New York|A Normal Teenager Lives the ‘New Normal’
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/14/nyregion/a-normal-teenager-lives-the-new-normal.html
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A Normal Teenager Lives the ‘New Normal’
By Alice Kenny
- Sept. 14, 2003
NICK SPRINGER lives a full and typical teenager’s life, playing sports, hanging out with friends in his hometown of Croton-on-Hudson and catching his younger sister in chokeholds and hugs. And yet it is not a normal life. Most teenagers who are going to the local diner, for example, don’t have to slide out of their wheelchairs and scramble up the 12 steps at the entrance on their knees and elbows.
”If I sit around and mope about why I lost my hands and legs, it’s not going to make them come back magically,” said Nick, who is 18. ”They’re gone and I have to learn to live without them.”
The illness that cost Nick his hands and legs, and almost his life, began on an August night almost four years ago at a sleep-away camp in Massachusetts. At first, he [...]
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