Dylan and Paul: Paralyzed with friends
Posted by Aaron - 15/10/10 at 08:10:14 pm
(Katie Rausch | Citizen Patriot) Dylan Radabaugh, then 15, grimaces with the effort of rolling over during a physical therapy session with student physical therapist Erin Gray at C.S. Mott's Children's hospital in Ann Arbor.
On Thursday night, Citizen Patriot photographer Katie Rausch and I drove out to Grass Lake to drop in on Paul and Dylan. Dylan’s house was completely dark; the whole family was at brother Seth’s junior varsity football game.
Paul had three friends over. They all sat around the bed in his room playing Magic: The Gathering, a role-playing card game. Paul played Magic a few times before his accident but did not take to it.
During therapy, Dylan and Paul play a lot of cards. One, they can; they both have some movement in the hands. Two, holding cards, dealing cards, shuffling cards, strengthens tiny muscles in their hands they both would love to have back.
(Katie Rausch | Citizen Patriot) Paul Powell, 17, watches as Lauren Mitchell, 17, tries on a splint he uses to aid in finger control while the pair take a break from homecoming float build Thursday evening in Grass Lake. "It's kind of like the claw, but in a really cool way." Mitchell said, prompting Powell to add, "Yeah, you can pretty much fight crime with it."
Paul was bored one afternoon, reading a message board online and looking for a new hobby. Some people on the message board were talking about Magic. He decided to give it another shot.
Within a week, Paul had taught four of his friends the game. (By the way, the game, if you have never played is complicated. Paul has promised to teach me.) Thursday, Paul and three friends had alternating two-on-two matches underway. No one wanted to face Paul.
“It’s becoming the new craze in Grass Lake,” Paul’s father told me.
I am lucky to have met Paul and Dylan over the past months. Their accidents placed significant challenges in front of them and through our interviews, they have challenged me. The story was not easy and at times, frustrating, but it is one of the more enjoyable projects I have completed.
Enjoy.
| Dylan Radabaugh and Paul Powell |
Grass Lake teens injured in separate accidents forge friendship
They pulled pranks on friends and family who spent the night.
They staged wheelchair races through the courtyard and hospital halls.
And there was something about a bucket used as a helmet and a giant Michigan State University flag as a cape. Don’t ask.
Dylan Radabaugh and Paul Powell tell only a few of the stories from their time together in a shared room on the sixth floor of C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. If asked about others, the two Grass Lake Township teenagers look at each other and smile mischievously.
“We ran the place for quite a while,” Paul said.
Separate accidents in June paralyzed Dylan, 16, and Paul, 17. Dylan was in a car crash June 6 at Bohne and Kalmbach roads in Grass Lake Township. Paul hit his head on the bottom of a pool June 17 in Napoleon Township.
Related story: Doctors say prognosis for recovery is low for both teens
Neither can move much below their chests, including legs and abdominals. They do not have control of their hands and fingers. But above the neck, the boys are just that, boys, albeit slightly quirky boys, ones with bold personalities.
But that has nothing to do with the accidents.
“I’m still me,” Dylan said.
A story about pumpkins
Posted by Aaron - 04/10/10 at 03:10:21 am
(Lauren Wood | Jackson Citizen Patriot) Megan Jones, 5, of Jackson chooses a pumpkin from the patch outside of the Ella Sharp Museum of Art and History on Sunday afternoon during the Fall Harvest Fest.
I had a plan set before I went to cover the Fall Harvest Festival at Jackson’s Ella Sharp Park.
Talk to kids about pumpkins. Kids love pumpkins.
So Sunday, I did just that.
There were a few University of Michigan themed squashes and a few Michigan State ones. Next week is the big game. When one Wolverine fan figured out I would probably be rooting for the Spartans, he not only refused to be in the newspaper but also threatened to break my video camera. He is 7.
Smiley faces were big this year. There were a few scary ones. One girl painted a monkey face on her pumpkin. Others went with bats, cats, ghosts, and a mummy dripping blood. The mummy dripping blood girl, who is 5, was way too into zombies. But she will probably be well prepared for the impending zombie apocalypse.
The best pumpkin, though, hands down, no doubt winner, was one by a little 4-year-old girl. Among the shapes and squiggles of any 4-year-old creation, there was a face — two eyes, a dot for a nose and a big smile.
She was shy and would not tell me who she painted on her pumpkin. Her mother, however, told me it was Justin Bieber, pop-star, heart-throb, Twitter sensation, and her husband.
When I asked the 4-year-old if it was Justin Bieber on her pumpkin, she smiled just a little before covering her face with her paint stained hands.
Anyway, some of the braver souls told me about their pumpkins on video. Enjoy!
| Pumpkins at Fall Harvest Fest |
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