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Physical rehabilitation patients at Craig will take outings thanks to 2 employee groups
By Holly KurtzDenver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
Students shot during the April 20, 1999, Columbine tragedy have always shown a strong drive to move forward. Little by little, some of the teens who barely had their learners' permits before they were injured have learned to get around in hand-controlled cars; some are learning to walk again. "It wasn't that much different, but steering with one hand can be tough," said survivor Richard Castaldo. "My balance isn't all that good because I don't have all my side muscles." Castaldo, fellow student Sean Graves and the families of shooting survivors Pat Ireland and Anne Marie Hochhalter were on hand Tuesday morning to dedicate a van donated to Craig Hospital by Johns Manville and Burt Chevrolet employees. The van will allow families to take patients on private outings. Castaldo has a van of his own, complete with a wheelchair ramp and hand controls. It should come in handy next semester when he starts business courses at Arapahoe Community College. Graves, who was too young to drive the day he got shot, took his first driving lessons after he lost the use of his legs. He now drives his silver and blue, hand-controlled Ford pickup each day to Columbine, where he's taking six classes during the first semester of his junior year. Anne Marie Hochhalter is still learning how to use a hand-operated car, her father, Ted Hochhalter, said. In the meantime, her father, neighbors and friends take turns driving her to and from her classes at Arapahoe Community College, where she's considering studying industrial psychology. She is also trying to re-learn another mode of transportation — walking. A program at Craig, a nationally ranked rehabilitation center, is teaching her to move forward by swinging her hips and abdominal muscles while holding onto parallel railings and wearing leg braces. Using this torso-swinging method, she has moved 140 feet with help from a walker, her father said. The goal is to get her to use crutches. Sometimes Anne Marie Hochhalter will even feel a sensation, a dull pressure, in her legs, her father said. She has painful nerve attacks lasting up to two minutes. "It's hard to watch her," Ted Hochhalter said. "My son asks her trivia questions. If she can get her mind to focus on something else, it helps." October 25, 2000
Students shot during the April 20, 1999, Columbine tragedy have always shown a strong drive to move forward.
Little by little, some of the teens who barely had their learners' permits before they were injured have learned to get around in hand-controlled cars; some are learning to walk again.
"It wasn't that much different, but steering with one hand can be tough," said survivor Richard Castaldo. "My balance isn't all that good because I don't have all my side muscles."
Castaldo, fellow student Sean Graves and the families of shooting survivors Pat Ireland and Anne Marie Hochhalter were on hand Tuesday morning to dedicate a van donated to Craig Hospital by Johns Manville and Burt Chevrolet employees.
The van will allow families to take patients on private outings.
Castaldo has a van of his own, complete with a wheelchair ramp and hand controls. It should come in handy next semester when he starts business courses at Arapahoe Community College.
Graves, who was too young to drive the day he got shot, took his first driving lessons after he lost the use of his legs. He now drives his silver and blue, hand-controlled Ford pickup each day to Columbine, where he's taking six classes during the first semester of his junior year.
Anne Marie Hochhalter is still learning how to use a hand-operated car, her father, Ted Hochhalter, said.
In the meantime, her father, neighbors and friends take turns driving her to and from her classes at Arapahoe Community College, where she's considering studying industrial psychology.
She is also trying to re-learn another mode of transportation — walking. A program at Craig, a nationally ranked rehabilitation center, is teaching her to move forward by swinging her hips and abdominal muscles while holding onto parallel railings and wearing leg braces. Using this torso-swinging method, she has moved 140 feet with help from a walker, her father said. The goal is to get her to use crutches.
Sometimes Anne Marie Hochhalter will even feel a sensation, a dull pressure, in her legs, her father said. She has painful nerve attacks lasting up to two minutes.
"It's hard to watch her," Ted Hochhalter said. "My son asks her trivia questions. If she can get her mind to focus on something else, it helps."
October 25, 2000
