Father-of-two who damaged spine during fall now campaigning for service upgrade at hospital

John Stevens suffered central cord syndrome after taking a fall in his bedroom late one night.

His head flexed backwards and pinched his spine which caused "severe" paralysis of his hands.

Thanks to the rehab team at Orange Health Service, the 43-year-old is regaining more and more function every day.

"I'm actually able to live a semblance of a normal life," he said.

"Although I'm still having trouble managing cutlery."

Throughout the first half of April, Mr Stevens slept, ate and lived at the hospital.

His children would visit, although the sight of their father in that situation became "quite distressing" for them.

"Being in hospital is quite depressing for anyone. It's disempowering," he said.

After a few weeks, Mr Stevens felt he was ready to leave.

But because there was no outpatient service available, the father would have to continue his rehab without the assistance of medical professionals apart from the occasional follow-up.

Doctors then came up with a temporary "solution".

Mr Stevens would remain an inpatient at the hospital, but after doing his rehab work he would simply go home for the day until his next session.

"My progress has accelerated because being at home allows me to implement the things I'm doing in rehab," he added.

The problem with this is that as long as he is an inpatient, a bed allocated to him remains empty for the majority of the day.

"I want to live a normal life and I'm quite capable of doing that, but I need the therapy," Mr Stevens said.

"There's people who have different conditions who do need that bed."

This led Mr Stevens to petition the NSW government to fund an outpatient rehab service at the hospital.

Within the first few days of launching, it received more than 500 signatures.

"It's become obvious to me there will be a lot of people in the future who will want this service," he said.

"It's as hard on the staff as it is on the patients."

The office for NSW health minister Ryan Park was approached for comment, with a spokeswoman for Western NSW Local Health District stating that rehabilitation specialists provide follow up outpatient appointments through their clinics.

"Orange Health Service is currently undertaking clinical services planning, and the expansion of the inpatient rehabilitation service will be considered as part of that process," the spokeswoman added.

Mr Stevens knows that if his campaign is successful in securing an outpatient rehabilitation service for Orange Hospital that he may never even use it.

What he does hope is that it will "fix a pretty obvious hole" so the next person like him isn't stuck in the same situation.

Search 'establish outpatient rehabilitation services at Orange Health Service' on Change.org to sign the petition.