Olympic Tragedy Hits Close to Home
By now, most of us have heard the news reports about the American couple who was attacked in Beijing's Drum Tower on August 9, the first day of competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Todd Bachman was killed when Tang Yongming attacked him in the tower with a knife. Barbara Bachman was also stabbed when she ran to help her husband. She was flown home from China last Friday and is now at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, where she is progressing toward recovery.
What isn't publicized in most news reports, however, is that Barbara Bachman is an occupational therapist who works in Minnesota's Lakeville School District. In fact, we here at ADVANCE just learned this earlier today from one of our columnists.
Bachman's, a floral and garden company of which Todd Bachman was CEO, has established a Web site to communicate information about the situation and about Barbara's recovery.
http://www.visionsweb.com/ToddBachman/index.asp
Web site visitors can also post messages to the Bachman family on the site's guestbook. In the 50 pages of comments - some left by family and friends, others by professional colleagues, and still more by strangers - I found notes of sympathy and encouragement from at least one fellow OT practitioner, as well as some extolling Barbara's skill as an OT. It's really amazing and life-affirming to read hundreds of tributes to this couple.
You can also find a great tribute to Barbara's OT career on one of the blogs of the Minneapolis NBC affiliate's Web site: http://www.kare11.com/blog/fryer_article.aspx?storyid=521491