Moving forward after spinal injury
4/24/2005
Valley man trained for months to
walk again at marathon
CASTAIC -- In the months after Marc Richards became paralyzed below the chest in 1998, the health-conscious husband and father had to learn how to live his life using a wheelchair.
More than six years later, he set his mind to learning something far more difficult, something he had taken for granted for the decades of his life leading up to his injury. He was determined to walk.
And walk he did. Not in the way he had walked before an error in medication -- he was undergoing chemotherapy treatment after the removal of a brain tumor in January 1998 -- robbed Richards of the use of his body from the chest down. With the help of a trainer, custom-fit leg braces and a determination that burns inside him, he did walk.
"After I became injured there was denial, like this can't be happening," Richards said last week in the kitchen of his Castaic home. "Then there was a lot of anger that went on for quite a while. But I don't really have a choice at this point. Then about six months ago (my trainer) set up the marathon as a challenge to me, as a goal."
That would be the Los Angeles Marathon, in which thousands of runners, walkers and wheelchair-bound athletes participate each March.
Richards, who had worked his way up to chief information officer at Autoland when doctors discovered the brain tumor, achieved his goal last month and walked across the finish line before cheering fans and news cameras.
After training almost every day for six months, Richards, 46, started his portion of the race 400 feet shy of the finish line. Wearing leg braces molded to fit his body and using forearm crutches for stability, he walked across the finish line and into a new chapter in his life.
"It took me about 20 minutes. I was pretty exhausted when I crossed that finish line," he said. "But my family, my wife and my kids, were there screaming and cheering. (Race officials) had to keep people away from me -- there were racers coming in, some of them delirious -- and then my name comes out on the loudspeaker. It was probably the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me."
Six days Richards, a longtime vegan who prided himself on staying in shape by regular visits to the gym and enjoying outdoor activities, and Nancy, his wife since 1989, were alarmed when he suffered a grand mal seizure in January 1998.
After doctors removed the golf ball-size tumor that had caused the seizure, Richards went home to then-6-year-old son Jacob and daughter Sami, then 3.
What happened next would turn the lives of the family of four upside down. In March of that same year, Richards was prescribed chemotherapy pills to kill any remaining cancerous cells. He took two pills a day for six days -- using 12 of the 20 pills in the prescription bottle. Preferring not to delve too deeply into specific details, Richards said the proper dosage is to take a total of two pills on the first day, then no more, with a scheduled shot at the hospital to follow six days later.
Unknowingly, Richards had overdosed on the extremely strong medication, ingesting five times more than the correct dose over six days.
The pills are essentially poison, Richards said, which is what kills the cancerous cells. But the overdose also ate away at the myelin sheath that protects the spinal cord.
Hospitalized once the doctors realized the grave mistake, Richards went to step out of his hospital bed on May 2, 1998, to use the restroom and his legs collapsed under him.
"May 1 was the last time I was able to use my legs," he said. "When I got out of bed the next day, I just fell to the floor. There was litigation (related to the overdose) and I will say that me and my family are OK. But I still deal with some of that anger today. Six days. I took those pills for six days. I just have to push those thoughts out of my mind sometimes."
A new life Richards' wife, a teacher and school administrator for the last 17 years, said everything changed the day Marc was injured. While her husband struggled with denial in the two to three months after he became paralyzed, she never experienced that emotion.
"No, I knew it was real right away," she said. "I suppose it was just shock in the very beginning. And anger, yes. My son, he was young but he was just so angry. ... Sami, she was so young that she only really remembers her dad (after the injury). But there came a point where I just had to stop doing everything for him."
Richards said her husband, like many people who become paralyzed and spend long stretches in the hospital after their injuries, came home with a mentality that he couldn't do anything on his own. She indulged that misconception in the beginning, she said, but eventually helped him to see that he could be independent again.
Modifications to the house followed and Richards began taking the city bus to go run errands and go to the gym. But there were occasions when the wheelchair lift on the bus would not work and Richards was stranded. Last August, however, Richards and his wife purchased a customized minivan that allows him to drive himself to appointments, to pick up his children, to live like an independent man.
"Oh, it just changed my life," he said of his van. "It just freed me up. I absolutely love it."
His wife said the van has helped bring Jacob, 13, and his father closer together, too.
"Since we got the van, Marc can do so many of the things that dads do with their children," she said. "They go to the gym together. Jacob said to me recently, 'Mom, Dad and I are really bonding."'
Weekend racer Richards and his trainer, Taylor-Kevin Isaacs, a clinical physiologist and certified exercise and strength specialist, continue to set goals for him. The next is on Saturday at California State University, Northridge, where Richards will compete in a 5K wheelchair race and complete the final 400 feet on foot, like he did at the Los Angeles Marathon.
They are also in the early stages of planning to open a facility that Richards calls a cross between Gold's Gym and CSUN's Center of Achievement for the Physically Disabled, a place that will be open and accessible to people like Richards.
"We need to have a place with all the specialized equipment of the center, but that's open (extended hours) like Gold's Gym," Richards said. "The center is only open at certain times for students and instruction. It's still in the early stages, but this is something we're going to make happen."
Amy Raisin Darvish, (661) 257-5254 amy.raisin@dailynews.com