Community Reaches Out To Columbine Survivor, Rich Castaldo, In Need Of Help

(CBS4) - For Richard Castaldo, life has not been easy since that nightmare called Columbine. Last September he appeared at a Survivors of Gun Violence event in Los Angeles.

Hollye Dexter, who had befriended him, noticed he was ill.

"We called 911. We has him taken to the hospital. He was very sick with a MRSA infection which is life threatening," she told CBS4.

His life has been threatened before. CBS4 investigator Rick Sallinger first met him in 1999. He emerged victorious from a hospital, despite being paralyzed by the gunmen's bullets.

"I'd like to get involved with gun control, help to make laws better about that, and I'd like to see everyplace handicapped accessible," he said at the time.

Now, while still wanting to help others, he is the one in need of help. He has been cooped up in a nursing facility for months with nowhere to go says Dexter.

"He is in wheelchair. I've been trying to get him a new wheel chair because I'd like to be able to take him on outings. I can get permission to take him out for a few hours, but his wheelchair is broken."

Ann Marie Hochhalter was also paralzyed in the Columbine shooting and is among those reaching out for Castaldo on Facebook.

"We're doing everything we can so he doesn't lose hope," she told CBS4. Sallinger was able to reach Castaldo by phone at the nursing facility and he told us a wheel chair would help.

"Yeah I'm trying to get a new one, a stand up one. Trying to get that going," he said.

What he said he needs most of all is a place to go. While what happened
at Columbine has impacted his life, it's something he prefers to leave in his past.

"I pretty much never think about it unless somebody talks to me about it which is often unfortunately," he said.

His mother Connie Michalik told Sallinger a cousin in San Diego has an apartment Castaldo can use, but so far he has chosen not to accept that.

Anyone wanting to help Castaldo can contact Hollye Dexter through an email: ahomeforrichard@gmail.com.