Arm reattached, Bend teen snowboards and golfs

Published 7:04 am Saturday, May 2, 2009

BEND – The little things are the hardest, like tying his shoes or opening a bottle of soda.

But golf and snowboarding? Well, they just seem to come naturally for Cole Ortega.

Even with only one good arm.

Incredibly, Cole, a 14-year-old freshman at Bend’s Summit High School, is back competing in his two favorite sports less than a year after his left arm was severed at the elbow by the propeller of a dory boat in an accident while he was surfing off the Oregon Coast.

Another surfer recovered the detached arm, and it was surgically reattached just hours later by doctors at a Portland hospital.

After four operations, Cole has slowly regained feeling and movement in his left arm, hand and fingers as the nerves grow back, about an inch a month, toward his hand. He has feeling in his arm from where it was reattached just above the elbow to an inch or two above his wrist, but right now, all he can feel in his left hand is pain.

“I’ve turned this experience into something that’s not bad, but something I worked through,” said Cole, shortly after sinking a 20-foot putt while practicing recently with the Summit High golf team at Bend’s Broken Top Club.

“I still can’t tie my shoe or open a drink, but I’ve found other ways to deal. It’s made me more creative.”

Snowboarding was no problem. Cole was back on his board by January, and last month he competed in the USA Snowboard Association Nationals in Copper Mountain, Colo., placing respectably in two events.

“It’s not that much different,” Cole said of his return to snowboarding. “I just have to be more careful and watch out for my arm if I fall.”

Golf, however, is much different. While Cole, who is naturally right-handed, can use his left hand for the limited-range motions of putting and chipping; a full swing for driving off the tee means a one-handed swing because it hurts to use his left arm and Cole lacks control and stability in his left wrist, he said. But he’s becoming fairly accurate with the one-armed technique.

“I think it’s great that he’s even playing,” said a member of the Summit junior varsity team, Anders Hansen. “Most people would see it as a disadvantage, but Cole just sees it as life. It’s a privilege to play with him.”

Summit boys golf coach Mark Tichenor named Cole, who before the accident had been an accomplished junior golfer, an honorary member of the team this season. But the “honorary” title does not mean Cole will not compete. Recently in Madras, he shot a presentable 48 on nine holes and even made a birdie at a junior varsity tournament at Desert Peaks Golf Club, beating three other players.

Cole first started playing golf again in early March.

“I didn’t think I’d be playing golf or swinging a club this quick,” Cole admitted. “Sometimes, I want to stand up there and rip it, but I can’t. I’m motivated to get back and be as back to normal as I can. It makes me work harder to be back to where I was.”

Tichenor called adding Cole to the team the highlight of the season.

“In this game, you tend to get down on yourself, and it’s helped our players come to grips with what’s important,” Tichenor said of Cole’s impact on the team. “If we have someone whining, we send them to Cole. He’s contributing more to our team than we are to him.”

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