After Randy Hoffman was left paralyzed following what was supposed to be routine spinal surgery in December, the critical-care emergency medical technician who had helped so many people on the South Fork for over a decade suddenly found himself the one who needed help. And the community has stepped up to offer it, in spades.
The outpouring of support has been humbling, Mr. Hoffman said this week from San Simeon on the Sound in Greenport, where he is making slow but steady progress on the road to recovery. An initial fund-raising effort on Facebook, started by his sister, Alison Stern, brought in $50,000 in just 24 hours to help with day-to-day expenses and medical costs not covered by insurance. Mr. Hoffman’s emergency medical services colleagues have also leapt into action. Last month, the Montauk Fire Department sold over 600 tickets for a spaghetti dinner fund-raiser and raised nearly $20,000, and on Saturday, the Bridgehampton Fire Department is hosting another pasta dinner to raise money for Mr. Hoffman.
“It’s great that people are helping. It’s really, really great, and I don’t feel like I’m worthy of it,” Mr. Hoffman said. “It all feels really weird.”
E.M.S. personnel say Mr. Hoffman is an example of the best of them. A paid critical-care technician who worked with the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps and the Springs and Montauk Fire Departments, he is also a volunteer with the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association, but has always been one of the first to respond to other departments’ mutual aid calls. He has helped to save countless lives, including one in Bridgehampton in 2015. “I just do E.M.S. stuff because I like it. . . . I enjoy doing it. I enjoy helping people.”
Scores of people he has aided through his E.M.S. work have rallied to the cause. There was a woman he helped in 2010, for example, who sent him a $4,000 check along with a note thanking him for his help. Equally meaningful to Mr. Hoffman, an elderly man he assisted after a fall from a ladder in Springs sent a check for $25 and a letter explaining that “he doesn’t have any money but he appreciated what I did for him.”
“It makes me want to help people more,” Mr. Hoffman said of all the kindness he has been shown. The strange thing, he said, is that he doesn’t feel like he has done anything special.
It has been three months since complications from surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan left him unable to move his arms or legs. “There was some bleeding around the spinal cord that caused pressure and put me into spinal shock,” he explained on Tuesday.
Now, “I have probably 80 percent of my strength in my hand and my arm on the right, and my left side is coming up.” He can move his left ankle and foot and his right toes, and “over the past week I’ve been able to stand at the parallel bars. With a little help, I can get out of the wheelchair and stand between them and hold myself up with my legs and my arms.” He has been at San Simeon for a month and does two hours a day of physical therapy that includes stretching and strengthening. He is unsure how long he will be at the rehab facility.
He is slowly building up his stomach muscles. “As my stomach gets stronger, I can stand longer, I have a more productive cough. . . . Every time something new happens, like when I stand at the parallel bars, it’s like a whole new world,” he said. “I start to look at all these gains as really big.” “I have no idea how long it’s going to take, but I’ll be able to walk again.”
Mr. Hoffman is used to being active. A cabinetmaker by trade, he also races and restores vintage motorcycles and was a serious cyclist for a long time. The day before his surgery in December, he biked 20 miles.
Staff at San Simeon tell him he is exceeding expectations, he said. “I’m moving along quickly, but it’s not quickly enough.” A toolmaker and machinist as well as a cabinetmaker, he plans to focus more on the former when he returns to work. In the meantime, “I have a shop to keep open, truck payments, two kids in college.”
“I try to stay positive,” he said. “I go through this thing of ‘why me?’ . . . but why not me?”
The Pasta With a Purpose fund-raiser on Saturday will take place at the Bridgehampton Firehouse on School Street from 5 to 8 p.m., with takeout available. Tickets costs $15 and include pasta (and a gluten-free option), meatballs, salad, bread, and soft drinks. They are available in advance at 631-537-0336 or at the door.
There will be a 50/50 raffle, and auction tickets will offer a chance to win over 60 items, including Knicks tickets with a meet-and-greet with the announcers Walt (Clyde) Frazier and Mike Breen, restaurant and local business gift certificates, a dirt bike from Hampton Motor Sports, a gym membership to Core Dynamics, an overnight stay at Gurney’s Resort, and even 200 gallons of propane from Propane Depot.
Mr. Hoffman has a challenging time ahead, but he is buoyed by the good will of so many neighbors and colleagues. “People are really good,” he said, and “as soon as I can get back to working on the ambulance, I want to do that.”