Leo
06-24-2003, 10:41 AM
Student overcomes pain to make graduation march
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Tuesday, June 24, 2003
By NICOLA M. WHITE
HERALD NEWS
They didn't think she would see this day.
Last October, Katimabel Santelises was so severely injured in a car accident that doctors thought she would die. She injured her head and her spinal cord. She was in a coma for four days. She breathed through a tube in her throat.
For the past eight months, Santelises, 19, has been undergoing intensive physical therapy at Lakeview Subacute Care Centerin Wayne. Her life involves physical therapy, visits from friends, tutoring so she doesn't miss her schoolwork and little time at her family's home on Washington Place.
But she wanted to graduate. And the girl who couldn't move - let alone walk - eight months ago, wanted to stand up to receive her diploma.
The sun shone hard on the Passaic High School stadium Monday afternoon, the first sun a in string of wet, miserable days.
Santelises, whose friends call her Kathy, sat in her wheelchair away from the hot sun. Her boyfriend, Andre Edwards, 23, took care of her, handing her bottled water and asking if she needed anything. He wore a handmade oversized T-shirt with Santelises' smiling face painted on it. The inscription: "My Lil Soldier."
"I knew she was going to make it," said Edwards, who met his girlfriend at the Passaic Burger King where they both worked. They had been sweethearts for 10 months beforeSantelises' accident. He rushed to see her at the hospital. She couldn't talk or move then. He asked her to blink twice if she loved him. She did.
"It's going too slow," he said of her progress. "But she's getting a lot better."
Santelises has worked hard to keep going. Although she said she's not in any pain, she admitted that physical therapy has been difficult. And although it doesn't hurt when she speaks, it's hard to mouth the words sometimes.
Santelises' two best friends, Viannek Sarita and Christina Rodriguez, wheeled Santelises down the outdoor track until they reached the last row of folding chairs on the grass as parents and friends looked on from the bleachers. This is the day the girls have been thinking about for four years. This is a day that was far from their minds when they saw one of their friends on a hospital bed, barely alive.
"It was really painful for me," Sarita said. "It was painful to see her but I see her recuperating."
"We're going dancing tonight, right, Kathy?" joked Rodriguez.
During the ceremony, Principal Carlist Creechaddressed the graduates and pointed out Santelises.
"She has fought real hard and done so well," he said. "And I'm so proud."
Her classmates - the boys dressed in blue, the girls in red - turned and gave her a standing ovation. All 461 of them. She grinned from ear to ear.
When it came time to receive her diploma, her two girlfriends wheeled her up the platform.
Her physical therapists then took over.
"Katimabel Santelises," Creech boomed.
She grabbed the sides of her wheelchair, touched one Mary Janed foot to the ground and then the other. Steadily, steadily, she rose and took a baby step, her eyes filling up with all kinds of emotions.
She took the diploma and although she couldn't run away with it, it looked like she had enough spirit to do just that.
Reach Nicola M. White|at (973) 569-7166 or whiten@northjersey.com.
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzNTkmZmdi ZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTYzOTQ5NTcmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZU VFeXkz
e-mail print
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
By NICOLA M. WHITE
HERALD NEWS
They didn't think she would see this day.
Last October, Katimabel Santelises was so severely injured in a car accident that doctors thought she would die. She injured her head and her spinal cord. She was in a coma for four days. She breathed through a tube in her throat.
For the past eight months, Santelises, 19, has been undergoing intensive physical therapy at Lakeview Subacute Care Centerin Wayne. Her life involves physical therapy, visits from friends, tutoring so she doesn't miss her schoolwork and little time at her family's home on Washington Place.
But she wanted to graduate. And the girl who couldn't move - let alone walk - eight months ago, wanted to stand up to receive her diploma.
The sun shone hard on the Passaic High School stadium Monday afternoon, the first sun a in string of wet, miserable days.
Santelises, whose friends call her Kathy, sat in her wheelchair away from the hot sun. Her boyfriend, Andre Edwards, 23, took care of her, handing her bottled water and asking if she needed anything. He wore a handmade oversized T-shirt with Santelises' smiling face painted on it. The inscription: "My Lil Soldier."
"I knew she was going to make it," said Edwards, who met his girlfriend at the Passaic Burger King where they both worked. They had been sweethearts for 10 months beforeSantelises' accident. He rushed to see her at the hospital. She couldn't talk or move then. He asked her to blink twice if she loved him. She did.
"It's going too slow," he said of her progress. "But she's getting a lot better."
Santelises has worked hard to keep going. Although she said she's not in any pain, she admitted that physical therapy has been difficult. And although it doesn't hurt when she speaks, it's hard to mouth the words sometimes.
Santelises' two best friends, Viannek Sarita and Christina Rodriguez, wheeled Santelises down the outdoor track until they reached the last row of folding chairs on the grass as parents and friends looked on from the bleachers. This is the day the girls have been thinking about for four years. This is a day that was far from their minds when they saw one of their friends on a hospital bed, barely alive.
"It was really painful for me," Sarita said. "It was painful to see her but I see her recuperating."
"We're going dancing tonight, right, Kathy?" joked Rodriguez.
During the ceremony, Principal Carlist Creechaddressed the graduates and pointed out Santelises.
"She has fought real hard and done so well," he said. "And I'm so proud."
Her classmates - the boys dressed in blue, the girls in red - turned and gave her a standing ovation. All 461 of them. She grinned from ear to ear.
When it came time to receive her diploma, her two girlfriends wheeled her up the platform.
Her physical therapists then took over.
"Katimabel Santelises," Creech boomed.
She grabbed the sides of her wheelchair, touched one Mary Janed foot to the ground and then the other. Steadily, steadily, she rose and took a baby step, her eyes filling up with all kinds of emotions.
She took the diploma and although she couldn't run away with it, it looked like she had enough spirit to do just that.
Reach Nicola M. White|at (973) 569-7166 or whiten@northjersey.com.
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzNTkmZmdi ZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTYzOTQ5NTcmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZU VFeXkz