Crashing Fall Stills Artist’s Hand for Now : Glass Nearly Shattered Chris Hoy’s Career, but Friends Rally to Aid of the Wildlife Painter

Wildlife artist Chris Hoy was alone in his studio late one night last October, preparing for an upcoming art show. He needed to adjust the lighting above his work table and stood up on a chair to reach for the bulb. Hoy lost his balance and fell.

His right arm--his drawing arm--smashed through the three-quarters of an inch of glass covering the table, nearly severing his hand from the wrist.

“I knew it was serious right when it happened,” Hoy, 36, said. “But I wasn’t willing to quit that night. I wasn’t willing to die.”

In 10 minutes, the time it took him to get to South Coast Medical Center with help from a neighbor, Hoy lost three pints of blood.

“If it wasn’t for his bones, he would have cut his hand off,” said Dr. Robert Kachenmeister, the plastic and reconstructive surgeon who operated for eight hours through the night to repair the 13 tendons, three major nerves and two major arteries that were severed in the accident.

And when he came to, Hoy, who paints the beloved pets of art collectors and has traveled to all seven continents to paint wildlife in their habitats, faced the possibility of losing not only the use of his hand, but his very livelihood.

Doctors told him that he would lose about 40% of the feeling in his fingertips and, at best, would only be able to regain about 70% to 85% of the motor functions in his hand.

But now, more than two months later, Hoy is beating the odds. With help from the friends and the local wildlife art community, who have set up a foundation to help Hoy pay his $50,000 in medical bills and to get him through the coming year of lost income, Hoy is determined to resume his creative life.

“I’ve got a long road to go, but I’m not going to give up--I’m determined,” Hoy said. “The neatest thing is all the support I’ve had. The support has just been incredible. It just makes you want to work harder to get better.”

For this self-taught artist, who at 12 was honored by then-President Richard Nixon after winning a national art contest and whose wildlife paintings have been sold to collectors around the world and featured in museums, the word “never” simply doesn’t apply.

“His outlook is so positive,” said Allison Orgill, Hoy’s physical therapist. “He’s an inspiration to all my other patients.”

Three times a week, Hoy endures grueling physical therapy sessions with Orgill to keep the tendons from getting stuck with the scar tissue that forms after such a traumatic injury.

“It’s like someone poured glue on your wrist,” Orgill said, adding that without the therapy, Hoy’s hand would start to claw. “He has a lot of trembling right now, but I’m really pleased with his recovery.”

At the same time, Hoy is waiting for the nerves in his hand to regrow but has been told that they will never equal their original condition. And he may need other operations, including a tendon transfer, Kachenmeister said.

The doctor isn’t sure “he will ever be able to move his hand like he used to, or recover his fine motor function,” but he believes Hoy will relearn how to paint, despite the physical limitations.

“He has it within him,” Kachenmeister said. “He’s truly a remarkable human being. He’ll do 110% of whatever you ask him to do.”

For those who know Hoy, word of the accident came as a terrible blow.

“He’s got the biggest heart,” said Jill Costa, assistant vice president for Monarch Bank, who has set up the Friends of Chris Hoy Foundation to help get the artist through the financial ordeal and keep him from losing his studio. So far, the foundation has collected “a few thousand dollars” on Hoy’s behalf.

“Chris would be the very first person to do this for us,” Costa added. “He’s just a giver. Now it’s our turn to support him.”

Hoy, who also helps coach ninth-grade wrestlers at Dana Hills High School, is already able to pick up a pencil. And he says that many of the clients who had commissioned him for work before the accident have told them that they will wait as long as they have to for him to recover and complete his projects.

“I wish I wasn’t in this circumstance, but I’m just glad I’m still here,” Hoy said. “I get a second chance. And I am going to paint again.”