Dean Poling
The Valdosta Daily Times
VALDOSTA —
A woman who often helped many in need is in need herself now.
A benefit is scheduled today for Shelby Rinkle, who worked at the Salvation Army until an April 2009 car wreck changed her life.
On the morning of April 24, 2009, Rinkle had taken a blood-pressure pill. She unscrewed the top of a water bottle while driving her Trailblazer, the family told The Times in a previous interview.
Less than 100 yards from her house, she had driven this path thousands of times since she and husband John had moved here 10 years ago. She was driving to her job as a bookkeeper with the Salvation Army.
While opening the bottle, the SUV hit a group of mailboxes. The collision caused the Trailblazer to flip.
The vehicle rolled five times and Shelby Rinkle rolled with it.
She had to be cut from the wreckage of the Trailblazer.
A helicopter life-flighted Shelby to Shands Hospital in Gainesville. Surgeons performed what had been estimated as an 18-hour surgery in four-and-a-half hours to return her spinal cord to its proper position.
She spent four weeks in intensive care. She coded twice. Shelby stayed at Shands from April 22 to May 22 before being transferred to Select Specialty, then helicoptered to the Shepherd Center for spinal-cord injury rehabilitation.
She crushed her fifth and sixth vertebrae. Shelby’s neck is filled with so many titanium rods, plates and pins that John says an X-ray of his wife’s neck looks like an erector set.
Shelby’s lost the strength in her hands. She has only 20 percent mobility in moving her head from side to side. Shelby Rinkle is paralyzed from the chest down.
Brain trauma made it impossible for Shelby to keep her bookkeeping job, so the family’s monthly income has been drastically reduced.
Insurance covered her surgery and medical treatment, but it doesn’t cover the medical supplies and necessary renovations.
In November, John listed costs: $23,000 for Shelby’s wheelchair; $1,500 for a hoyer lift to move her from the bed to the chair; $1,800 for a special bed; $5,000 for a concrete pad outside the Rinkles’ house because the wheelchair cannot run on grass or dirt without being exposed to damage; $250 for a case of 200 pads for the bed; $2,000 for a wheelchair ramp, etc.
John has worked two jobs trying to make ends meet.
Today’s “Benefit for Shelby’s Better Tomorrow” hopes to help the Rinkles financially.
The Drexel Park benefit features area bands The Notion, Six String Sammy and Beales Toupee, food includes Sonny’s Bar-B-Q, Bemiss BBQ, Texas Roadhouse, Georgia Dogs, more, games, kids activities, raffles, etc.
The Outback Riders host a dice run. South Georgia Classic Car Club hosts a Cruse In.
As a Salvation Army employee, Rinkle worked closely with the Outback Riders during the group’s annual Christmas Toy Run to ensure youngsters have toys at Christmas through the Empty Stocking Fund.
Benefit sponsors include Rock ’N Rodeo, Yarbrough Furniture, Signarama, Milo’s Sanitation, Steve’s Chem Dry, Advance Portable Restrooms.
