Meet Chuck Russell

Charles "Chuck" Russell is a Nashville native and lifelong resident of middle Tennessee. He was born in 1980, the youngest of five siblings. Chuck credits his four older sisters with helping him maintain both discipline and happiness throughout his youth.

Chuck's late mother was a graduate of David Lipscomb University, and served as a Physician's Assistant at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville. Her connection to the school afforded Chuck the opportunity to become a ball boy for the Commodores football team for three seasons during his teen years. Chuck's love for Vandy athletics persists to this day.

On the afternoon of May 30, 1998, just hours after graduating from high school, Chuck was involved in a motorcycle accident. He collided with an automobile, lost his helmet, and suffered a traumatic brain injury. A LifeFlight helicopter carried Chuck back again to Vanderbilt. The institution that had provided so much in the way of livelihood and joyful experience for Chuck's family was next charged with saving his life.

After an in-flight resuscitation, two weeks in a coma, and a string of complications, Chuck survived the accident. The lasting effect however, is the partial paralysis of his right side. While mobile, Chuck has difficulty with his gait and with the dexterity in his right forearm and hand.

Undeterred and inspired by his mother's-- a Polio survivor-- spirituality and perseverance, Chuck learned to become left-handed and entered Middle Tennessee State University in 2000. He graduated with a degree in Liberal Studies with concentrations in Psychology and Sociology.

His own experiences-- he refuses to use the word "ordeal"-- have led Chuck to pursue a career assisting others. He serves as a job coach and residential counselor for RHA Health Services in Nashville. His responsibilities include assisting clients with mental or physical disabilities as they support themselves in mainstream jobs. Chuck's long-term career goal is to serve as a physical therapist or social worker, assisting others who share experiences similar to his own.

With a vested personal and professional interest in advancing the care of patients with traumatic brain injuries, Chuck has participated in medical studies in Washington, DC aimed at testing new therapies and pharmaceuticals. Through his neurosurgeon, he was introduced to the Physical Therapists at Baptist Medical Center Life Therapies in Nashville in 2009. There, Chuck tested a remarkable new medical device, the Bioness L300 Foot Drop System, which uses electrical impulses to therapeutically stimulate the muscles in his right leg as he walks, greatly improving his gait. A similar device, the NESS H200 system, offers hope for realizing similar benefits in his right arm and hand.

From the moment he first used the Bioness L300, Chuck could hardly contain his elation at how dramatically it helped him. Subsequent "tuning" and assistance from his therapists only heightened Chuck's excitement. Unfortunately, the price of the devices, approximately $6,200 each for the L300 and H200, and the lack of coverage from Medicare, Chuck's only health insurance provider, place these devices out of his immediate reach.

As his journey unfolds, Chuck manages to make a friend of nearly everyone he meets. His infectious smile and contagious enthusiasm for life is immediately evident, and those who count Chuck as a friend know that they have much company. As an undergraduate, Chuck was initiated into the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, where he forged brotherly bonds that will surely persist for a lifetime.

Chuck Russell is a man who finds his happiness, inspiration, and motivation close to home and the heart. He shares willingly of the same, always bringing pleasure and goodwill to his friends, family, and fraternity brothers. Our mission to help Chuck raise the money he needs for his medical expenses is, just as simply, a reciprocal effort-- a chance to return some of that which Chuck has given to us.