WOMAN IS POSITIVE ON RECOVERY

Karen Kyle is battling to regain control of her body. Hospitalized, the Jackson Route 4 woman is paralyzed from the waist down the result of diving into a 4-foot-deep circular pool.

But Kyle says she's not ready for the wheelchair. Speaking from her hospital bed in St. John's Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis Tuesday, Kyle said she was undergoing therapy, trying to regain the use of her legs.

"I just think if I work hard enough at it, I am going to," she said. The 39-year-old Kyle has some movement now in her right leg and in several of her fingers.

"I can raise my arms up and down," she said. But she added, "It's definitely a slow process."

Through her ordeal, Kyle has remained optimistic. "It doesn't do any good to lay around and moan about it," she said.

The accident has been a devastating blow to friends and family. The 39-year-old Kyle and her husband, Jack Welker, have two daughters: one 7 and the other 13.

Welker has been out of work for about a year, having been laid off from an area quarry after 22 years, said Dianna Bohnert, a first cousin to Kyle and a Cape Girardeau resident.

The family depended on Kyle's income. She was on the staff of a group home for the mentally handicapped near Fruitland.

"It has been really sad," said Bohnert. Kyle, she said, was always helping others. "She worried about everybody else."

Now, friends and family are worrying about her. Bohnert said a fund has been established at South East Missouri Bank to raise money to help the family meet household and medical expenses.

An effort also is under way to hold a dance to help raise money, she said. Donations to the fund can be mailed to the Karen Kyle Fund, South East Missouri Bank, 111 S. Broadview, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63701.

"We opened the fund about three weeks ago and we've got about $300," said Bohnert, adding that she and others are still trying to get the word out about the fund-raising effort.

Bohnert said there's a concern that the children could end up in foster care if the family is unable to keep the home. "We do not want the children taken out of their home environment," she said.

Family and friends are hoping to hold a dance to help raise money. "We just need a lot of prayers, too," she said.

Bohnert said Kyle and Welker don't have any insurance to help pay the costly medical bills.

"She is going to have to have a special wheelchair and ramps built for the house," explained Bohnert.

She said Welker currently spends much of his time in St. Louis, where his wife is hospitalized.

The tragic accident occurred on May 9, Mother's Day.

Kyle dived into the swimming pool at a friend's home on County Road 657, just north of Cape Girardeau. "She just hit it wrong," Bohnert explained. "She broke her neck."

Ironically, Kyle was a good swimmer. "I was just one card short of being a lifeguard," said Kyle.

"I remember diving into the pool, and I closed my eyes because the water bothers my eyes," she said. Her head hit the side of the pool.

"I hit my head. I thought, ouch. I had no idea I had broken my neck. I reached up for the side of the pool and I couldn't move my arms.

"I almost blacked out," she recalled.

Kyle was in intensive care for five weeks at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was then transported by ambulance to St. John's Mercy Medical Center.

Bohnert said doctors have indicated that Kyle may remain in the hospital for two more months.

"She is still battling pneumonia. She also has blood clots in her legs now," said Bohnert. Kyle was on a respirator for a month because of the pneumonia, she said.

Kyle's spine is currently supported by a metal brace. Doctors removed the crushed vertebrae and replaced the bone in Kyle's neck with one taken from her hip, Bohnert said.