Bill Ogan

Triumph Over Disability

By Don McCabe, Nebraska Farmer, October 1998

You and I can only imagine the trauma and frustration of coping with a physical disability. But coping with a disability while staying on the farm, even with changes in the operation, is a monumental endeavor. Ogan is one Nebraska farmer persevering today in that endeavor. He is doing so, first of all, because of sheer tenacity and resolve. Yet, there's another factor. Ogan and his family benefited from the assistance of Nebraska AgrAbility.

As a 12-year-old with polio, Bill Ogan spent four months, some of that time in an iron lung, at Children's Hospital in Omaha. While a shattering experience for a boy, Ogan fought back to overcome most of the initial effects. "I pretty much came back from polio. I never thought of myself as handicapped," he says. Ogan stayed close to home, married, and with his family - wife Kandy and children Travis and Jennifer - raised corn, soybeans, and managed a 60-head dairy herd east of Madison. "I didn't need any special equipment" to run the dairy all those years, says the now 46-year-old, quiet farmer.

In 1993, that changed when polio returned, gradually weakening his legs, especially the ankles. Despite being fitted with leg braces, he continued the dairy, with the help of family. He also found welcome help from the Nebraska Polio Survivors Association. Then, the second whammy, the "real nightmare" arrived in 1996. Ogan figured he knew polio, but what was happening to him now wasn't polio. He grew progressively weaker, and eventually almost paralyzed, having only enough strength to feed himself. At the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, doctors diagnosed Guillian-Barre syndrome, an illness that eats away at the lining of the nerves. Wife Kandy and son Travis ran the dairy while he struggled with the effects of this rare disease.

That fall, neighbors harvested his crops. After five plasma exchanges at the Mayo Clinic, Ogan is now "recovering slowly." As part of that recovery, he works out at the Norfold YMCA regularly, producing the muscular upper body he now possesses. But because of the bout with Guillian-Barre, coupled with post-polio syndrome, he still can't negotiate steps. Ogan describes it as burning the candle at both ends. Because of the polio, he has to conserve energy. To mend from the Guillian-Barre, he must exercise. "I have to be real careful not to overdo it."

After Bill returned from Mayo, the Ogans decided to sell the dairy herd and set about to alter their operation to a row-crop operation and find a way for Bill to get around the farm. "It was hard to handle at first," Ogan says. "All those things you're used to doing but couldn't anymore."

It was then I read a local news article about AgrAbility," Ogan says. "I called Becki (Koehler) directly. She was real helpful. She does a great job." AgrAbility staff put Ogan in contact with Bruce Coleman, Voc Rehab counselor in Norfolk. Coleman and Ogan discussed other career options, but Ogan's aim was to stay put. With that decision made, AgrAbility provided information about adaptive equipment available for farmers and how to locate that equipment. "AgrAbility as an information source was especially helpful to me," Coleman says.

The first product of those discussions was a four-wheeler to help Ogan get around the farmstead. Voc Rehab then lined up a lift for Ogan's IH 1086 tractor, enabling him to get up and down from the tractor. Voc Rehab also purchased a bulk seed cart for Ogan, letting him pull a spout over the planter boxes and fill them with seed. This spring, he planted all the corn and half of the soybeans, conserving energy by working half-days. "I couldn't plant in 1997 because I couldn't lift seed bags." He also can stay in the tractor cab while hooking up to wagons because of the automatic hitches attached to the tractor and wagons. Coleman says that Voc Rehab may ask clients to help with some costs, while it picks up the majority of equipment cost in most cases. "I plan to stay on the farm," Ogan says.