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He needed speech, occupational and physical therapy as well as
memory repetition. He uses a wheelchair to help him move around
his Nickerson home.
"I am
still not happy with (my condition)," he said.
The
family has converted a bedroom into an exercise room so he can
continue with his therapy. He also designed a special tool to
help him stabilize his footing when he uses his walker.
Aufenkamp has made strides since the Feb. 7, 2001, accident on an
ice-covered U.S. Highway 275. He was injured when a semi-tractor
went out of control, crossed the median and struck Aufenkamp's
car.
He spent three weeks in a level 3 coma at St. Joseph's Hospital in
Omaha and seven weeks at a rehabilitation center in Lincoln
before being able to return home for outpatient therapy.
And,
it [was] weeks before he remembered the accident.
"It is an experience that nobody who has not been through it could
understand," said his wife, Nettie.
But
Aufenkamp is a fighter, said Dennis Koley of Arlington,
who along with William E. Gast of Omaha represented the
Aufenkamps in a lawsuit against the Canadian trucking firm
involved in the accident.
The lawsuit recently was settled with one of the largest
settlements for a closed-head injury in Nebraska.
Although the dollars are nice, Nettie Aufenkamp said, nothing can
"bring him back to where he was before (the accident)."
The Aufenkamps have three children, Wyatt, Keisha and Sarah, all
of Fremont, who "are a lot of help," she said.
The
community also has helped throughout the ordeal.
"A
measure of a community is by how they respond to tragedy, and this
community gets a gold star plus," Koley said.
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