due to the spina bifida.
Brantly had his wheels taken between 6 a.m. and noon Sunday from outside his Vienna home. Somebody stole his $5,000 custom-made wheelchair and it hasn’t been seen since.
“The chair was custom designed to grow with him for the next five years,” Poling said from Columbus Tuesday evening.
Brooke said Brantly will be confined to a wheelchair the rest of his life unless technology provides other answers.
At noon today, Brantly begins a day of tests at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which will involve numerous X-rays, MRIs and doctors appointments. Brantly has endured 20 surgeries in his short life, according to Brooke.
Tuesday morning, he was presented with a temporary replacement wheelchair from Ken Bussart of Glouster, Ohio, during a meeting between the two in Marietta.
Bussart is a nationally known wheelchair maker and is confined to a chair himself.
“The first thing he wanted to do when he got in that chair Tuesday was race me across the parking lot,” Bussart, a 30-year employee of the United Parcel Service in Marietta, said. “The replacement chair is made of a lightweight aluminum and I had most of the parts to assemble one. It only took four or five hours which is a relatively short time for a chair.
“I’ll tell you what about Mr. Brantly,” Bussart said. “I’m in a chair so I understand. He will go far in life by not letting health issues get him down. Him wanting to race tells me he has the attitude to not let this beat him.”
Brooke said the missing wheelchair was placed against their Vienna home when she left for work at 6 a.m. Sunday.
“My husband, Rocky, noticed it was missing around noon but he thought I had it,” she said. “I got home around 8 p.m. without it and then we knew it was missing. Then we called Vienna police to report it.”
Brooke said no leads had been reported to her about the missing wheelchair, which has “a camo(uflage) frame, black wheels and orange casters,” she said. “He calls it ‘Buckle.’ I guess because when we put him in the chair we told him we had to ‘buckle him in.’ So I guess it stuck as Buckle.”
Brantly asks many questions concerning the whereabouts of “Buckle” and why is it gone.
Brooke said, however, “he already knows what is a big problem and what is a small problem. He’s always happy and always thankful. He is an incredible little man. He has taught me so much about life in such a short little time.”
To read more from the Parkersburg News and Sentinel, subscribe here.
