Wheelchair/Airport security

Ask the US Transportation Safety Administration at

http://www.tsa.gov/

Excellent! Thanks, I'll do it... haha I'll do it in my main character's name. This should be fun...

I don't know how the new security arrangements affect wheelchair users, but they can be a complete nightmare for people who wear artificial limbs:

"Airport forces girl to remove fake limb":
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32203

If it's not too much trouble could you perhaps post what you find out in this forum?
One of my characters also uses a wheelchair and might have to travel soon.

Thanks!

No problem-
According to the first link posted,
~if you can't stand up and walk through the metal detectors, you can be screened another way, probably by 'pat down'.
~yes, they will have to touch any equipment you use
~no, you cannot be forced to get out of your wheelchair if you can't stand. So Ned is alright in that respect- lucky for him, he would have been so embarassed... but i digress.
~if you like, you have the right to be screened in a separate room
~you can also request a 'disposable paper drape' for privacy, and the exam must be done by a security officer of the same sex, with another of the same present

What i've gotten so far. I was rather hoping for the personal side, what it would be like for my character as a person, but I can imagine that.
What sort of traveling will your character do?

Thanks so much, that information does help!

No doubt some wheelchair users have posted about different aspects of their lives somewhere in the forums, but without the search facility I have no idea how to find them.

How Ned would react to the security searches would depend on different factors... his personality, how he has adjusted to his disability, etc.

I'm still not sure exactly what sort of travelling Danielle will do; she is sort of dictating things at present. I hadn't meant to spend a chapter discussing rehab, but she insists and is getting into some crazy situations there that are actually making the chapter interesting, and a lot of fun to write!

It seems likely that she'll travel extensively on business, with some international leisure travel thrown in for good measure.

Don't you just love it when the characters take over and write the story for you?

I tried to find something, but didn't have any luck. I'd page through everything, but that's such a pain... I'm going to have to give it a try. Do you maybe want to divvy up the pages and post anything we find back here? We could try and cut the work in half that way, since we're looking for the same infomation.

I adore it when my characters take over. They did something weird to me the other day, and my main character and I discovered at about the same time that only she and Ned's parents use the nickname. His friends from high school call him Edward.

Not quite on topic, but this will help me, I think... http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/1066778
and this- http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/1068952
and I'll have at least one more. I hit some relevant information about page 45.
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/1067774
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/1058847

Do you, or does anyone else, know much about the treatment of spinal cord injury? My MC meets the character in question after his family moves to her tiny little town- he's recently been in a car accident and broke both legs and his back and now is paralyzed. When she first meets him, what kind of condition will he be in?

Thanks for the links! The last one was to the query I posted months ago about SCI and those were the only responses I received.

I did find some information about treating spinal cord injuries on other sites, but unfortunately don't have any of the links available right now. I'll look for them over the weekend.

Divvying up the pages is a good idea... I hope you're not in too much of a rush, though. I'm going to be offline till Monday night, so won't be able to do anything before then.

Sorry I can't be of more help now... in the meantime, happy writing, and have a good weekend.

The first NaNo I participated in just a few years ago had a wheelchair-bound protagonist. Here are a couple of sources I relied heavily on when I was researching the story:

http://www.spinalcord.org/forum/

http://www.apparelyzed.com/

In addition, I was a caregiver for my husband who was in a wheelchair for the last 5 years of his life. While he was not paralized and did have some mobility, many of the things he endured getting around in a wheelchair are common to all persons who must live their daily lives in one. If I can be of help, just ask.

Night Owl- I got as far as page 55 and thats what I found. If you want to, can you start on the last page and work forward and we'll meet somewhere in the middle? I didn't even notice that one of those was yours :P

Blue Bead- thanks so much for the offer! I'll take you up on it. To start with, I guess back to the original. Did you travel with your husband during that time? What was it like for you? As it's not my protagonist who's in the wheelchair, it's her friend, I wonder how it might be for her, if, indeed, it is any different. They're going by plane, for the record.

Yes, we did make a couple of trips by air and it was a huge hassel, to say the least, LOL. Although I will say that the officials of the particular airlines we used were quite helpful and really went out of their way to accomdate my hubby and his ponderous manual wheelchair. However it still remained that airplanes were never meant to accomodate wheelchairs of any size, unless it's a medical transport plane. Enough room to accomodate his legs was always an issue (even though he was not a tall person), and we always made sure he would be sitting in an aisle seat. This was, especially, vital the time we booked tickets in coach class. This afforded him more room to move around on the rather confining seat when his hip bones began to ache from sitting for the long flights, and to prevent the development of blood clots in his legs due to lack of regular movement. The only other time we flew we opted for first class seating because it had more room and was a shorter distance to the postage stamp-sized bathroom. That was a whole 'nother issue...getting into it and out of it when one has extremely limited mobility with ones legs, and my hubby did have the ability to walk for very short distances with the aid of a quad cane. His mobility problems were two-fold. On the one hand his hip joints were nearly deteriorated and, on the other hand, he had suffered the collapse of the last vertebral disc at S5 on the spinal column as the result of a fall. This due to other factors was inoperable.

As with persons without paralysis problems, sitting for long periods on a plane can play havoc with the circulation in one's legs, so it's of utmost importance for the paralyzed person to be able to shift weight and move around somewhat in the airplane seat. Someone with paralysis usually does not have the ability to sense (by feeling) that their legs have "fallen asleep" which signals circulation restriction, so moving the legs around manually every so often is quite important. Moving around also helps to prevent pressure sores on the buttocks and backs of the thighs; this is another common problem for someone confined to a wheelchair, and that must be monitored and remedied constantly. It's a huge problem because the paraplegic will not be able to feel what the skin on those parts of the body have become sore (due to skin breakdown) from sitting too long, repeatedly, in one postion.

What degree of paralysis does your character have? Are the legs completely paralyzed or is there partial movement? Is this a recent injury or has the character been dealing with it for some time? These things will affect how he/she moves and to what degree he/she can move. Someone with a spinal injury between the T1 and L1 vertebrae (from at the waist to just slightly below) will have full use of both arms, shoulders, fingers and most muscles above the level of the spinal injury. The upper body strength and balance can vary depending upon the location of the injury. The lower it is on the spine, the more control he/she will have over the upper body and the ability to balance.

From the mental standpoint, the person's thinking can go in two different directions and that depends on how you have crafted the character. It could be a situation in which the character is embarassed that others must assist or that he/she must depend on other of assistance, or it could be that he/she has developed a defiant attitude to protect themselves psychologically. From a reality stand point, my hubby wanted to do as much of his care, on his own, as he could. This also extended to getting his body moved around on his own. He mobilized himself with a manual wheelchair, primarily, because he didn't want to admit he was handicapped--and didn't want other people to see him as being handicapped. What little ability he had to walk, he protected at all costs. He had little patience for people who couldn't give his situation the benefit of the doubt or who where rude to him or me, but at the same time it depressed him that other people made our air travel so difficult. The majority of other travelers in the airports were understanding of his situation but the travel experience was ruined by those few who who were extremely irked that they were forced to put up with some guy in a wheelchair...and a manual one, at that. Traveling by plane was not fun for him at all anymore, and it used to be something he really enjoyed, having been a small plane pilot only a few years earlier; he flew Cessnas and gliders.

We only did the plane trips twice because he got so frustrated with sitting in one spot for a long time and the physical hassel he put up with getting into and out of the plane, not to mention the rudeness of the other passengers when he was in his wheelchair in front of them. Also factored in, was how tired all the effort he had to put out made him. It just got to be too much. On more than one occasion his wheelchair was shoved or deliberately bumped by another passenger on the ramp while boarding the plane...even though I was providing movement by pushing the wheelchair and was moving along at a fairly fast clip. We, also, had to put up with nasty, snide remarks from, not only other passengers, but some of the airport staff. This all made my hubby's blood boil, lol. He swore off going anywhere by plane, and we traveled wherever we could by car or boat.

From my standpoint, seeing other passengers treating my hubby badly--because there were in a hurry to get wherever they were going, among other reasons--royaly ticked me off and, usually, I did not keep silent about it, LOL. Then, I would joke around with him by telling him that we should just run up behind them and mow them down with the wheelchair and he could give them an extra whack or pinch them as they fell, LOL. This never failed to get an evil laugh out of him, LOL. Of course we never followed through on it but it did make him feel better about the situation.

That was incredibly helpful, thanks so much!
As far as my character is concerned, I knew at one point exactly what part of his back he hurt, but I've forgotten. What I do know, is that he's totally paralyzed below about the waist but he can use his hands and arms fine. i suppose balance is okay too, though I've never thought much about it. It's a recent thing- he and some friends (oh dear, i'm talking about them as though they're real. what on earth...) went to a party, had a little too much to drink and he hit a jersey wall. His corner of the car (he was driving) hit straight on and he got the worst of it. It occurs not long before the story begins (the prologue type section quotes a newspaper article about it, which is how the reader first hears about him) so when he meets the main character he's angry at not being more independant but he's still too new to the situation and, sometimes, in too much pain to do everything he wants to for himself.
How rapidly would he gain independance, do you think? Are there things that he's going to have to accept that he'll never do for himself? Ah, and also- I understand that the pressure change on airplanes can hurt if you've broken a bone. Is that correct? Would he have a problem with it?
I never imagined people being rude in the airport... seems like you'd have to be pretty cold hearted to get upset at somebody who couldn't just walk onto the plane.

My list of resources- Updated thursday, 6:00

In technical terms, he's a paraplegic. His balance, since it's a recent injury, would be affected; it would be seriously affected or somewhat less so. Ignoring this fact would make your story less believable to readers, especially those who have knowledge about paraplegic persons. How recent is his injury...3 to 4 weeks or several months? The longer the time span is from the day the accident occured is important as it would allow his back muscles to stabilize and regain some strength. It is doubtful that a person with a very recent spinal chord injury could sit erect for long periods of time (at least enough to endure a plane flight) because the musculature of his back (which is dependant stimulation from the nerves coming from the spinal chord) would not be strong enough to support him in an upright position much sooner than 4 weeks, and that's with intensive rehabilitation therapy. The vast majority of SCI (common abreviation for spinal chord injuy) people can't do that as fast as your character would need to for the story as it's set up, now.

LOLOLOL That is perfectly normal. It's a signal that you're getting in touch with your characters.

This is a bit off topic but I'm curious, lol. If the paraplegic character isn't your protagonist why does he appear in the prologue? Is what happens in that prologue important to the protagonist? Usually, if a supporting character appears in a prologue he's of major importance to the protagonist. Is that the situation in your story?

Back on topic....It would be a good idea to do some research on what kinds of pain the paraplegic character would have as it will increase the troubles the wheelchair character can be for the protagonist. This could provide a lot more grief to the protagonist and, thereby, show a lot more about her to the readers. Also it would give you new ideas as to how to create obstacles in the plot, as well as the characters to overcome.

Gaining his independance would depend, in part, on how much of a fighter he is and that depends on his personality. Does he give up easily? Does he accept challenges easily? Is he the self-piting type? From a medical standpoint, he could be out of an in-hospital rehabilitation program in 4 to 8 weeks, if he's lucky. But then, he'd have to continue his rehabilitation program at home by traveling to a out-patient facility on a daily basis for several months more. This is the norm for a lot of SCI people. A lot of this depends on how extensive his injuries were from the accident, including the non-spinal injuries. Did he have a collapsed lung? Did he need to be on a ventilator? Did he have other broken bones? Head injuries, etc.? BTW, if this character is to be very important to your protagonist in the story, it's important to figure out all these things before you get into the writing phase of the novel. It's not fun having to stop mid-story to do additional ressearch so that you can get the character to the point he/she needs to be so you can continue writing. This is from someone who has been in that predicament more than she wants to admit, LOL. If at all possible get these detail working out now, before youj start writing.

What do you mean by independance? From my perspective that would include personal activites he could handle on his own without the assistance of a personal aide---bathing himself, setting out his clothes, getting dressed, getting into or out of bed by himself (probably with the aid of bed straps and handholds or, perhaps, a hydraulic lifting device or ceiling mounted transport track), preparing and serving his food, doing transfers, etc, as well as back and forth, from wheelchair to bed or vehicle or wherever he needs to be. If he's in a manual wheelchair he's probably the kind of guy who want to takes charge of his life, deal with it on his own terms, as most of the manual chair people are of that mind set. To operate that chair he'll need to have gone through enough physical therapy to build up his shoulder, upper and lower arm, wrist and hand muscles to endure the extensive torque a manual chair puts his arms and shoulders through. The standard manual chairs are a real workout, lol, because the wheels aren't set on the frame at an angle the way an ergonomic manual chair is designed. People using them have much better physical development of their upper body than do those who use powered chairs.

It would be a good idea to do some research to help you decide if you want the character in a standard manual chair or one with the wheels set at an angle. The standards one are designed to allow an assistant to propel the chair, while the latter type has no handles on the back to allow someone else to provide the power. Mostly you see the angled wheels on chairs for people who need to move between long distances or who compete in wheelchair sports.

As to how quickly he would gain sufficient independance to permit him to take care of himself that depends a lot on the psychological make up of the character. If he's a go-getter, he'll fare better and faster than if he were a wimp or chronically depressed. By the time 6 months has passed since his injury his SCI should be pretty much stabilized--meaning that the initial damage to the spinal chord has stopped and healing has begun. He may or may not have begun to get back some ability to move his limbs below the site of his injury; there wouldn't be any sense of feeling yet...if it ever comes back at all. There has been considerable research and reports from SCI people that the ability to move much better begins to return about the 2 year mark from the date of their injury. Some of these folks gain back a surprising amount of movement and some can actually bear weight and walk on their legs again.

To address your idea that this character may never be able to move as he did pre-injury, it isn't as bleak an outlook as what most people believe. Many of these SCI people gain back a lot of their abilities to move the damaged parts of their bodies. However it will never quite be to the degree that non-damaged people have. It will always be somewhat different. It would be reasonable for this character to think that he might never regain his ability to walk again or move his damaged limbs. How he deals with it depends on how you need him to behave in the story.

I can't really address your question about the effect of airplane travel on broken bones but I do know that persons who have had surgery are warned by their surgeons not to travel by air within a week after that surgery (they prefer patients not to travel until after the two week mark); the changing pressures within the airplane cabin during take-offs and landings can dislodge stitches. If the character is traveling by air sooner than 4 weeks and is sitting upright, he'd have major problems both with levels of pain and the possibility of further damaging his spinal chord. Many readers wouldn't believe that part of the story, which can turn them against your story in the long run. It's important not to give the readers the idea that the writer didn't know what he/she was doing when the story was writtern, LOL.

If you decide on a standard manaul wheelchair, then you'll need to do some additional research about the skills someone else would need to have to push the wheelchair across a variety of surfaces--carpeted floor, threshholds in doorways, short flights of stairs, street curbs where there is no handicapped accessible access, and going into and getting out of buildings which do not have wheelchair access. That's usually a nightmare of considerable magnitude. I've lots of experience with those issues, LOL.

I’ve actually opened a word document to answer your questions as I go along. :)
To begin, I think I’ve probably lept before looking. I’ve been working on this story on an off for probably a year- it’s not a concerted effort to write a novel, more like a set of characters who won’t leave me alone. I love that! I’d better give you their names so I can quit describing them.
My narrator, the girl who i call my protagonist, is named Aaron. Why not Erin? I really don’t know. I mean, there’s a reason in the story but mostly this just seemed like a good idea when I started writing. She lives on a small island off the coast of Maine- there used to be other families there but for a while now it’s just been her family. Until one day they get new neighbors- the son, Ned, has been in this car accident and is paraplegic, a term she doesn’t even think of until her aspiring-medical-student brother uses it. Because he’s the only other teenager around, they end up being friends rather against his will. He’s angry that his parents decided to move after the accident, and he’s embarassed that he’s not ‘normal’ and when they meet he’s sort of surly and defensive.
The first time they meet, her parents have invited his family over for brunch and he has to be carried up their front steps with both families standing around, which embarasses the heck out of him. They actually get to know each other better when Aaron’s mom basically volunteers her to watch Ned so his parents can leave the house for an evening- his mother is scared to leave him home alone.
So I guess the short answer about the prologue is, he is the protagonist’s first really close friend. The prologue is excerpts from Aaron’s family geneology and a bit of a newspaper clipping about Ned’s accident so the reader gets to know who’s about to show up.

So, having read your whole amazing response (!) I have a lot of research to do! I think I will write and research and then edit the heck out of the thing. I usually write short stories, but this one is just sticking with me. I wrote the first draft several years ago, but it got destroyed in a computer crash. I like this iteration better, but it’s still an immature piece of work. „The first draft of anything is crap.” Or words to that effect. But I like it enough to work on it, so this is all wonderful- I look forward to doing the research!

The reason I’m asking about plane travel is, Ned and Aaron are flying south to visit the town he moved away from and see his friends- another friend who was in the car during the accident is having surgery and Ned wants to be with him for that. Aaron’s going because she’s never been away from home and I thought it would be interesting having seen him in her element, to see her in his. If that makes sense.

Night Owl, are you back? I've gotten to page 100 on the list of topics and I've just been editing links into a previous post so as not to spam my own thread.

Sort of, but not really... my week has gone completely beserk work wise and I barely have time to breathe! It's nuts. I was hoping things would be quiet...

Some really interesting stuff has been posted here so far - thanks! And thanks for the list of resources.

An online acquaintance promised to forward my list of questions to a paralysed friend and with any luck some answers from a personal perspective will come soon. But I'm not holding my breath, mainly because this is coming third or fourth hand and I have no way to assess how accurate any info is likely to be.

Thanks for starting this thread, and for keeping it alive!

I guess the condition he'll be in depends on all sorts of factors, as Blue Bead pointed out. But about the treatment... at work today there were a couple of doctors who have worked with SCI patients and I managed to chat to one of them.

He didn't give too much detail, but said the first thing they would do is try to stabilise the spinal column, usually with screws and bolts. He said that many years ago they would insert metal rods into the spine, but they no longer did that because it limited mobility and the aim was to allow the spine to move as naturally as possible.

He said the person would be put in a back brace to keep the back competely immobile, and that they would be flat on their back in bed for about three to four weeks. Even if they did not need help breathing they would probably be on oxygen, to try and get as much oxygen as possible into the blood to aid healing, and to relieve any strain on the body.

Physical therapists would come in twice a day to move them into different positions to prevent pressure sores and, if the back was stable enough, they would also move the paralysed limbs to preserve movement and prevent the joints freezing into unnatural positions.

Hope that helps.

I started at page 203, and have reached page 180... nothing useful there, unless it is buried somewhere in the actual messages. I've only opened threads that look as though they're related because my Internet connection is completely flaky tonight.

Signing off now... have an obscenely early start in the morning.

I'm really glad you're happy I'm keeping the thread around! I was afraid of bumping it if it would just be in the way, but as you're reading it I'll not be shy.
Thanks for your infomation, too- I'm making a lot of changes with my story, the biggest being that I'm going to change the whole thing *uck* into third person so I can get into other character's heads and because I think it'll make things go more smoothly. So then the next thing I need to decide is how to put in some of the information I've gotten off this thread. I wasn't planning on writing about the time directly after the accident, because I always seem to get stuck when i write scenes like that, but I dunno.
My prologue (-type thingie) is back and forth from what she's doing to what he's doing on the night of the accident and it ends when he realized how badly he's hurt himself.
Then the story starts right before he moves to the island where she lives...
I hope I'm not getting tedious going off topic like that. Maybe I'm just using the first available sounding board. :)

No, don't be shy!!! And with any luck if this thread stays on the first page someone else with helpful and useful info will notice it and come to our aid .

I have made absolutely no progress in searching the forum, or following up on various leads for info; it's been crazy busy and my life has been getting in the way. I'm going offline again for most of the weekend (logging off in a few minutes and should be back sometime Sunday night).

No, you're not getting tedious at all... and it is good to use other wrimos as sounding boards.

I had the injury scene completed... a whole chapter, with scenes, giving the character's POV, onlookers, medics etc, and then had to scrap the whole thing because the story took off in a completely different direction and that chapter did not work at all with the new direction. And the new twists make the story a lot stronger, so the chapter had to go.

That is the nature of the beast... it keeps changing.

Hang in there, I'm sure you'll work it all out.

Happy writing and enjoy the weekend.

Hi there,

I haven't had the patience to page through the forums looking for information, so can't add anything from that side of things.

But I did find a few articles that might be of use:
http://www.disaboom.com/Living/travel/secrets-of-wheelchair-airline-trav...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbouch/F2322273?thread=3364050

http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/disabilitiesblog/index.cfm?blogid...

All of these contain comments from disabled people who have travelled and includes their experiences. It's worth reading the whole BBC Ouch! thread because there are some very entertaining comments there.

A common theme through all of these is that if you travel by plane your wheelchair is probably going to be broken or damaged at some stage by the airline, and the airline will try to avoid admitting any responsibility.

Hope this helps.

Those are great... I'm in the process of reading them. I'm going to have some fun writing that in... as soon as I decide some of the little details like what point of view am I writing in now? And who's my main character? Lol

I have nothing to post that will probably help you, but I wanted to say thank you for making this thread. I also have a character that's wheelchair bound (although... he's got some mobility in his legs, so I'm not sure he counts as parapalegic), so some of the information here will be helpful for me as well.

I have a few web sources for both of you pertaining to travel issues and general information.

http://www.sci-info-pages.com/
http://www.makoa.org/index.htm
http://www.access-able.com/dBase/linkResults.cfm?LinkTypeID=2&LinkType=D...
http://www.flying-with-disability.org/
http://www.scootaround.com/tips/travelingbyair.htm
http://www.geocities.com/mocraig2000/wheelchair_travel/home.htm

Blue Bead

Thanks, Blue Bead! Those links were really helpful

I got e-mail yesterday from a friend who says he asked a disabled colleague about hassles when travelling. Apparently there are differences between domestic and international travel, with stricter security and more restrictions when travelling internationally.

He says his colleague was not allowed to take the wheels of her chair into the cabin on an international flight and they had to be checked into the hold with the frame of the chair. He said she told him that her chair has a rigid frame and does not collpase into a small enough package to fit into any of the closets on the plane. He also said she is fighting with the airline to replace her chair, because it came off the plane in pieces, and that one of the wheels was buckled.

I can just see how my character would react if that happened to her... that will be a fun scene to write!

I hadn't considered what it would take to move his wheelchair by air... could be an interesting scene. :) (Scene would be the right word for it, too.)

Just commenting and giving the thread a bump.

Found this on MSN today.
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/neurological-cognitive-health/articl...

sorry about the double post.
Oh yeah, and while I've got you all here, a question- assuming my character is concious after the accident, would he immediately notice that he had no feeling below the waist? Would he be in pain anyway and would he be able to tell that he had broken a leg?

The MSN page is a huge help for my story as well. Thanks for tracking it down and posting it.

Any pain the character would have will depend, in part, on what other injuries he sustained in the accident. I would think he'd have a considerable amount of pain from other forms of injury if he were concious, especially it there was head trauma. As to whether he would immediately notice that he had no feeling below his waist, I can only tell you by example of what I observed as a witness to a very serious car accident which happened, literally, in my side yard. The injured guy was about 24 years only, traveling alone, late at night, at a high rate of speed in his sport pickup truck. He missed the stop sign at the road which ends in from of my residence, hit the bank in front of my house, and went airborne through my trees, bounced twice along my yard, and his truck ended up standing on its nose 250 feet from where it left the road, up against a substantial maple tree in my yard. He was not wearing a seat belt and (as I learned later) had a blood alcohol content way past the legal limit. After the paramedics arrived and cut him out of what remained of the truck cab one of them shouted for a backboard to stabilize him and said the guy couldn't feel anything below his shoulders. When they carried him out of my yard ,stabilized on the backboard to the waiting helicopter which was waiting in a field across from my house, there was no apparent pain registered on his face. Whether that was due to shock having set it, I don't know. The guy was concious though. His family came by the next morning to see what was left of his truck and his brother-in-law told me the guy had no feeling from the collarbone down; his spinal cord was severed at that point.

So...depending on where your character's injury is on his spine, it is doubtful he would be able to determine that his leg was broken. Once the spinal cord is damaged the passage way for the brain to send signals back and forth between the extremities and the brain is short circuited (in situations where the cord is damaged but not severed). When the cord is severed there is no transmission of signals between the brain and anything below the point of injury. Have you determined whether your character's spinal cord is only damaged rather then severed? It makes a difference as to what sensations he will be able to feel.

HI there!

Thanks for the MSN link, it is very useful!

You asked:

A few months ago a young woman here was shot in the back by burglars. During an interview afterwards she said that she was conscious the whole time and that she knew immediately that she'd been badly hurt because she couldn't feel her lower body at all. Her father (who was shot in the leg during the incident) said that when he managed to crawl to his daughter's room, her first words were "Dad, I can't feel my legs". (She has been making incredible progress and a few weeks ago there was a picture of her in the 'paper standing, with crutches and braces). So your character would probably notice that he had no feeling below the waist.

Regarding pain... he probably wouldn't know that he had a broken leg, but he'd be in a lot of pain at the site of the injury. And later, once his condition has stabilised and the level of paralysis is determined, he's likely to experience varying degrees of chronic pain. This page has some very useful information about pain and spinal cord injuries:
http://health.yahoo.com/back-resources/pain-in-a-spinal-cord-injury/heal...

And this page has some very useful general information and links about SCI:
http://www.spinalinjury.net/

Thanks again for posting this thread and for keeping it alive!