Success Stories

Trail accident detours, but doesn’t stop Rossetti

By Valerie Snavely, RSC marketing coordinator

It was about 3 p.m. on June 13, 1998, shortly after their third anniversary, and the Gahanna couple was planning the rest of the day. Avid cyclists, they loaded up their bikes and drove to a favorite trail in Granville, where a ride through sun-dappled woods would take them to Johnstown and ice cream cones. A great cap to a perfect afternoon.

Rosemarie Rossetti and Mark Leder had it all – a happy marriage, successful careers, a beautiful home, good health, family, friends – but in a split second during that bike ride, their world came crashing down. Literally.

Rossetti was slightly ahead of her husband on the trail when he heard what sounded like a gunshot. Horrified, he saw a rotten, 80-foot tree snap and fall across the trail. Beneath it was his unconscious wife.

“I woke up on my back looking up at Mark and the two rescuers,” Rossetti recalled. “I was seeing double. I asked what had happened and they told me a tree fell. ‘Why?’ I cried. ‘Why, why?’” Together, Leder and the Good Samaritans moved the weight off Rossetti. As the other couple sped away on their bikes for help, Leder tried to comfort his wife with a hug. “It really hurts. I can’t move,” she sobbed. “I laid there,” she remembered, “frozen with fear.”

Although the helmet she wore saved her life, the three-and-a-half-ton tree devastated her body. Rossetti was in intensive care for five days with a fractured sternum, three broken ribs and a dislocated spinal cord. Doctors used pelvic bone to repair her spine and inserted two steel rods into her back. The woman who eagerly participated in a variety of sports could barely move and had constant pain. She was eventually transferred to Dodd Hall at The Ohio State University Hospitals and spent five weeks in rehabilitation, refusing to give in to total despair.

“I went with a sense of hope. It was the best hospital available and the rehab people had great ability and success rates. I knew it was the best place I could be.” She was determined to reclaim her life. “I said to myself, ‘I’m going to make sure I do everything possible to cooperate and see if I can walk out of here.’ That was my goal.”

Dodd staff told her about the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission and Rossetti immediately referred herself. She was put in touch with Counselor Tim Brust. When she left Dodd that July, however, it wasn’t on two feet. “I had a neck brace and a body brace and was real sore,” she said. “I was still on legal narcotics for the pain and couldn’t get in bed or out of bed. My wheelchair was a loaner and didn’t fit through doors real well. I had a temporary ramp built by my family and friends. I’d hired a personal attendant to work for me full time.”

Because Rossetti couldn’t come to his office, Brust went to her. “Rosemarie’s motivation especially struck me. I didn’t think she’d really had time to adjust to the injury but she sure was ready to move forward.”

The woman who’d once been a full-time doctoral student in horticulture while also teaching at OSU and working at least 40 hours a week for an interior landscaping company (“pretty hoppin’” was the way she described those years) wasn’t about to throw in the towel.

There were lots of doubts, however. “I had two businesses – a publishing company and a speaking/training/consulting/writing company. I was working on the second edition of a book at the time and my publishing business was doing well. I thought, ‘How can I get into the basement where the inventory is? This isn’t going to work.’”

Brust arranged for consultations by medical specialists, an occupational therapist, a rehabilitation engineer and RSC’s EnterpriseWorks staff. Rossetti wanted to become independent so that she could run her businesses, but to do that, she first had to be able to safely enter and exit her house. She also hoped to drive again someday.

Modifying the home’s raised entrance for easy access wasn’t a simple process. “There were lots of consultants,” she remembered, “and the whole entry had to be redone. They put in steps for able-bodied people and new concrete to get to the steps, and then an elevated false porch at the right level for the entry. There’s a wooden deck above the original porch. Then the threshold had a bump in it, so they custom-made a piece of oak to match the hardwood floor so that I could roll right in.” The installation of an exterior electric, push-button lift completed the project.

Inside, an occupational therapist demonstrated ways to safely perform kitchen chores and how to use a reacher to retrieve items. Cupboard contents were reorganized onto turntables and the laundry room door was eliminated. Dodd Hall staff removed the shower door, making the bathroom accessible. Luckily, Rossetti’s office and the master bedroom/bath are on the first floor of the two-story house.

Although she could enter the office, its inaccessible furniture posed a problem. “I had to sell my favorite piece, a roll-top desk. I couldn’t get into it. The old four-drawer file cabinets went to the basement.” Brust arranged for a table and a couple of shorter cabinets that she could use for her work.

Rossetti’s devoted husband quit his successful technology sales job and started a home-based Web design business so that he could be with his wife (thanks to her disability insurance, the couple had a monetary safety net). With Leder to assist her, Rossetti was able to dismiss the personal attendant she’d hired and paid for herself.

Through therapy, her physical condition improved and eventually she could grip, write, feed herself and propel the wheelchair. She wanted to get back to work but knew her business would now take a different course. Brust directed her to RSC’s EnterpriseWorks program, designed to help people with disabilities decide if entrepreneurship is right for them. “Because Rosemarie had run her own companies, she didn’t need classes on how to write a business plan,” Brust said. “We mainly provided consultation services.”

To test the waters, Rossetti decided to market herself in the Columbus area as a motivational/inspirational speaker. With leads provided by EnterpriseWorks’ Linda Steward, she contacted local women’s organizations. The clients she had before her injury were also clamoring for her
services. “They insisted I was ready to travel before I thought I was,” she said.

The first call came a month after the accident. “The phone rings and the client wants me to present to a group of interior landscape horticulturists at Longwood Gardens (in Pennsylvania) the following April. I told her, ‘I’m lying in a hospital bed and writing on a Kleenex box. I can’t even get out of bed to get a pen and paper. Do you know just how disabled I am?’” The persistent client kept calling, assuring Rossetti that she’d be “just fine” by April and although fearful of travel, she agreed to try to be there.

Despite meticulous planning of even minuscule details, everything that could go wrong on that trip did – the hotel room was totally inaccessible, the flight home was cancelled, the wheelchair wouldn’t fit into airport restroom stalls. Other women blocked the door to afford her privacy. “I was absolutely mortified. ‘Look what life is like for me,’ I thought. ‘This isn’t fair!’”

As miserable as it was, the trip was an epiphany for Rossetti. “When I finally got home, I realized that I’d done it all, even though nothing went as planned. I realized that it wasn’t so bad after all, that people were wonderful and that everybody was looking out for me – even total strangers.”

She’d purchased a minivan which RSC fitted with hand controls and a kneeling mechanism. Equipped with her new self-confidence, an abundance of determination and an inspirational message, Rossetti was well on the road to success.

Her accomplishments since that day in 1998 are many: first runner up, Ms. Wheelchair Ohio 2002; torchbearer for the 2002 Winter Olympics; author of widely-published monthly inspirational columns; internationally-known speaker, trainer and consultant. Now a capable solo traveler, she’s even planning a presentation in Singapore next year. She’s developed speeches on limiting risks, avoiding losses and maintaining continuity of a business during a crisis, as well as the importance of disability insurance. Last July, Rossetti was chosen to receive one of the national Remarkable Women Awards sponsored by Personal Products Co., a division of McNeil-PPC, Inc. With it came a $2,000 grant.

But that’s not all. The third volume in the Mission Possible! series, released last September, features a chapter by Rossetti as “one of 12 great Americans” who’ve achieved success. She’s in good company – the book’s other “mission-minded” co-authors include Deepak Chopra, Steven Covey and Les Brown.

Using a walker, she’s been able to progress a mile around the neighborhood, “one driveway at a time.” Through intense therapy, she fully regained use of her quadriceps and partial use of her hamstrings. Riding their 27-speed, three-wheeled, recumbent bikes, she and Leder can again enjoy the pleasures of cycling (special shoes and toe clamps enable her to keep her feet on the pedals and she’s never without a helmet). Two years after the accident, they returned to the site. “It was a victory ride for me,” said Rossetti with satisfaction. “I’m here and the tree’s gone.”

Her memoir proposal’s now in a publisher’s hands and within the next couple of years, Rossetti hopes to sell movie rights to her life story. “Big dreams!” she laughed, but her dreams have a way of coming true.

Brust believes that determination drives her success. “It was easy to work with Rosemarie,” he said. “She was very empowered to take charge of lots of details that I usually have to deal with. She understood all the technical reports and how things could affect her. She made sure she was satisfied.” Not long ago, RSC provided her with a lightweight titanium wheelchair and a portable shower bench for use when traveling. “Before that,” she said, “one hotel brought a milk crate for me to sit on in the shower.”

“Overwhelmingly pleased,” is how Rossetti describes her experiences with Brust and RSC. “Tim was very supportive and responsive, and there was good communication between us. He was always a welcome visitor!”

Key to Rossetti’s in-demand status as a motivator is her attitude toward the dramatic changes in her own life. “You have to get back to your perception of reality,” she explained. “You’re injured, your limitations are there, your whole future’s in jeopardy. That’s for now, but it may not be forever. Your vision of what’s possible must expand much more. Your creativity, your energy, your potential, your intellect – they’re there. Once you tap into realizing that there are things you can do, then the impossible for you is likely to become possible.

“Your power,” she emphasized, “is in refusing to act powerless.”

Biking with street smarts

Rosemarie Rossetti, featured on our cover, strongly advocates the use of a helmet when cycling – hers saved her life. You’ll find more about bicycle safety from the Ohio Department of Public Safety in a comprehensive manual combining Ohio’s bicycle laws and John Allen’s “Street Smarts,” a guide illustrating proper bicycle handling in traffic. It’s targeted toward the adult bicycle enthusiast and covers topics such as hand and arm signals, right of way, turning at intersections and passing other vehicles.

According to Public Safety, one percent of all bicycle crashes result in a fatality. In Ohio, 22 bicyclists were killed and 2,177 were injured during 2000. Phone (614) 466-4775 or fax 752-8410 and ask for Ohio Bicycling Street Smarts (#HSY 0079).

Safety doesn’t take a back seat to modifications

RSC Vehicle Modification Administrative Rules put safety first when guiding counselors toward travel solutions for people with disabilities. The rules require that:

• only retail dealer shops accredited to the highest industry standard – the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association Quality Assurance Program – are eligible to perform vehicle modifications for RSC consumers;

• every consumer must receive a behind-the-wheel driving evaluation with a qualified driver rehabilitation specialist;

• all driver trainers used by RSC must be licensed by the Ohio Department of Public Safety;

• RSC consumers must be escorted by the driver trainer to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles where they will take the road test in the modified evaluation/training vehicle to obtain an appropriately-restricted Ohio Drivers’ License; and that

• all modifications be inspected, regardless of complexity.

As of May 2002, eight retail dealers and 24 driver evaluators and trainers were on RSC’s “approved” list.

Currently, RSC’s vehicle modification inspector is George Hicks of Ingenium Engineering Services. Hicks is a professionally-licensed engineer with an automotive engineering background and certification as an automotive accident reconstructionist.

RSC’s current vehicle modification specialist is Juergen Babirad of Rehabilitation Technology Associates, Inc. Babirad assists counselors throughout the process of providing various driver rehabilitation and vehicle modification services. He’s knowledgeable about various adaptive driving products and which vehicles can accommodate specific modifications.

In addition to Consultants Hicks and Babirad, RSC Rehabilitation Engineer Linda McQuistion, Ph.D., P.E., provides program oversight. McQuistion only confers purchasing approval on items (such as lowered-floor minivan conversions) that have been fully crash-tested for compliance with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

National Highway Safety brochure focuses on adaptations

The U. S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a 13-page brochure on “Adapting Motor Vehicles for People with Disabilities.” The booklet contains information on cost-saving opportunities, licensing requirements, evaluation of needs, selection of a qualified modifier, training in equipment use, vehicle maintenance and resources. A copy can be obtained online at www.nhtsa.dot.gov. You can also request one by calling the DOT Auto Safety Hotline, 1-888-327-4136.