Cleared for takeoff
Munster pilot credits therapy team, Fitness Pointe support for recovery after near-fatal crash
Don Boldenow eased himself from a wheelchair into a low-seated exercise bicycle and slowly pedaled. It was a far cry from his previous routine of pull-downs and free weights, but he had to start somewhere.
A charter member of Community Hospital Fitness Pointe, the Munster man was a familiar face on the fitness floor for 25 years. Staff and other regulars noticed his sudden months-long absence. When he returned, they also noticed the wheelchair and his mangled right leg.
“People would see the shape I was in and ask what happened,” Boldenow said. “That really moved me.”
Soon, the people with whom he exchanged nods and smiles for many years were more like friends, and the now-66-year-old retiree shared his story of survival.
The afternoon of June 24, 2022, Boldenow went for a ride in his Glasair II FT, an experimental aircraft he had piloted for two decades. He was practicing maneuvers when the aircraft went into a flat spin.
“You know in the spring, when the maple seeds – a lot of people call them helicopters – they spin all the way down?” he said. “That was me. From several thousand feet up, I had to ride the aircraft down. I was yelling at myself and thinking, ‘This is it. It’s over.’ ”
Boldenow’s descent came to a jarring halt in a tree beside a creek in an unincorporated Will County, Ill., field.
“A tree pierced the bottom of the aircraft in the cockpit where I was sitting,” Boldenow said. “That tree saved my life. It lessened the impact of the crash.”
He later learned two men working nearby witnessed the disaster and called 911. Boldenow was semi-conscious as first responders from Peotone, Manhattan, Monee and Crete fire departments worked for an hour to extricate him. All the while, his feet burned from the pooling aviation fuel. Once freed, he was airlifted to a Chicago hospital.
“I remember waking up and my wife coming into my intensive care hospital room, and I told her, ‘I had a bad day,’ ” he said.
Boldenow’s wife of 37 years, Jeannine Boldenow, had been home on the computer when news broke of the accident.
“She zoomed in and she recognized the tail number of the aircraft,” Don Boldenow said. “That’s how she found out I had crashed.”
To pass time in the waiting room, Boldenow’s wife and brother amassed a list of his major injuries, which numbered nearly 20. Compound fracture fibula and tibia. Burns on legs and top of foot. Two gashes in his head that required stitches. Spine L3 cracked in two places. Road rash. Blood clot near left leg. Left and right cheek bones broken. The list continued.
After treatment for his traumatic injuries, Boldenow spent two weeks at Community Stroke & Rehabilitation Center (CSRC) in Crown Point.
“I still couldn’t walk,” he said. “I could barely stand. The people at Community Stroke & Rehabilitation Center were excellent and helped me regain basic mobility.”
CSRC, which offers inpatient and outpatient physical therapy with a range of rehabilitation services and equipment, ranks No. 2 in Indiana for physical rehabilitation centers. The rating comes from Newsweek and Statista Inc., an industry ranking provider.
“Patients trust us to help them reach their goals, and we are proud to partner with them in their effort to achieve positive results,” said Craig Bolda, administrator of CSRC and vice president of Acute Rehabilitation Services for Community Healthcare System.
For Boldenow, the subsequent months were occupied by more surgeries followed by outpatient physical therapy at Community Hospital. He joked that he should have earned reward points for the amount of time he spent at the hospital.
“I was on a first-name basis with the valet at Community Hospital,” he said with a laugh.
Boldenow’s motivation to function as well as he did before the crash helped him during his physical therapy sessions, said Samantha Paige, physical therapist at Community Hospital.
“Don showed up for his appointments ready for whatever we challenged him with,” she said. “When a patient is mentally prepared to work toward recovery, that is a huge help. On days that were a little more tough, Don knew he could lean on us for encouragement.”
Boldenow craved a sense of normalcy and a change of scenery, so he sought permission to resume workouts at Fitness Pointe, even as he used a wheelchair or cane to get around.
After thorough medical reviews, he was cleared to resume workouts.
“They were eyeballing me pretty close,” he said with a laugh. “But, I wouldn’t overdo it.”
His friends at Fitness Pointe reached out to check on him, and one fitness instructor along with Fitness Pointe members even sent a care basket.
"I consider the staff and members at Fitness Pointe and Community Hospital a rare group of people who showed great generosity and kindness during my recovery," he said.
Boldenow fell into a pattern. He would exercise at Fitness Pointe, take a break when he needed surgery and request medical clearance to resume his regimen.
“I know how important it is to stay physically fit,” he said. “When you’re lying in bed for weeks at a time, your whole body atrophies. You lose all that muscle mass. For me to stop all of a sudden after 50 years of working out, it was hard for me to do.”
Doctors and physical therapists repeatedly told Boldenow that his lifelong commitment to physical health helped save his life.
“Typically, nobody survives what I went through,” he said.
He underwent six surgeries on his leg and had five vertebrae fused in his spine.
“Essentially, I’m doing fine,” Boldenow said. “I still have pain in my leg, and I still have pain and swelling.”
Despite the physical and mental toll, Boldenow has been up in the air a few times as a passenger and intends to pilot again.
“I don’t have a death wish,” Boldenow said. “I enjoy flying, and I plan to continue with it.”
For more information about Rehabilitation and Therapy Services at Community Healthcare System, visit COMHS.org/services/therapy-services.
