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A welcome mat is what they need

Double-amputees Landeros, Carron turn to wrestling as a comfort during lengthy rehab By Clay LatimerRocky Mountain News

Clay Latimer, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 5, 2007 at midnight

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BERTHOUD - It was an informal match at a local health club, but it might have been a big tournament anywhere.

Tyler Carron and Nikko Landeros were back in their natural environment, a sweaty wrestling mat, pushing their straining bodies with typical passion.

There were no teammates hanging around this time, no coaches. Just Carron and Landeros doing what they do best - like the old days, before the Berthoud High wrestlers lost their legs in a car accident Jan. 15, and started months of grinding physical therapy.

"This is the fun part," Landeros said near the end of another session last week. "We need to do more of this."

For Carron and Landeros, wrestling is a therapeutic diversion. It helps harden their bodies for a milestone event in their recovery, the day each will take his first step for the second time in his life, this time on artificial limbs.

In truth, it's much more. Not having wrestling is almost like missing another limb for Carron, a senior who was ranked third in the state before the accident. His dad, Bruce, is an assistant coach at Berthoud High and helps out with the local junior club. Two years ago the Carron boys - Will, Kyle and Tyler - all wrestled in the state tournament.

"Tyler didn't even get a chance this year," Bruce said.

Landeros, a junior, was a star nose guard on Berthoud's football team that went unbeaten in the regular season, but his thoughts often drifted to his favorite sport. "I wanted to start wrestling," he said.

In wrestling-mad Berthoud, even the pair's physical therapist, Caroline Creager, is savvy about the sport, having served as manager of the Northern Arizona University team.

Carron and Landeros, then, are building their new lives and new bodies from the mat up at the Berthoud Athletic Club. "Other than swimming I can't think of a better sport for them," Creager said.

In fact, they haven't given up on their dreams of wrestling competitively again.

For now, though, it's difficult to forecast when Carron and Landeros will stand on their new legs since the recovery process is a series of stops and starts. But Creager is optimistic.

"They're making terrific progress," she said.

Survival instincts

The tenacity Carron developed as a wrestler helped him survive the night of Jan. 15, which began with so much promise.

After leaving the winter formal at Berthoud High, he and Landeros were removing tools from the back of their vehicle, preparing to fix a flat tire on a narrow stretch of road near the high school.

Moments later a classmate's sport utility vehicle slammed into them, crushing them against their SUV. Carron doesn't remember the crash or dance, but his father says he accepted his predicament with his typical stoic manner.

"About the fifth or sixth day in the hospital, when he woke up, when he finally realized what had happened, he said: 'This is what I am.' "

Landeros remained conscious throughout the ordeal, developed pneumonia in the hospital and eventually went through nine surgeries, two fewer than Carron.

Landeros' legs were amputated above the knee; one of Carron's was amputated through the knee, the other above.

They wear elastic socks on the nubs to protect against swelling and take medication to subdue phantom pains - the aching in a limb that no longer exists.

In addition, Carron has no feeling in one hand and Landeros suffered a severe fracture in one arm.

Sticking together

Yet they have an unusual advantage over many amputees - one another. Good friends before the accident, they've become inseparable since, rolling down Berthoud High's hallways in their wheelchairs in perfect synch, a natural tandem with a clear fondness for one another - and for being young.

"When they get out of class, they're typical 17-year-olds, saying, 'Hey, let's go dink around the hallways,' " Bruce Carron said.

Added Landeros: "They're starting to crack down on us."

Carron also moves around on his hands, using them as feet. He placed his palms on the floor one afternoon at rehab, then scooted to a wastebasket to deposit some chewed-out gum. Because of his injured arm, Landeros is restricted to a wheelchair. "I would've just swallowed (the gum)," he said.

His parents work nights at their restaurant, so Landeros usually hangs out at Carron's house, playing pool and watching movies. He often spends the night there. "If he's not spending the night he's there all night," Bruce Carron said.

The next morning, they head back to class or rehab, dressed often in wrestling T-shirts, shorts and low-riding baseball caps. Jocks to the core, they turn the rehab into a locker room, swapping mock insults, giggling at one another's jokes, responding to Creager's commands as if she was their coach, which she has become.

"Do you know what PT stands for? Physical terrorist," she said.

Added Landeros: "This place feels like wrestling."

After a tough workout, leavened by scooter races, Landeros and Carron head to the weight room, like the old days.

New challenges

The Berthoud Athletic Club is a welcome alternative to the pair's first three rehab centers, which reminded them too much of their hospital ordeal.

"There are some pretty weird places," Landeros said. "I guess it was the hospital setting that bothered me, because we were in the hospital so long. I don't ever want to go back to a hospital."

A double-amputee has to learn to balance and walk again; to tolerate chronic pain, and nightmares and medical setbacks; to adjust to gawking children and routine indignities.

In fact, new challenges loom at nearly every turn, as Carron discovered at a swimming pool.

"He was kind of freaking a little," his father said. "He didn't know what he was going to do once he got in the water. How he was going to do it.

"Every kid in there was just all eyes, staring at him. But that's one thing about Tyler. He'll handle all of that pretty well. He's always been that kind of kid. He doesn't care what people think. He just says, 'This is who I am, this is what I'm going to do.' "

Community pitches in

Carron and Landeros constantly are on the move, attending Avalanche and Crush games and other sports events. Several weeks ago they flew to Detroit to watch the NCAA wrestling tournament - all expenses paid.

"They're loving this. They think it's great," Bruce Carron said. "It's really important to keep the guys doing stuff because if they just sit around, they start thinking about not being able to do stuff. I think it's depressing for them."

Carron and Landeros also chatted with Avalanche star Joe Sakic and Broncos lineman Tom Nalen, who dropped by the hospital shortly after the accident.

"Joe Sakic was cool," Carron said. "A normal guy. You'd never think he's a millionaire. He was there a couple hours and I think he had to play that night.

"Nalen was cool, too. Just down to earth."

Added Landeros: "We asked him a lot of questions, what it was like to play pro football. But I was kind of out of it."

Help for the families also has been plentiful. A contractor came in and renovated their homes, making them wheelchair accessible. Another company donated wheelchairs. And in Berthoud - a small town surrounded largely by farmland, between Fort Collins and Denver - the Carron and Landeros families are a community endeavor.

"We've got so much going on," Bruce Carron said. "After going through a full day of prosthetics and rehab and then going through occupational therapy for the hand, you get home and you're exhausted. You don't feel like doing anything."

Sadness and smiles

There are plenty of encouraging moments. When a group of paralympians and Olympic wrestlers met with Carron and Landeros in the Berthoud High gym, Bruce took it all in with a camcorder, a devoted father attempting to cope with a family tragedy.

"We look at the big picture as much we can," he said. "They're both still here. That's what we try to dwell on."

During their recent wrestling match, Carron started to make a move on Landeros - a moment he ended up dwelling over.

"I (couldn't) get my legs in," said Carron, who will graduate this spring. "I was pretty good at that."

Added Kyle, his brother: "Sometimes at night, usually when he's going to bed, I can tell he's a little sad by his facial expression."

But Landeros and Carron lift one another out of funks. The other day they rolled into rehab, climbed onto a mat, and were ready to go when Landeros cracked a joke that hit home with his friend, who stopped laughing after a bit, then resumed.

"You sure have the giggles today, Tyler," Creager said.

How to help

• A fund has been established to help pay the medical expenses of Tyler Carron and Nikko Landeros. For information on how to contribute, go to Berthoudcares.com.