Skip to content
Obituaries
Link copied to clipboard

Jim Sanders, 49, web designer

In June 1989, Jim Sanders was 22 and down the Shore in Longport with his fellow Temple University seniors, celebrating the end of the school year.

Jim Sanders
Jim SandersRead more

In June 1989, Jim Sanders was 22 and down the Shore in Longport with his fellow Temple University seniors, celebrating the end of the school year.

Mr. Sanders, who had just arrived in a car without air-conditioning, dove off a bulkhead into shallow water.

In a split second, his life changed forever.

He emerged from that moment a quadriplegic, the result of grave injury to his C3 and C4 vertebrae. After lengthy therapy, his voice returned. He could still breathe on his own. And his spirit remained undaunted.

"He had a spark, and that's what saved his life," said his sister, Keryn Rush.

James O. Sanders - who refused to let paralysis keep him from an independent life, who started his own IT company in Wayne, designing websites with a mouth stick - died Thursday, May 19, at Paoli Hospital, his family reported on Friday. He was 49.

The cause of his death was septic shock, a systemic infection likely the result of the accident.

He had spent the intervening 27 years at first fighting to stabilize his health, then trying out various living arrangements. In 1993, he chose a Chesterbrook townhouse as the best option. He got around in a motorized wheelchair and a van equipped with a lift and driven by a devoted personal-care aide.

Cheerful, witty, and talkative, Mr. Sanders had a glass-half-full view of life, according to an interview he gave to Main Line Media News in 2013, as he celebrated 20 years of independent living.

Mr. Sanders was a constant inspiration to those around him. "He rarely complained about his circumstances, maintaining a positive outlook despite the many challenges he faced on a daily basis," his family said.

Friends and a group of golfers at Waynesborough Country Club rallied around him, creating a trust fund dedicated to his care.

"If the trust did not exist, I would most likely be living in a nursing facility where you can feel defeated just by being around others in the same condition. I can't tell you how much I value the normalcy of independent living," he told the Main Line Media News.

Born in Ridgewood, N.J., he was a 1984 graduate of Conestoga Senior High school, and attended Juniata College and Temple University. A natural athlete, he enjoyed baseball, lacrosse, golf, and both snow and water skiing.

When Mr. Sanders was injured in the diving accident, he was nine credits shy of his bachelor's degree. Too sick to resume his studies, he spent months in Jefferson Hospital's spinal care unit and in physical and occupational therapy at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital.

After the complexities of his daily life became clear, he chose not to remain with family. With their help, he bought a single-floor townhouse at Chesterbrook. The J.O.S. Trust, as it was called, made it possible for him to live with around-the-clock care from certified nursing assistant Debbie Swope.

"There was a sparkle in his eye every day he woke up," Swope said. "He taught me no matter how bad it gets, life goes on. You roll with the punches."

Looking to the future, his parents acquired a small business in Florida, with the thought that he would eventually run it. He chose not to, and instead remained in the Philadelphia area near friends. His decision came as no surprise to anyone, his family said.

With computer skills learned mostly at Magee, he got busy working on web design through his own IT firm, Onezero Technologies. He typed using a mouth stick on the keyboard at the rate of 25 words per minute, his sister said.

When not working, Mr. Sanders indulged his passions for the Philadelphia Eagles, and hard-to-find recordings of Daryl Hall. He had an encyclopedic memory for movie dialogue.

He was always present for his friends and family with a sympathetic ear, a song lyric, a joke, or special memories of his favorite beaches and ponds on Cape Cod, familiar from summers spent there, mostly before the accident.

Besides his sister, he is survived by his mother, Judith Oglee Sanders; brother Robert Byron Sanders III; a niece; and a nephew.

There will be a celebration of life at 10 a.m. Friday, June 10, at Wayne Presbyterian Church, 125 Lancaster Ave., Wayne. Interment is private.

Donations may be made to the J.O.S. Trust, c/o David Dugery, IMX Medical Management Services, 1700 Paoli Pike, Malvern, Pa. 19355.

bcook@phillynews.com

610-313-8102