Son's care sparks growing support of neurosciences

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Malcolm Ross: It was the weekend of my high school graduation. I really don't have any sort of coherent memories. 

[Text on screen: Malcolm Ross
Professional Motorsports Team Co-owner]

Malcolm Ross: I sort of remember hanging out in the driver's lounge and talking to friends when I first got there and learning about the track because I'd never been there before. I've just been told that there was a fellow on my left, we were coming around a right-hander. It was maybe a 100 mile an hour corner, and I guess he went into a spin. I was right there, and then another guy was on my right side. I went over his wheels, and since it was an open wheel car, you can gain a lot of altitude when you go wheel to wheel and hit one another.

[Text on screen: Stanley Ross
Attorney (retired)]

Stanley Ross: It was about six o'clock in the evening when we got the call saying there'd been a crash. He was alive when we put him on the helicopter and he's going to Indianapolis Methodist. My wife and daughter were at home, so we threw stuff into the car and piled in. We didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't good news. The hospital people were tremendous. He was there for about five weeks. We wanted to get him close to home, and Indianapolis Hospital agreed that Dodd Hall was one of the few rehabilitation centers they would approve of.

Malcolm Ross: The person that I spent the most time with was in physical rehabilitation, my PT, was Marilyn Overholtz. She kept everything positive. Everything was glowing. It was, "Come on, Malcolm, let's just do this." And she really just gave me the positivity that I needed going forward. It was a wonderful experience. It's a wonderful experience being around not only the PTs and OTs, but then just the people that were there along with me and all the support that we gave each other.

Stanley Ross: We learned a lot about neurology from talking with the doctors and the therapists at Dodd Hall, and the more you learn what the neurology people are studying and how intricate it is, and the potential to help people in the future, all kinds of diseases. The neurological stuff is a big umbrella. 

[Text on screen: Stan and Jodi Ross donated $10 million to the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center to advance neuroscience research, education and care.]

Stanley Ross: Our hopes are that they can find cures as quickly as possible for a lot of these diseases, and that's not just this country. That's all over the world, so the hope is that they'll be able to solve some of these things and make people's lives better. It's just an opportunity to try to improve the overall quality of life for people as long as possible.

Malcolm Ross: When I had the option to get back into the motor sports, I started off with a little race up at Put-in-Bay, and I went out, ran my first race, started on pole, spun it in the rain, went back to 16th, finished third. It was like, "Oh, okay. I've still got a little something I guess in me."

Stanley Ross: The care, the physical therapy and so forth was obviously terrific. So Dodd Hall just did a superb job. He's driving fast cars again, and he's actually pretty fast. Faster than I was. Maybe not much.

Malcolm Ross: I think it's amazing what they've done, and being able to support the university that supported me, and they've certainly helped all of us.

[Text on screen: Ohio State Health & Discovery
For more information, visit: health.osu.edu]

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