Paralyzed Michigan Man Able To Hunt From Wheelchair Using Sip and Puff device

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Jake Veltman of Michigan has been paralyzed from the neck down since a 2005 car accident but he is still able to hunt.

Veltman uses a method called Sip and Puff that allows people with disabilities to control various devices by inhaling and exhaling into a tube. Pairing Sip and Puff with a gun means the hunt can go on for 71-year-old Muskegon resident Veltman.

 

“It’s quite a pick-me-up,” he said. “I feel alive again. Hunting is something I love to do and I never thought I’d do again until they made it possible. live from year to year, and when I couldn’t hunt a whole bunch of my life was gone. This gives me something to look forward to every year. I just can’t wait.”

After his accident, Veltman, who has bagged more than 35 deer during his lifetime, tried to adjust to life without hunting.

“I love being outdoors,” Veltman said. “It’s not just the hunt. I like to listen to the birds and watch the squirrels. I have fun even if I don’t get a deer. It’s still enjoyable being with Mother Nature.”

Luckily for Veltman, he was introduced to the Sip and Puff in 2009 while visiting a special veterans’ hunt and he purchased one of his own about a year later. He’s been back hunting ever since.

“It gives him something to talk about,” said Veltman’s sister, Sally Rundquist. “It gives him something to look forward to and live for. It’s the highlight of his life. He was an avid fisherman and hunter. When he had his accident, it eliminated those things. The two weeks out of the year when he hunts is what he lives for.”

Veltman plans to donate his Sip and Puff to the veterans’ hunt when he is no longer able to use it.