ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512180089
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A18 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PHOENIX
SOURCE: MICHELLE BOORSTEIN ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE DISABLED MAN fell into a coma sitting in a wheelchair in his dorm, but no one found him for almost a week.
Ellis Mather left a small Alaska town and came to Arizona State University to study because the school's facilities for the disabled made it seem to be a welcoming place.
But when he fell into a coma, sitting in his wheelchair in the privacy of his dormitory room, nobody missed him. It was a week before others noticed a persistent odor and sent police to check on him.
The 21-year-old quadriplegic has been in a vegetative state for the past month.
Doctors believe Mather may have had the flu. With his lungs weakened by his paralysis, the illness affected the supply of oxygen to his brain and he slipped into a coma, said his neurologist, Dr. Jess Miller.
And the longer he spent without medical attention, the worse the damage was to his brain, doctors have told the young man's parents.
Miller has said he is not overly optimistic about Mather's chance of full recovery, although he says the young man's crucial brain stem was not damaged.
With 1,800 disabled students among its student body of 43,000, ASU prides itself on giving such students freedom in a supportive environment, said Tedde Scharf, associate director of disability resources at the school.
``We've fought so hard to get out of nursing homes to be able to be independent, so do we go back to an environment that's suffocating?'' asked Scharf, who's disabled. ``Even if we had something like room checks, Ellis is the kind of student who would have resisted it.''
Mather's parents, James and Elsie Mather, think guiltily of unanswered calls they made to their son during the week he was comatose in his room.
``We thought he was out and about, or in class,'' said his mother.
Mather had been quadriplegic since the age of 15, when he broke his neck in a trampoline accident, although he still had some use of his arms and hands, his mother said.
Despite his physical problems, Ellis lived the life of a normal college student, attending football games and parties and using his computer to e-mail friends and an older brother. Scharf said he was in the school's disability center almost daily.
The Mathers want people to learn to watch out for each other: ``I can't believe some circles can't be created to encourage people to come together,'' said Elsie Mather. ``It is happening everywhere, where people are becoming numbers. But there are chances for making connections, and that's what we must do.''
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP James and Elsie Mather sit with their son Friday atby CNBAmerican Transitional Hospital in Phoenix, Ariz., after the disabled
student was found comatose in his room.