antiquity
12-18-2002, 09:34 AM
Posted on Wed, Dec. 18, 2002
Computer would help paralyzed Hialeah man
BY ANA VALDES
avaldes@herald.com
Juergen Lendewig, 22, with his mother, Astrid Lendewig, in their Hialeah home. C.W. GRIFFIN / Herald Staff
Juergen Lendewig never imagined life without an occasional horseback ride. An avid rider since he was 3, he often vacationed with friends on farms throughout his native Venezuela, and horses were always part of the fun.
But the 22-year-old now sits confined to his wheelchair, following a riding accident that left him a quadriplegic.
''It changed my life from one day to the next,'' Lendewig said, reflecting on the June 17, 2001, incident.
Lendewig was riding a horse at a friend's farm in Venezuela when the animal became uncontrollable and ran into the nearby woods. Lendewig ducked, trying to avoid a tree branch. He collided with the orange tree anyway, leaving him with a broken neck and back injuries that now allow him to move only his head and arms.
Within 11 hours, Lendewig was undergoing surgery. Afterward, he was sent to the United States for long and often painful therapy sessions at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.
Lendewig said that while he has all the help and support he could ever need from his mother and medical staff, the one thing he needs to help his recovery process is a computer.
''My biggest necessity is to have a computer so I can investigate my condition and to use [it] for college,'' Lendewig said.
Before the accident, Lendewig had been an agronomy student in Venezuela. He recently registered at Miami-Dade Community College and hopes to start taking English classes next semester.
But Lendewig's monthly budget leaves little room to purchase a computer. He receives a $545 disability check, which is budgeted down to the penny: $460 for rent; $60 for electricity; $12 for phone; $5 for round-trip transportation to his therapy sessions; $1 for laundry.
''We leave the apartment only for what is needed,'' Juergen Lendewig said.
Astrid Lendewig, 51, a longtime preschool teacher in Venezuela, said she would find a job to increase the family'sincome, but has to stay home and care for her only son.
''He is the only person I have and I cannot leave him alone,'' Astrid Lendewig said.
Lendewig and his mother currently share the 450-square-foot Hialeah apartment's only bedroom, which is barely large enough to fit Lendewig's electric bed and a borrowed television set. Astrid Lendewig sleeps on a roll-away bed that during the daytime is neatly tucked under a cream-colored hoist used to lift Lendewig from his bed into the wheelchair.
Although Lendewig lists a computer as his only item on his Wishbook list, he said he dreams of one day living in a larger apartment, with wider door frames to fit his wheelchair and with a shower equipped for the disabled.
''We don't have our basic needs. But we adapt ourselves to the current situation,'' Astrid Lendewig said.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/4762381.htm
Computer would help paralyzed Hialeah man
BY ANA VALDES
avaldes@herald.com
Juergen Lendewig, 22, with his mother, Astrid Lendewig, in their Hialeah home. C.W. GRIFFIN / Herald Staff
Juergen Lendewig never imagined life without an occasional horseback ride. An avid rider since he was 3, he often vacationed with friends on farms throughout his native Venezuela, and horses were always part of the fun.
But the 22-year-old now sits confined to his wheelchair, following a riding accident that left him a quadriplegic.
''It changed my life from one day to the next,'' Lendewig said, reflecting on the June 17, 2001, incident.
Lendewig was riding a horse at a friend's farm in Venezuela when the animal became uncontrollable and ran into the nearby woods. Lendewig ducked, trying to avoid a tree branch. He collided with the orange tree anyway, leaving him with a broken neck and back injuries that now allow him to move only his head and arms.
Within 11 hours, Lendewig was undergoing surgery. Afterward, he was sent to the United States for long and often painful therapy sessions at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.
Lendewig said that while he has all the help and support he could ever need from his mother and medical staff, the one thing he needs to help his recovery process is a computer.
''My biggest necessity is to have a computer so I can investigate my condition and to use [it] for college,'' Lendewig said.
Before the accident, Lendewig had been an agronomy student in Venezuela. He recently registered at Miami-Dade Community College and hopes to start taking English classes next semester.
But Lendewig's monthly budget leaves little room to purchase a computer. He receives a $545 disability check, which is budgeted down to the penny: $460 for rent; $60 for electricity; $12 for phone; $5 for round-trip transportation to his therapy sessions; $1 for laundry.
''We leave the apartment only for what is needed,'' Juergen Lendewig said.
Astrid Lendewig, 51, a longtime preschool teacher in Venezuela, said she would find a job to increase the family'sincome, but has to stay home and care for her only son.
''He is the only person I have and I cannot leave him alone,'' Astrid Lendewig said.
Lendewig and his mother currently share the 450-square-foot Hialeah apartment's only bedroom, which is barely large enough to fit Lendewig's electric bed and a borrowed television set. Astrid Lendewig sleeps on a roll-away bed that during the daytime is neatly tucked under a cream-colored hoist used to lift Lendewig from his bed into the wheelchair.
Although Lendewig lists a computer as his only item on his Wishbook list, he said he dreams of one day living in a larger apartment, with wider door frames to fit his wheelchair and with a shower equipped for the disabled.
''We don't have our basic needs. But we adapt ourselves to the current situation,'' Astrid Lendewig said.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/4762381.htm