Newspapers / InterCom (Durham, N.C.) / Sept. 19, 1975, edition 1 / Page 2
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Parking Lots Will Add 116 Spaces EXCHANQNC TOASTS AFTER VOWS—The Spring Hope couple shared champagne at their reception after receiving the best wishes of friends. Construction was to have begun today on two new “H" decal parking lots designed to accomodate employee automobiles displaced by the closing of the “H" parking lot at the corner of Erwin Road and Fulton Street. According to Harry Gentry, manager of parking and traffic at the medical center, the new lots will be completed by Nov. 15. They are to be located adjacent to the Edwin L. Jones Building on Research Drive, he said, and next to the current Yearby Street parking lot. He has asked medical center employees to use the parking lot across from the tennis courts on Wannamaker Drive while the new Joyous Wedding Follows Year of Rehabilitation By David Williamson SPRING HOPE, N.C.—On Sunday, Sept. f, they were married; John Bass and Susan Driver, both of Spring Hope, a pair of the friendliest and most hopeful young North Carolinians you’d ever want to meet. A year ago, no one would have thought it possible. After a quiet, family ceremony at the Bass home, the newlyweds travelled to a Nash County country club for the reception where hundreds of well-wishers gathered to toast the couple’s happiness with champagne. The bride wore a candlelight formal gown of satin organza with a high, round neck, lace-trimmed sleeves and a full-length chapel train with fingertrip veil. She blushed a lot. The groom wore a gray tuxedo of the latest style, arm and elbow braces and a broad grin that seemed to stretch from ear to ear. He sat in a wheel chair. John broke his neck badly in late August, 1974, in a swimming pool accident, and for a time, doctors and family questioned whether he would live, let alone ever get out of bed again or get married. “I was lying face down on the bottom of the fKxJ breathing water,” the 25-year-old said a few days before the wedding while recalling the mishap. “I didn’t black out, and I knew what I was doing, but I just couldn’t do anything about it.” Friends who saw him crack his nteecom is published weekly for Duke University Medical Center employees, faculty, staff, students and friends by the Medical Center's Office of Public Relations, loe Sigler, director; William Erwin, medical writer; Miss Annie Kittrell, secretary. Editor David Williamson Associate Editor Margaret Howell Public Relations Advisory Committee; Sam A. Agnelio, audiovisual education; Dr. Robert Anderson |r., surgery; James L. Bennett )r., vice president's office; Dr. Athos Ottolenghi, phyiology and pharmacology; Michael Schwartz, ^'^'^'"'stration; Miss Isabelle Webb, RN, nursing service; Dr. Tom C. Vanaman, microbiology and immunology. head on the concrete after diving pulled him from the pool. After emergency treatment, he spent a year in Durham on the hospital’s Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit, a ward which specializes in helping patients with spinal cord injuries, amputations, neurological disorders and strokes achieve the highest possible levels of independence. The 1971 Atlantic Christian College graduate lay on his back for four months, immobilized in a body cast and a head brace. And then he spent eight months in the frustrating effort to re-learn all the basic activities almost everyone else takes for granted; feeding oneself, brushing hair and teeth, dressing and using the lavatory unassisted. When depression crept in, John’s father would give him a lift by asking, “What’s our slogan, son?” “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” the young man repeated endlessly. “Of course, a bigger lift was looking over there (pointing to Susan who had just arrived on the unit to help him pack) and seeing that thing sitting in my room every morning at 11 o’clock,” he joked, pinching his fiance’s waist. Each day for five months, the dark-haired, bright-eyed Spring Hope girl commuted 120 miles to the hospital and back. In the middle of the winter, she moved to Durham and got a job. John credited the staff at Duke—everyone from surgeons Ed Cooper and Armando Bendana and therapist Julie Snook to licensed practical nurse Betty Mangum and patient care assistant Hiron Smith — not only with providing care and understanding, but with “worrying the heck out of me to keep working and constantly reminding me that the unit isn’t a place for quitters as well.” Dr. Bendana, who is currendy director of the I.R.U. said, “We don’t do any miracles here, but we do try to help the patient develop to his maximum potential. John Bass is the kind of patient who gives rehabilitation a good name. “In his case, we were able to take a strong individual and make him realize his own strength.” Although severe spinal cord damage will prevent his ever walking again, and both he and Susan realize it, neither partner has any reservations about the marriage. “We’re going into this with eyes wide open, and we know what to expect,” John said. “If we could live through last year when things were hardest,” Susan added, “we can live through plenty more.” “Yes sir, and we’re going to have kids too. As soon as we can afford ’em,” John said. “My daddy already done ruined me, and now he wants a grandbaby to ruin, too.” “We got to get married first, John,” Susan protested. Soon the young man will resume his job as vice president of his father’s sausage packing plant in Spring Hope. He said he’ll be doing almost everything he did before the accident, “except shoveling hog manure,” an activity he “never was too fond of anyway.” After the therapy he received at the Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit, he’ll also be able to carry on his favorite sport of fishing for bass. “I’m sure glad of that,” he said chuckling, “because there ain’t nothing that makes me feel better than to come up to the dock after a day’s fishing and see some guy standing there with three or four little bream. I just take out my six-pound bass and slip him back on into the water while that fellow jumps up and down yelling, ‘Not so fast there. Now wait a second. Hold on!”’ “Just because you can’t walk, doesn’t mean you’re not a man,” Susan said, “I’m not worried about the man part, because I know I’ve got a man. I just worry about making him behave. He gets out of hand sometimes,” she admitted, winking and giving him a soft punch on the arm. lots are being constructed. A bus service beginning at 8 a.m. and continuing until 6 p.m. at 15-minute intervals operates between this lot and the medical center, he said. “We’re trying everything we can to alleviate the parking problem here,” he said, “and we’re asking people to be patient until the lots are finished.” The Yearby Street parking lot expansion will add 283 spaces for “H” decal parkers, and the Research Drive lot will add another 116 spaces to make a total of 399 new spaces. Two hundred thirty-four spaces were lost when the Fulton Street parking area was closed on Monday. Gentry said a Medi-bus schedule will be printed within the next two weeks or as soon as his office has determined the most convenient times for service around the campus. IrUercom will publish the bus schedule when it becomes available. Trading Post You may send ads to “Trading Post,” Box 3354, Hospital. Ads are printed free, but we do not advertise real estate, personal services or commercial enterprises. Please give your home telephone number. Duke extensions will not be listed. FOUND; One pair of blue-tinted contact lenses in white case. Dropped in, yellow zone Tuesday, Sept. 16. To claim, call 684-2538. FOR SALE—Long sofa, good condition. Call 688-8826. FOR SALE—Five-piece dinette (colonial style), 42" diameter, round, will extend to very good condition, $40. Call 383-6218 after 6 p.m. FOR SALE—1974 VW 412 wagon, 10,000 miles, A.C., radial tires, automatic, like new. Call 489-8513. FOR SALE—^Avocado refrigerator with ice maker, 1 yr. old, $200. Call 383-3542 anytime. FOUND—A ring on the East Campus tennis court. Owner may contact 477-8634 after 5 p.m. FOR SALE—Green hide-a-bed couch, $40; odd living room chair, $5; and green and white couch and chair, matching, $30. Call 477-4105 anytime. FOR SALE—-Two pairs gold, pinch pleat draperies with rubber backing for insulation, 63” long, $10 for both. Phone 489-9537. FOR SALE—^Bathroom vanity sink with green formica top; solid wood TV stand; brass logholder and firescreen; large metal dollhouse and furnishings; and man's 26" 3-speed bike. Call 477-5011 or see at 101 E. Maynard Ave. in Bragtown. FOR SALE—^ ive drawer chest with maple finish, like new, reasonable. Call 489-1705 after 6 p.m. FOR SALE—W’idely advertised bod\' shaper exerciser. Trims waist, hips and thighs, really works. £5. Call 489-3729 after 5:30. EDUCATIONAL COMMITMENT — Jeannie Arena, a member of the Outpatient Department's nursing staff for the last 4'/2 years, left her work recently to continue her education at Sacred Heart College in Belmont, N.C. She plans to study in the field of pediatric social work and didn't mind at all having young Christopher Michael Leonard crash her going-away party. He's the son of former R.N. Diane Leonard and husband John, chief of neurosurgery. (Photo by Margaret Howell)
InterCom (Durham, N.C.)
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