Woman Secures Paralyzed Husband to Bed, Gives Him Life Jacket as Hurricane Ian Approached
While many Florida residents were taking cover from Hurricane Ian, Renee Smith was doing everything in her power to protect her husband, Christopher, who is paralyzed from the chest down due to prostate cancer spreading to his spine.
The Fort Myers woman secured him to his hospital bed using duct tape, blankets, tarpaulin, pillows and zip ties, according to NBC News.
“I don’t want him to die,” Smith said.
Smith recalled her terrifying ordeal with Ken Sanders of NBC News.
“I took some blankets and I put some holes in them with scissors and I zip-tied them to the hospital bed and then I took a big tarpaulin that had grommets and I zip-tied that over it,” she said.
“Then I put pillows and plastic bags and I duct-taped them to the top of the sideboard and I put pillows between the sideboard and the window because I didn’t want him to get cut up to death if the window blew in,” she continued.
“Then I put a life jacket on him so that if the water came in he wouldn’t drown, he would float.”
As the hurricane approached, Smith made a “fort of pillows and blankets” for herself underneath the kitchen table to shield herself.
“You could hear the chimney getting ripped off the roof,” she said. “I was afraid it was going to come in through the roof and crush me even though I was under the table.”
Though she did everything she could for her husband, Smith reported to NBC News that she felt like a “coward” because she hid under the table instead of comforting her husband.
Quite the contrary, Smith’s actions led to her husband’s life being saved.
Smith and her husband are among millions of Florida residents who were impacted by Hurricane Ian.
Our thoughts and prayers are with those who were impacted by the storm.
