This is the councilman who literally "threw the book " at the Sheriff' I wonder if charges are still pending??
Philadelphia — While most people are rushing around shopping, decorating and preparing for the Christmas season, Vance Phillips is struggling to learn how to walk and get out of the hospital to spend the holiday with his family.
Phillips says he might spend some time in a wheelchair, but it won’t be a lifelong situation. “My rehabilitation is about using a wheelchair, but I’m working toward walking someday,” he said from his bed at Jefferson Health System’s Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in downtown Philadelphia.
Phillips, a Laurel-area farmer who represents Sussex County Council District 5, was seriously injured in a crash Oct. 30 during his solo flight in a hang-glider type aircraft at an airfield near Lynchburg, Va.
His goal is get home, spend Christmas with his family and take up his rehabilitation at a facility in the area. For now, he faces three one-hour therapy sessions every day. He’s been at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital since Nov. 11.
The events the day of the crash are still cloudy for Phillips. It was nearing dusk, and he remembers being excited about his solo flight; he also remembers he was having problems within a few minutes. Things went horribly wrong as he struggled to gain control of the plane, which was not the one he trained on.
“My goal was to get back to the runway. I did, but I hit it very hard; thank God the plane was rigid and took a lot of the shock out of the landing,” he said.
The hard landing caused a compression injury to his spine, but it did not sever the spinal column. Phillips was rushed to University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Va., where surgeons worked to repair the damage. He recuperated there for almost two weeks. “That was a lonely time,” Phillips said. Read more
Vance Phillips learns patience on road to recovery - Ron MacArthur - CapeGazette.com - Covering Delaware's Cape Region - Inland Bays, Atlantic Ocean, Rehoboth Beach, Lewes, Milton, Dewey Beach, USA