Our Reader to Reader Question of the Week:

Dear Readers,
, he vowed never to drive drunk again. How fortunate he was to have had the chance to make that decision. Several years ago, I left a bar so drunk I had difficulty walking. On the way home, I rolled my car and broke my neck, severing my spinal cord. I’m thankful I was alone and didn’t have any passengers. I’m also thankful that I didn’t hit another car and murder a carload of innocent people. I spent my 21 st birthday in surgery. The surgeons took two inches of bone from my hip and fused it to a vertebra of my neck. My family spent the next six months visiting me at the rehabilitation center. I am now paralyzed from the neck down and am confined to an electric wheelchair. My fingers and legs will always be paralyzed no matter how much rehab I have. I am typing this letter with an adaptive device that helps hold my wrist and hand in place. On the end of the device is a wooden stick that I use as a finger. For a very long time, I was depressed and miserable. Life had ab-solutely no meaning. It took several years before I quit planning my suicide. My life and the lives of all my family members have been changed beyond the average person’s comprehension, and it happened in a split second. One minute I was healthy and whole, and then all of a sudden, I found myself confined for the rest of my life to a wheel-chair-unable to shower myself, dress myself, curl my hair, put on my shoes, prepare a meal or hold my darling niece. And all this happened because I was drunk when I got behind that wheel. The only advice I’m qualified to give is this: If you see a friend who is intoxicated, be a real friend and drive him or her home. That’s the greatest gift you can give. -D.S., Adel, Iowa