After suffering a spinal cord injury 20 years ago in a diving accident that left him a quadriplegic, David Amaditz was told whatever recovery he'd see would come within two years.
At the end of two years, the most he could do was wiggle his left big toe.
He grew a beard, and told himself he wouldn't shave it off until he could walk again.
Amaditz is clean shaven today, and travels three days a week from his Bethel Park home to South Hills Village, where with the help of a high-platform walker, leg braces and his wife, Mary, he walks.
"It's such a nice feeling to be able to know in my own mind I am walking again. I was told I wasn't going to do it, and I'm doing it," he said. "It can build so much confidence up in me. Just seeing things from that perspective, from up on top again, is different from sitting. That's why it's all worth it for me."
Dr. Ralph Marino, a spinal cord injury expert at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, said it is unusual for a person to regain the ability to walk so long after a spinal cord injury, and a case like Amaditz's raises intriguing questions.
"The question is, is the spinal cord more capable of recovery than we thought?" he said. "It's something that's being looked at and people are trying to figure out. Is there more capability than we thought, or are these just unusual people⢠I don't think we really know that yet."
Amaditz has promised his daughter, Alicia, 14, that he will walk her down the aisle. He's also told Alicia and his other children, who think their daddy looks funny without a beard, that he will grow it back -- when he can run.
"I would love to run again, but first we have to tackle walking," he said. "Running is probably not in my near future."
It was four months after his injury on July 3, 1983, that Amaditz accepted his condition as permanent. He was in Milwaukee for rehabilitation, and went to the beach at Lake Michigan, where he saw a man run past him. Running had been one of his favorite activities.
"It dawned on me that was my life then, and I had a new life I had to live," he said.
Amaditz, a native of Mt. Washington, is 42 years old. He was 22 and five days away from the end of a four-year enlistment as an Air Force security police officer when he and his buddies went to Angostura Dam near their base in South Dakota for his going-away party.
He had plans to become a police officer after getting out of the military, and was looking for jobs in the Pittsburgh area.
It was a tradition for the guy going away to be thrown in the water. As his friends carried him down to the shore, Amaditz decided that rather than being thrown in, he'd dive. He wanted to do a shallow racing dive, but instead went straight down, and hit his head on the bottom.
"I knew where I wanted to go, and I didn't quite get there," he said.
Sports accidents are the fourth leading cause of spinal cord injuries, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, behind car accidents, acts of violence and falls. Two-thirds of sports injuries are from diving.
At first, Amaditz didn't realize how serious his injury was.
"I thought if you broke your neck, you died. I thought I couldn't have broken my neck because I was still living," he said. "I was a little naive then."
Amaditz suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury in his neck. Incomplete injuries result in a partial loss of sensation and function below the injury level.
At first, all Amaditz could move was his head. Four months later, he could move his arms. He's considered a quadriplegic because he doesn't have total control of his arms, wrists or hands, in addition to the loss of control of his legs.
Amaditz learned to live with his condition. He retired from the Air Force, moved in with his parents and started taking college classes, eventually earning a degree in social work. He then got a degree in education, with the idea of becoming a teacher, but soon found the demands of student teaching were too high.
He was prepared to live his life in a wheelchair when in 1989 a biofeedback test found that signals from his brain were still reaching his muscles. He thought he had maxed out his potential, but now knew he could do more.
He stood for the first time, with help, in 1994, 11 years after the injury. He stood on his own for three to four minutes in 1997.
"My legs shook so badly. My whole body shook," he said. "My blood pressure went sky high."
His first step in 15 years came in 1998.
Dale Reckless, a physical therapist at Health South Harmarville Rehabilitation Hospital, first met Amaditz in late 1998. When Amaditz first started therapy there, Reckless said, he could walk about 40 feet in 17 seconds with the help of three people. By September 2002, Amaditz could walk 240 feet, twice, in 15 to 20 minutes with no help.
Reckless said the strength of Amaditz's quadriceps, or thigh muscles, is key to his ability to stand and walk, but not the only factor.
"He has incredible motivation. He never gave up. He kept pushing himself to achieve the next level," Reckless said.
Mary Amaditz met her future husband in 1986 at a Community College of Allegheny College campus. She didn't learn until much later how tall her husband is.
"It was so neat to walk in the mall with David," she said. "It was something we never did together."
Amaditz can only walk on the smooth floor at the mall. On bad days, it's work, and he has to think about every step.
"On a good day, it's nice, it's effortless. I don't have to think about what I'm doing," he said. "I can think of other things. I can talk, I can look around."
Amaditz said his efforts at walking have made everything he does in his wheelchair easier. He can sit longer without discomfort, and has better balance. He can talk and breathe more easily, and can sneeze and cough harder. His blood circulation has improved, which Mary said is evidenced by the hair growing back on his toes.
Amaditz doesn't dwell on his injury, instead focusing on everything he's gained since. He and his wife have six children, including his stepson and five adopted from Romania and Peru. He's nearing the end of a four-year term on the Bethel Park School Board, and is running for re-election. He's written children's stories and is working at getting a novel published.
"A heck of a lot of good things have come after I was injured, and I don't know if it would've happened if I hadn't been injured," he said.
While research continues to find a cure for spinal cord injuries, Amaditz said he would not be first in line for any experimental treatments.
"I've come too far with what I have now to risk losing it," he said. "I have a lot to lose."
