Injured Fort Collins teen speaks out against hit-and-run
ENGLEWOOD--Putting socks on is easy now.
Wheelies are a breeze, and rolling down a flight of stairs is getting smoother. Wheelchair basketball is on the horizon.
Normalcy is slowly returning, but life will never be the same for Connor Walsh, the 16-year-old Poudre High School sophomore who on March 10 was struck by a hit-and-run driver while walking to school in northwest Fort Collins.
"I remember there was a person holding my neck," Walsh said Tuesday at Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Englewood while speaking publically for the first time since the crash. "I remember a lot of pain and not being able to feel from the waist down ... The next thing I knew, I was being wheeled into the operation room."
He remembers it was cold out that Tuesday morning before the sun came up. He thought a gas line must have exploded, and that was why he was lying on the grass near the intersection of Laporte Avenue and Taft Hill Road.
When the 2003 Subaru Forester reportedly drifted across the painted white line and struck Walsh from behind, the impact broke his back and seriously injured the base of his spine. He underwent a spinal fusion, and doctors in the following days gave him a 10 percent chance of ever walking again.
Despite those odds, Walsh remains optimistic.
"I could be dead," he said Tuesday, scratching at a solid back-brace that depicts Northern Colorado's iconic Horsetooth Rock. Above it, a Superman logo is painted — Walsh quipped that being hit by a car and living to tell about it is akin to having super powers.
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He said he's going to make the most of it.
After a brief stint at Medical Center of the Rockies, Walsh was admitted to Craig. After nearly two months of physical therapy and learning how to live in a wheelchair, Walsh will be discharged from the hospital Thursday.
He's made trips to Fort Collins and seen his friends — they're already busy making plans for his return. He hopes to return to school next week.
The future, at least for Walsh's parents, will also include trips to the courtroom.
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Reginald Loewen, 36, walked into Fort Collins Police Services about three hours after the crash and identified himself as the hit-and-run driver, police said previously. Investigators do not believe impairment or distraction contributed to the collision, though they said Loewen might have fallen asleep before the crash.
Loewen was jailed and has been charged with leaving he scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury — a Class 4 felony. He posted bond and is next due in court May 12 for a possible plea deal.
"Negativity isn't going to do anybody any good," said Walsh's mom, Heather Zoccali. "The driver as far as I'm concerned has to get up every day and live with what he did. He's going to have to explain to his children what he did. So that's his bag to carry. It's not ours."
Walsh echoed those comments when asked whether he had any questions for the person who hit him.
"Why did you run?" he said, later making a plea for anyone involved in a crash to stay and help, no matter what.
Friends, neighbors, Poudre High School students and complete strangers have rallied in support of Walsh's recovery.
More than $22,000 has been donated through a GiveForward campaign, and people continue to volunteer time in helping the family.
They'll have to move into a new home in Fort Collins in June, as their current house can't handle the upgrades needed to make it wheelchair accessible. Walsh will also have plenty of doctor check-ins over the coming weeks and months.
He's optimistic he'll get some use of at least one leg back eventually. In the meantime, he's making the most of what he can. He said he plans to challenge friends to downhill races.
"I just need to go back and try to get some normalcy."
Reporter Jason Pohl covers breaking news for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter: @pohl_jason.