Wheelchaired Advocate On a Roll With Lawmakers - Southern Maryland Headline News

Put him in an institution. He'll be nothing but a vegetable.

That was the advice doctors gave Nancy and Lawrence Capone 42 years ago, shortly after they learned their fifth child, Ken, had cerebral palsy.

The doctors were only pushing the prevailing wisdom at the time, but the Capones "wouldn't even hear of it," said Ken's half-brother, Steve Harrell. "There was no way Kenny was going in any institution."

Four decades later, Ken Capone's cerebral palsy has left him unable to walk or talk. The Prince George's County man has such limited use of his arms that he uses a headstick both to operate his motorized wheelchair and type messages to others on a computer that sits on his wheelchair.