ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Four months after the gunfire at Columbine High School, the last victim to leave the hospital strapped on a pair of biking gloves and wheeled himself out the hospital doors on Friday.
Richard Castaldo, 17, left in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the chest down."I am glad to be going home, but it does make me a little nervous," he said, addressing the media before his exit. "I think I'm pretty much ready."
Castaldo has undergone vigorous therapy since the attack, when he was struck by several bullets. At least one bullet hit his spinal cord.
Castaldo plans to go back to school for his senior year and join his classmates who began the fall semester on Aug. 16. He says he will take a few weeks to prepare.
"I would like to get involved in gun control," he said. He said he also was interested in exploring medical research, promoting handicap accessibility and rallying for a crackdown on criminals.
He had been sitting outside eating lunch on April 20, when Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, attacked the school, injuring nearly two dozen and killing 13 before taking their own lives.
Castaldo said the gunmen threw a bomb first and then opened fire. He remembered lying there, waiting, and eventually getting rescued by SWAT team members.
His physical therapists said he responded well to therapy, and his mother, Connie Michalik, said he is "a kid who finishes every race."
She said she is hopeful that with enough work, her son may eventually be able to walk again.