Mary Tiutczenko participates in occupational therapy. Doctors have told her that any improvement in movement will come within three years. On the 70-degree summer night of Aug. 24, 1991, with stars above and a dozen and half friends partying at a Northwest Side home, Mary Tiutczenko, then 28, became a member of a not-so-exclusive club. One of those mindless squabbles that are epidemic in urban Milwaukee erupted into gunfire. A handful of metal BB-sized balls flew out of the end of a sawed-off shotgun, traveled through the home's closed screen door and smashed into the back of Tiutczenko's neck just below the hairline. Two pellets struck her spinal cord, taking up permanent residence and damaging the main highway of the body's central nervous system, rendering Tiutczenko almost totally paralyzed from the chest down. In that instant, she became one of 1,768 gunshot victims from 1989 through last June who were admitted to Wisconsin hospitals for treatment and live more than a few hours.
Photo measures 7.75 x 9 inches. Photo is dated 3-14-1993.
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