16-Year-Old Hit & Run Victim Puts All Into Recovery, Has No Anger
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (CBS) - A 16-year-old seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver in Fort Collins is heading home from the hospital this week.
Connor Walsh has been at Craig Hospital in Englewood since shortly after the accident on March 10. He was walking to school when he was hit on Laporte Avenue.
He said he has very little memory of the accident.
"I remember a lot of pain and not being able to feel from the waist down," Walsh said.
Walsh does remember the Poudre Valley Fire first responders who took him to the hospital as well as the family and friends who have been by his side during his recovery.
Walsh has serious injuries at the base of his spine. In March, doctors gave him a 10 percent chase of walking again.
But for two months, the high school sophomore has made Craig Hospital his classroom, learning to do everything from tying his hoes to using stairs.
"I've always known Connor's a trooper but he's blown me away with his resilience," said his mother Heather Zoccali on Tuesday.
And Walsh is ready to prove her right, putting his all into his physical therapy.
"It's 80 percent mental, 20 percent physical," is how Walsh described the process to reporters.
Walsh said that means there's nothing left for anger for the driver accused in the accident.
His mother agrees, "That's his bag to carry, that's not ours."
But the teen does want to know why the driver left the scene, saying it is important to stay and help if someone is hurt.
That driver is identified as Reginald Loewen, 36, of Fort Collins. He turned himself into police on the day of the accident. He faces charges of leaving the scene of an accident involving serious injuries and careless driving.
Police say he may have fallen asleep at the wheel.
