Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 193, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 14, 1980 Page: 17 of 18
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THE NEWS-TELECRAM. Sulphur Springs, Texas, Thursday, Aug. 14,lffO—17.
Crippled policeman battles back to normal life
By LEIGH SHIRLEY
Associated Press Writer
MARSHALL, Texas (AP) —
With the tenacity of a bull
terrier, Bob Green has
struggled for more than a year
to return to active duty as a
police officer from near-death.
Green, a lieutenant with the
Marshall Police Department,
whiled away 11 months of his
life “bored ...frustrated, but
thankful to be alive” after he
was involved in a two-car
collision while answering an
early morning disturbance call
Sept. 16, 1979.
Four hours of surgery to
repair a crushed left arm and
hip, numerous broken bones
and massive internal injuries
left 39-year-old Green facing
“something I’d never had to
deal with before.”
After returning to a 40-hour
work week in May, Green
overextended himself and had
to undergo another bout of
surgery when complications
developed in his left leg.
“I started back to work again
this Friday, only this time I’m
taking it a lot slower than
before,” said Green, who now is
stapled together with metal
plates and pins.
The spunky lieutenant says he
“had to learn a lesson in
patience” during a two-month
hospital stay, and many more
hours of slow, painful
rehabilitation.
“I was used to being so ac-
tive, then all of the sudden,
there I was flat on my back with
nothing to keep me occupied,”
he said.
Boredom breeds mischief,
and Green said he wasted no
time getting into trouble at
Schumpert Medical Center in
Shreveport, la., where he spent
the first few months after the
accident.
“I’m not a usually devious
person, but after all that time
on my back I had read
everything there was to read,
and could tell you how many
tiles were in the wall ... I just
had to release some of that
frustration.”
Green began to work with the
arm and leg least injured in the
accident.
“After a while I could get
around on one leg ... and just
heel-and-toe my way down the
hall,” he said.
But rehabilitation wasn’t
enough to keep Green from
creating such a ruckus that
doctors finally released him
three months before planned.
“I was in a wheelchair, and
using a stick to push buttons I
could go anywhere in the
hospital on the elevators,”
Green said.
“One day I slipped outside
and was rolling along down the
road and realized I couldn’t get
back up on the curb, so I
crossed the street and there
were these beautiful roses in the
median and I picked one, —
which is against the law in
Shreveport,” he said.
A passing patrolman stopped
Green and took him back to the
hospital where he and the
nurses proceeded to give the
prodigal patient a rather in-
tense lecture.
“It was really embarrassing,
that police officer lecturing me
like that,” Green said.
Apparently the em-
barrassment didn’t slow him
down, and the following day —
after squirting one of the nurses
with a water gun — Green was
released.
Spending most of his time in a
wheelchair, the soft-spoken
East Texan had became more
inventive in ways to get around
his handicap.
“I like to work around my
farm and rigged up a crutch to
the clutch in my pickup truck so
I can drive around and do
chores and such,” said Green,
his left leg still in a fiber-glass
cast after a metal plate
separated and the bone had to
be rebroken.
Green also drives his patrol
car to and from work — a car
that is an exact replica of the
one which Green drove for 11
years and almost died in.
"It scares the hell out of them
for me to be driving that car,
but I get around pretty good.
It’s easy driving an automatic,"
he said.
Green and his wife, Sandra,
began working together on their
own physical therapy program,
with things “we bought at the
hardware store.”
“By the time the doctor was
ready to send me to physical
therapy, I was already doing so
well on my own, he didn’t
bother," Green said.
In the months following, a
determined Green worked out
daily with weights and used the
whirlpool at a high school gym
in Marshall, preparing for a
physical test that would
determine whether he would be
promoted from sergeant, to
lieutenent in May.
“It was hard work but I made
it,” Green said.
An avid competitor in
shooting matches, Green was
left-handed before the accident
left his shooting arm crushed
and almost useless.
"Now I use my right hand to
shoot with,” he said. "It’s good
excercise and helps me gain
coordination.”
An admirer of Green’s
marksmanship said the
wheelchair-bound officer
shoots “as well with his right
hand as he did with his left."
Green, a father of four, also
keeps himself wrapped up in
work with teens 14 to 18 years
old in the Marshall Police
Explorers club.
“You’ve got to have
something to work toward to
give yourself a sense of purpose,
... and my wife and I love
having these kids around," he
said.
Green isn’t sure how long it
may take before he will be able
to walk around on his own
again, but he knows one day he
will.
“I had often wondered what it
would be like to be physically
handicapped... and mine is only
temporary and I know it,”
Green said. “But it has made
me so aware of the problems
these people face."
“Little things to a healthy
person, like opening a door or
getting out of a car, are huge
obstacles to someone in a
wheelchair," he said “Now
I’ve been on the other side of it
— now I know how the other
person feels.”
Nude prisoner escapes
MINERAL WELLS, Texas
(API — a New Mexico prison
escapee t'irned the odds in his
favor twice, and slithered nude
through a window in the Palo
Pinto County Jail where he was
being held on aggravated
robbery charges.
Toby Sammie Barelo Jr., 21,
apparently broke an inch-thick,
reinforced glass window in his
cell and slipped through the 6-
inch by 15-inch hole sometime
Tuesday night, deputies said.
Motorists along U.S. 180, west
of Palo Pinto, reported a naked
man in a roadside park
knocking on car windows
during the night, before
deputies were aware that
Barelo had escaped.
Police said a man later
commandeered a car not far
from Mineral Wells and and left
the driver bound and gagged.
Barelo, who had been serving
a five year term at Roswell
Correctional Center in New
Mexico, escaped from the
minimum security prison in
June.
<5,°
Lowry’s is celebrating their 53rd
Anniversary with a Big Storewide
Appreciation Sale — Now Thru Aug.
31st.
Dining Groups
*349
*149
MANTLE CLOCK
*259 *219
Kessler Table & 4 Arm
Chairs. *898i8........
Kessler 42” Table
And Two Chairs. t29fl!_5.............
Howell Oval Smoked Glass-Chrome
Table, 4 Rust Upholstered Chairs.
•79a!5 ...........................
*459
Thomasville French Oval Leg Table
6 Cane Back Chairs & China. White $.4 QQQ
Base. Fruitwood Top. *2999!5....... I
Base, Fruitwood Top. *2999!5
Ayers Buffet and Hutch.
fT598!5...............
*799
CHAIR
*239 *189
CURIO
*399 *329
Upholstery
Hickory Lane Early American
Sofa, Nylon Plaid. *399!t.....
Crestline Wood Trim
Sofa, Multi-Color Plaid. *399!?
California Style Loveseat.
Blue-Beige Velvet.’399!?.....
Ayers Loveseat, Quilted
Velvet. *999............
A. Brandt Chair & Ottoman.
Velvet. *39^!..............
Star Sofa & Chair.
Nylon Plaid. *799^
Southland Sofa. Floral
Stripe, Velvet. *899^...
Pulaski Arm Chair.
Accent Piece. *249!6 .
Trendline Wood Arm
Sofa & Chair.*899!5..
*299
*349
*299
*319
*199
*459
*459
.. *99
*599
Bedroom Groups
*199
.....*129
*119
*299
Lea Desk and Chair.
White. •399s5 ...............
Lea Full or Queen Headboard
and Frame. *248!5...........
Lea Twin Headboard
And Frame. r24ft‘5...........
WALL CLOCK
*229 *189
GRANDFATHER
CLOCK
Lea Trundle Bed And
Bedding. *599!5.....
Thomasville Dresser, Twin Mirrors,
Full or Queen Headboard & Frame.
Nite Stand. n59a,s...............
Johnston Oak Cannonball
Bed. 3/3. ’TTO!5...........
Tombigbee Oak 4 Drawer Chest.
*t*9!5........................
Tombigbee Oak Bachelor
Chest. H49!5.............
Tombigbee Oak 30" Hutch.
*H9’5....................
Tombigbee Oak Student
Desk. *T78J5............
Tombigbee Oak 44” Hutch.
tTSOL5...................
Ayers 7 Piece Living Room Group.
Sofa, Loveseat, Chair & Ottoman. 2 End
Tables, 1 Cocktail Table, Solid Oak
With Nylon Upholstery. *3989J5.....
Tombigbee Oak Full or Queen
Size Bed.*T89!5..............
Futorian Traditional Sofa.
Green Tapestry."*098^.....
Futorian Sofa, Tufted
Back. *W8!5.........
*1999
*359
*359
Tombigbee Nite Stand. m«!5
Tombigbee Dreser & Mirror.
*278!?....................
2 Thomasville King Size Headboards.
French, Fruitwood Finish. *498!5......
*899
*149
*149
*129
*99
*149
*119
*149
*99
*229
*249
*549 *399
Occasional Tables
*329
*149
*149
*149
*189
*139
*99
*419
Of Mount Vernon
3 Piece Thomasville Set, 2 Lamp
Tables and Cocktail Table.
Butler Console Table. *298!.5
Lea Desk, Pine. *298!5.
Lea Desk, Oak. *29fl!5
Mersman Dough Box Cocktail. *398“
Riverside Hex Commode. *T90f.
Mersman Comfnode. *t98!5........
3 Piece Hammary Pine Lamp Tables
and Cocktail. •fH8!5 ...............
Ridgeway...
Wall, Mantle
and Grand-
father Clocks
In Rich Oak,
Maple and
Cherry
Finishes. All
Clocks Will Be
Sale Priced
During This Big
Event.
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Keys, Clarke. Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 193, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 14, 1980, newspaper, August 14, 1980; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth824936/m1/17/: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.