Mike Utley Terrain Park to Open this Summer

When former Detroit Lions football player and Craig grad Mike Utley heard about plans to build an outdoor terrain park at Craig Hospital, he loved the idea so much that he asked to be the lead donor. The idea behind this new park came from staff in Craig’s own physical therapy department. After plans were drawn, the Mike Utley Foundation gave a $110,000 grant.

Construction will begin this spring on the park located outside the west building gymnasium. The space will include two sets of stairs and ramps, five heights of curbs, a cobblestone path, a garden trellis with doorways, a speed-bump pathway, and more. These real-life, outdoor challenges will give patients the opportunity to build strength, practice skills, and face challenges that prepare them for returning to the most active lives possible. Gifts from the Colorado Garden Show community grants program and the Cloverleaf Foundation will also support the project.

Engraved commemorative bricks offer others in the Craig community — alumni, staff, donors, volunteers, board members, and many more — a chance to support this great new concept for rehabilitation. Three sizes are available. Each brick will be custom-engraved with an inscription from each donor.

• Individual Bricks (4"x8" paver) $150
• Family Bricks (8"x8" paver) $500
• Entryway Bricks (12"x12" paver) $1,000

In addition to bricks, donors interested in making a larger contribution can be recognized on granite plaques located on top five platforms that will simulate real-life curbs of increasing height and challenge. For more information about purchasing a brick or other unique naming opportunities, please contact the Craig Hospital Foundation at 303-789-8650, or send in the reply envelope inserted in this newsletter.

Craig grabs on to Saebo®

Craig is the first hospital in Colorado to offer the Saebo® Arm Training Program. This specialized approach is designed to maximize arm and hand function following a neurological injury such as a brain injury, spinal cord injury, or stroke. The SaeboFlex® orthosis enables individuals to do grasp-and-release, task-specific activities. The technology was created by licensed occupational and physical therapists who have worked to incorporate the latest neurological research into a practical treatment program.

Craigs SCUBA Program with A-1 Diving Nears Thirty Years

Each month Craig holds an Intro to SCUBA Diving course for current inpatients and takes patients over to Scott Taylor’s A-1 Diving pool for instruction. Each year Scott and the Craig staff take a group down to the Caribbean for a week of diving. Pictured here are Scott and a new diver on the first day of training. Scott was a physical therapist at Craig in the 1980s and he and his wife, Lynn, have been sharing their SCUBA world with Craig patients for nearly 30 years. See a1scuba.com.

Acupuncture Now Available for Outpatients

Acupuncture — which involves the use of small (about as thick as a human hair), sterile needles inserted shallowly into the skin at specific points on the body — can help to move, strengthen, or balance the body’s energy.

Craig Hospital now offers voluntary, self-pay acupuncture treatments for outpatients on 2-East on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Each treatment is tailored to the patient’s individual needs and is delivered in a group setting, the way it has been practiced in China for thousands of years. Patients can recline in their power tilt-back wheelchair or a recliner during the treatment. This setting allows several people to receive treatments at the same time.

Fees are based on a sliding scale. For more information or an appointment, please call 303-777-0320.

Taming History

What do you get when you mix 90-plus years of history, countless boxes of papers and photographs, and one man by the name of Bill O’Daniel?You get 13 three-ring binders full of fun facts about Craig Hospital, organized logically and chronologically.

Sure, it’s fun for the rest of us now to leaf through these volumes, remembering names and faces and seeing what’s behind some old legends. But this labor of love was definitely a labor of love, and it was three months in the making.

Thank goodness Bill O’Daniel loves history and loves Craig Hospital.

Bill retired in 1997 after 22 years at Craig as a physical therapist and director of physical therapy. By 1999 he was back as a volunteer, helping first with the hospital’s patient and family housing campaign. The archiving project that came about earlier this year was right up his alley.

“We had a ton of stuff! And the more I sorted, the more I’d find to sort,” he says. “When the word got out about this, a lot of former staff and patients brought by or sent more things to add.

“It turned out to be a fantastic project, one of the best things I’ve ever done as a hobby.”

Bill tells us he was particularly fascinated to learn about Frank Craig, the hospital’s founder and namesake, and about how equipment such as the “Scott/Craig brace” came to be developed.

And when did he know the job was done?

“When I got to the end,” he says.

Copies of the volumes will be available in the outpatient clinic for patients and families to enjoy.

MyCraig: A new Web site just for Craig alumni

In October, Craig will launch “My Craig,” an exciting new Web site exclusively for former patients and families. The password-protected secure site will be an on-line meeting and information center which we hope will serve as a starting point for a Craig “electronic community.”

You can type or paste “www.mycraig.org” into your browser, or access the site by clicking on “My Craig” at www.craighospital.org.

My Craig will be accessible via standard Web browsers and will require no specialized skill or training to use. Special care has been taken to insure security and accessibility, including those unable to use a mouse, and the site will be analyzed for “Bobby Approved” accessibility.

If you are a Craig alum interested in participating, visit the site and fill out some basic information which will be submitted to Craig to verify your former patient status. You will receive an e-mail from Craig with a log-in name and password, which you can use to get into the site. Complete a user profile, including as many details as you wish, and begin to use the site.

Completed profiles will be stored in a database to allow members to search a number of categories — city, state, year at Craig, hobbies, careers, sports, etc. — and find the people or the resources you are looking for.

The site can also be used by Craig to notify large groups of interested alumni about important news, such as SCI and TBI research. There will be no advertising or solicitation, and your information will not be shared with anyone else. Members can also set up guest or authorized use accounts for family members.

The site requirements were developed by Synectics, Inc. in Dallas. The site will be hosted pro-bono by Data393 of Englewood as a gift to Craig patients, and maintained by Troy Goulding, a Craig alumnus who will intern at Data393.

We hope that Craig alumni find this new site useful and fun, and we look forward to your feedback.

Craig selected as an iBOT 4000® evaluation site

Craig Hospital is one of Independence Technology’s 15 evaluation centers in the U.S. for the iBOT® 4000 Mobility System, introduced to the market July 26, 2005. Independence Technology (IT), a Johnson & Johnson company, developed the iBOT® 4000 with enhanced features from the iBOT® 3000 introduced in 2003.

Gail Gilinksy, OTR, and Cindy Smith, PT, are Craig’s evaluators who have been trained by IT. Interested consumers can schedule a free test drive, request an evaluation, or obtain more information about the iBOT™ 4000 by contacting the Independence Technology Customer Zone toll-free at 1-866-813-0789 or by visiting IT’s Web site at www.ibotnow.com. Qualified consumers must receive an assessment by an evaluator at Craig or one of the other sites to determine if the product is appropriate for them.

2005 Motor Sports Day recap

At 6 a.m. on July 13, one parking lot was already full, and by 9 a.m.,180 collector vehicles, street rods, antiques, race cars, muscle cars, restorations, and vehicles with hand controls filled both parking lots and lined the streets of Craig for what has become the Motor Sports Day in Denver. Included in the display of cars was Don Schumacher’s NHRA Brut Top Fuel funny car, the Centrix Financial Grand Prix race car, and a caravan of four Ferraris from Fort Collins.

Sunrise Medical, manufacturer of Quickie wheelchairs, and the Darrell Gwynn Foundation to Cure Paralysis Quality of Life Program presented a power wheelchair to Tim Hawkinson, a Craig alum from Manhattan, Kan. This is the fifth year that a wheelchair has been donated to a Craig patient. Tim was honored in front of 30,000 racing fans at the Bandimere Speedway during the 25th Annual MOPAR Mile-High NHRA Nationals on July 15.

Dave Kiley, 19-time All American Wheelchair Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, gave a wonderful presentation in the Craig gymnasium. From Charlotte, N.C., Dave is a Paralympic medal winner in basketball, track, and skiing and has 25 years of experience with adaptive sports and recreation programs. Among Dave’s memorable quotes was “Preparation is the key... no one ever out-trained me.”

Plans are already underway for the 14th Annual Motor Sports Day. The event always takes place the Wednesday prior to the NHRA Mile High National drag races at Bandimere Speedway.

Thanks go to Wes Johnson and George Richardson, Motor Sports Day coordinators, Marilyn Hamilton, Roxane Cromwell and all the folks at Sunrise Medical, John Bandimere and his family, and Darrell Gwynn for making this the best Motor Sports Day ever at Craig Hospital.

Ventilator Program Update

Craig Hospital has 26 certified or registered respiratory therapists who comprise 15 full-time equivalent employees. They average nine years each at Craig and the Respiratory Care Services department continues to grow to meet the needs of our patients. With one of the largest ventilator programs in the U.S., Craig sees approximately 45 to 50 ventilator patients each year. The program’s primary focus is improving lung mechanics and ultimately weaning patients from the ventilator. A number of practices have been developed and refined over the years, including:

• Pre-admission on-site consultations (more than 700 consultations around the U.S. and world in the past 24 years)
• Use of long-established ventilator protocols with continual refinement
• Larger hospital suites for patients on ventilators
• Excellent interdisciplinary communication for patients (with physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, dietary technicians, pharmacists, speech therapists, OTs, PTs, recreation therapists, psychologists, and patient and family counselors)
• An interdisciplinary program development forum that meets six times each year
• A physician-led ventilator program development committee
• Emphasis on patient and family training in preparation for home: one-to-one training, group training, video tapes and manuals
• Emphasis on therapeutic community outings and community reintegration activities
• A flight team that accompanies ventilator patients home (the respiratory therapist or nurse assist the patient and family in getting settled at home)

“I have worked at Craig since 1996 and I love that we provide outstanding services to our patients and families,” says Lonnie Martinez, Manager of Respiratory Care Services at Craig. “I am proud to say I think our program is second to none.

“We have a very innovative department with highly trained and motivated staff and state-of-the-art equipment. We have an excellent relationship with the nurses, physicians and teams with whom we work. Plus, our aggressive treatment is protocol-driven. I say ‘aggressive’ because we try to get everyone we can weaned from ventilators and have a very good track record,” Lonnie continues.

“Unquestionably, I cannot say enough about the respiratory staff. They are passionate and loyal to Craig, have obtained and maintain bedside autonomy, are clinically astute and do an excellent job of educating patients and families.

I am humbled to lead this exceptional group of clinicians.”

Photo caption: Lonnie Martinez has been Manager of Respiratory Care Services since 2002. Lonnie was an EMT, did helicopter rescue as a medic for a combat support hospital while serving in the Army National Guard. He also has been a Clinical Instructor and is a Registered Respiratory Therapist. Lonnie has a BS in business management and currently is studying in preparation for an MBA.

Ready for Adventure

Therapeutic Recreation is the functional integration and application of all other therapies in real-life settings. In other words, T-Rec is serious business. Craig’s Therapeutic Recreation staff is organizing some incredible adventure trips for 2005:
Handcycling: Go the Distance

• Metro Denver area group rides Every other Saturday, April–August. For cyclists wishing to increase their mileage and overall endurance.
• Rocky Mountain Omnium Bike Race May 28-30 in Golden, Colo. Check out the National Handcycle Championships and get introduced to racing.
• Bicycle Tour of Colorado Come join the team! June 25–July 2. Six days and 400 miles of Rocky Mountain majesty. Starts and finishes in Snowmass, Colo. We offer coaching, transport and support during the event. (Accommodations included.)
• Dam to Dam Thumbs Up! Bike Tours September 24 and 25 in Wenatchee, Wash. Two-day, 50- or 100-mile ride. Supports the Mike Utley Foundation for SCI Research.
• Turning P.O.I.N.T. Wheelchair Sports Extravaganza June 4 in Dallas, Texas. Learn and try all kinds of wheelchair sports. This is a great event with wonderful opportunities! For information, contact Claire Cahow at ccahow@craighospital.org or 303-789-8341.

SCUBA Adventure

• Cozumel Late 2005. Get introduced to SCUBA with Discover SCUBA, an ongoing program offered year-round at Craig with A-I Diving in Englewood. Get certified! Come dive with us! For information, contact Carol Huserik at chuserik@craighospital.org or 303-789-8588.

Putting the “Fun” in “Functional”

The T-Rec staff at Craig is highly experienced, contributing a total of 208 years to the field:

• Joe Gomez 33 years
• Bert Menardi 26 years
• Donna Goldberg 25 years
• Claire Cahow 22 years
• Carol Huserik 21 years
• Lisa Hart 19 years
• Brenda Bertrand 17 years
• Lori Womeldorff 16 years
• Susie Hall 16 years
• Jill Stelley Virden 13 years

AEC Celebrates 10th Anniversary

September 10, 2004 Adaptive Equipment Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Craig Hospital, celebrated its first 10 years with an open house and trade show festival outside the store in Englewood. AEC is the largest wheelchair supplier and "gold"-certified repair center in Colorado, and its staff has more than 120 combined years of DME experience. Special guests included Billy Thompson of the Denver Broncos; Sarah Will, 12-time Paralympic gold medal winner; and Jenny Siegle, Ms. Wheelchair Colorado.

25th Annual Hobie Day

August, 2004 "Craig's 25th Annual Hobie Day may have been the biggest and best ever, with more than 60 patients participating," says Joe Gomez, Director of Therapeutic Recreation and co-organizer of the event. August 10 was a gorgeous Colorado day at Cherry Creek Reservoir, and patients and families learned to navigate rough terrain, beaches, outdoor bathrooms, and transfers into sailboats; experience hand and foot cycles; and have lots of fun. "Recreation is the ultimate in applied therapy," Joe says. Thanks to the Hobie fleets of Wyoming and Colorado for 25 great years.

12th Annual Motor Sports Day

July, 2004 The Craig campus was filled with 1,001 people and 165 collector cars (street rods, antiquie restorations, race cars, muscle cars, and vehicles for people with disabilities) on July 14 for the biggest Motor Sports Day and barbeque in the event's 12-year history. Special guests included Maurice Blankenship and the Carrier Boyz/Berryman Products Top Fuel Dragster and driver Cory McClenathan; John and Tammy Bandimere; Marilyn Hamilton of Sunrise Medical/Quickie, Darrell, Lisa, Katie, and Jerry Gwynn; and athlete Randy Snow. Dan Solomon and Norm Nicoley had a Denver Grand Prix car at the event, and Jenny Siegle, Ms. Wheelchair Colorado, also was present. Darrell Gwynn and Marilyn Hamilton donated a new power chair to Craig graduate Jo Donlin.

Annual Equipment Expo: May 21

May, 2004 - Craig Hospital will host the fourth annual Equipment Expo on Friday, May 21, from 10 am to 3:30 pm in the first floor gymnasium.

Each year the Expo is an exciting event for Craig staff, patients, families, and community professionals to see and learn about what is new in the world of rehabilitation equipment. More than 30 manufacturers from around the country are expected to display their newest products, and knowledgeable representatives will provide demonstrations and answer questions. Equipment includes manual and power wheelchairs, bathroom equipment, standing machines, transfer devices, van modifications, environmental control units, computers, and various adaptive devices to assist with activities of daily living. Last year's attendance was 250 and we expect more this year. For case managers, 1.5 CCM credits have been applied for.

If you are interested in attending, contact Gail Gilinsky, OTR, at 303-789-8550 or ggilinsky@craighospital.org. You also may access a registration form online at www.craighospital.org.

SMH Foundation Continues to Help Craig Patients

March, 2004 - The foundation named after the late Susan Marie Hofer continues to help patients with temporary housing, utilities, transportation, equipment, and independent living services. On November 13, 2003, Don Shaw, Susan's husband and Director of the SMH Foundation, presented a check for $15,000 to Denny O'Malley so this resource will continue. Thank you, Don.

What a trip! Therapeutic recreation pushes the envelope (again!)

March, 2004 - For more than three decades, Craig Hospital has helped set the standard in therapeutic recreation programs for patients with spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury.

Supported by Craig's administration, Craig's 11 certified specialists have 160 years of combined experience. These dedicated individuals have long understood that recreation is a major motivator in helping people with catastrophic injury reach maximum physical and mental health, and at the same time, a value and cost savings to insurance carriers.

Recreation is not only what patients do during rehabilitation, but what they will do when they return home. T-Rec is key to the mission of "re-creation" following injury, and is at the heart of rehabilitation. Therapeutic Recreation is not the "icing on the cake." It is the cake.

Gunnison, Colo. Horsepacking Trip

In mid-July of 2003, Craig joined forces with Quaking Aspen Outfitters and Casa Colina to take people with traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury on a six-day trip of horse riding, fishing, hiking, and relaxing in the majestic Colorado Rockies.

"This was a great trip!" writes Jonathan Arnow, '02, of Nevada. "At 6 a.m. the last day, I wrote this: I wake having slept in the meadow, warm in my sleeping bag and without my usual neuropathic pain, propped up to see the most amazing view. . . . The full moon is setting up on the 13,000-ft. ridge, the east-facing rock wall turning a warm, red glow just as the moon touches the ridge. It is good to know that such magical places exist, and will be here when we come back again - because we are all still alive, with enough of our faculties still intact, our humility and gratefulness heightened, perhaps with greater appreciation than before our life-altering experiences that brought all of us here together. . . . Perhaps we are the lucky ones."

The participants enjoyed Continental Divide rides each day with breathtaking views. They learned some things about team work, and they built lasting friendships. Horses packed all of the gear - including wheelchairs and food - in and out.

Bonaire, Netherland Antilles SCUBA Diving Trip

Craig alumni with spinal cord injuries enjoyed a week of diving in the beautiful coral reefs 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela in September. To get there, though, they prepared diligently with T-Rec specialists and the Handicapped SCUBA Association - first in the classroom, then in Craig Hospital's pool, then in the A-1 SCUBA pool, then in Chatfield Reservoir.

Gary Epping, who first was a patient at Craig in 1976, and his wife of two years, Jennifer, jumped at the chance. "I knew we didn't have to worry about any wacky things, just the normal risks associated with SCUBA, because we were going with people I really trust," Gary says. "At one point while diving I thought, Here I am, 70 feet down in some of the most beautiful water in the world - with my first physical therapist who sat with me on a mat at Craig 27 years ago - doing something I never thought I'd do. Truly amazing."

In addition to earning open water certification and having deep diving adventures, these grads learned a lot about themselves and put into practice some important skills - not only for diving but also for travel and accessibility in foreign places.

"The best way we can describe the experience is that it was so equalizing," emphasizes Carol Huserik, T-Rec Specialist. "Out there in the water together, we all were just divers."

Breckenridge, Colo. Adventure Trip

As if these weren't adventure enough, the T-Rec specialists also took Craig alumni on a trip to Breckenridge in June, with the assistance of staff at the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center.

The group - most of the alumni were quadriplegic - spent five days in an accessible mountain lodge. They rafted, kayaked, fished, hiked, biked, toured the resort town, participated in a ropes course adventure and, believe it or not, did some relaxing, too.

If you think that trips such as these are a little out of the ordinary, you're right. They take a great deal of planning, patience, and downright hard work. But T-Rec Specialist Claire Cahow says they're worth all the effort and more. "These trips are really special - for the grads and for us. After all, we get to be right there to help them do things they never imagined they would do again," she says. "We're giving it back to them."

Thanks to the support of Friends of Craig and others in the community, costs to participants were minimized. Current Craig patients were very interested in the alumni's experiences and enjoyed hearing and seeing all about the trips.

Not surprisingly, the popularity of the T-Rec trips is growing. If you would like to add your name to the mailing list, send your address to T-Rec at bmenardi@craighospital.org or call 303-789-8225.

Craig Hosts Quad Rugby Valentine's Massacre Tournament

February, 2004 - On Valentine's Day weekend, 50 athletes from throughout the U.S. competed in a round-robin rugby tournament at Craig. Competing were the Denver Harlequins, the Phoenix Heat, the Portland Pounders, the Texas Stampede, the California Plan B and the Globe Travelers. The Texas Stampede defeated the Phoenix Heat in the final seconds of the championship game. Craig patients and families were treated to an exciting tournament. Thanks to Jason Regier and the Denver Harlequins for helping to organize the event.