Tomas Rodriguez was born with a medical condition called Hydrocephalus, the condition means he was born with water in his brain. Rodriguez was treated with it since birth and has had six brain surgeries.
The Spain native held 16 Madrid records in 16 different events, even breaking those broke multiple times. He was also the national record holder in the 200 IM. Rodriguez said his greatest achievement didn’t come as a win, but for his effort.
“I also achieved, something I’m proud of… the bronze medal in the open body swim, that was huge for me.” Rodriguez said.
He moved to the United States in 2017 with his family. He’s been part of a club team in Florida, the U.S. Paralympic team and as of recently the Oswego State Lakers swim team.
Rodriguez trains with teammates without disabilities. His coach Michael Holman has positive things to say about him.
“He is far more put together and on top of managing his daily life and school and other activities than athletics, he more kids I deal with, he’s on top of it.” Coach Michael Holman says.
“So, what may seem to be my disability out of the water become my ability when I dive off the block/six brain surgeries didn’t change my life, you know swimming did.” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez is training for the 2019 Can-Am Para-Swimming championships in Vancouver. He is also going to train with his club team in Florida, hoping for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
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Murder suspect claims victim ran into his knife
A Baldwinsville teenager charged with second-degree murder claims the victim ran into a kitchen knife he was holding in his hand.
Anthony J. Miller, a 46-year-old Granby man, was killed on Super Bowl Sunday when four teenagers attempted to rob his mobile home.
Michael Celi, 17, of 9 McHarrie St, along with Glenwood E. Carr, 16, of 610 Lamson Road; and Zachary M. Scott, 19, of 7645 Van Buren Road are charged with burglary and murder.
According to court documents, Celi told state police in an interview Sunday that, “After the Super Bowl on Feb. 2, using their mother’s white car, Celi’s brother took him, Zach Scott and Carr to Miller’s house. When Celi and Carr entered the home, Miller attacked Carr, punching and hitting him. Celi was armed with a kitchen knife he had brought from home.
State troopers say, “Mr. Celi stated Miller ran into the knife while he had it in his hand,”
The knife penetrated Miller’s chest or stomach causing him to fall on his back. Celi told troopers that Miller pulled the knife out of him and Celi punched Miller in the face.
Carr took a glass bong from Miller’s house, Celi told troopers.
Miller was killed. He was found Feb. 3 in his mobile home by friends.
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Port City Co-Op Antique Store
by Sabina Longo, WTOP10-TV
Port City Co-Op is an antique store that is hidden on West Second Street in downtown Oswego. The store celebrated its two year anniversary on Tuesday, November 1. Linda Demassi had the idea to open up Port City Co-Op and help bring more local businesses to Oswego.
Originally the store opened with ten vendors but now there are 37. With more vendors selling their items, the store needed to be expanded and that is when the owners of Port-City bought out the soap store that is located nextdoor.
Antiques and unique items are not the only reason why people shop here. Mary Waite is a regular at Port City and says she loves all the different items because it brings back nostalgic memories. It reminds her of her childhood.
Linda Demassi encourages people to shop local because, “it’s huge to shop local, for the economy, the city. Shopping local is huge to keep the small businesses”
Port City Co-Op is opened on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 11am to 5pm, Thursday to Friday from 11am to 6pm, Saturday from 11am to 5pm and Sunday from 11am to 3pm.
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National emergency declared in child and teen mental health – what this means for college students
Photo by MGN. In early October, a group of health professionals and psychiatric experts around the nation gathered enough data to declare a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health.
This comes nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and for young adults specifically in higher education, their mental health is also taking a toll.
“With the environment constantly changing, it’s kind of hard to reach stability in mental health,” Nicole Hillyard, a student at University at Buffalo said about her own struggles this year.
This includes SUNY Oswego students who have been feeling the effects of keeping up with mandates as the school resumes in-person activities.
“We’re so used to just having all these online classes, and not doing as much, and now we’re doing so much more,” Seth Nesbitt, a SUNY Oswego student said in regards to coming back in person. “I feel like a lot of my peers and I are having a hard time with the readjustments.”“I just needed to take this semester off to help fix my mental health”
KEAUNDREA HANDFORDA study called Healthy Minds Network found that last fall, college students in particular reported peak levels of depression and anxiety.
The study is led by four professors at different universities, and it details the rising trend over the last several years of mental health concerns, especially depression and anxiety, among college students.
Experts with the study reported that 47% of students screened positive for “clinically significant symptoms of depression, and/or anxiety,” which is the highest percentage since the trials began in 2007.
This data comes from the Healthy Minds Network website – it shows the percentage of students who have screened positive for depression and anxiety from 2007 to 2021. Graph created by reporter Melanie Higgins. “I have terrible anxiety attacks, like constantly, so I kinda knew that if I lived alone, especially two hours away, I would have to come home every day, and I knew that wouldn’t have worked,” Keaundrea Handford, a student at SUNY Brockport said about why she took this semester off. “I just needed to take this semester off to help fix my mental health.”
The Healthy Minds Network also studied that feeling of isolation, something Handford said she dreaded about going back to school.
In the study, they found that about 66% of students indicated feeling isolated from others sometimes or often, which experts said is a key risk factor in mental health.
At Wayne Behavioral Health, a mental health center located in Wayne County, representatives said most facilities no longer have enough staff to cover the rise in mental health concerns. However, the introduction of telehealth services during the pandemic helped them bring a new resource to patients in need.
“Because of the fact that a lot of insurance companies now kind of across the board are allowing telehealth, which is either by telephone or video conference,” Suzanne Catholdi, the communications liaison for Wayne Behavioral Health said. “A lot of people who weren’t seen before now have more accessibility.”
Mental health facilities all over the country have been struggling to keep up with the rise of these mental health concerns, and many have also been utilizing telehealth services as a result.
Catholdi said younger people and college students being seen at Wayne Behavioral are taking advantage of the virtual services now offered if they aren’t already using their on-campus college therapists.
However wait times across the board for many mental health facilities are becoming problematic for those in need. For Strong Hospital in Rochester, they said over the summer that wait times for those seeking therapy reached over one year.
“Our mental health therapists, they need to be able to be available and be on top of the needs, and we need to be supportive of our medical staff as well,” Catholdi said about facilities falling behind.
“They lost that, they lost those contacts, they lost that structure, a lot of kids were at home alone…”
SUZANNE CATHOLDI
She emphasized that staff all around are “suffering,” so It’s important to keep working through the pandemic and keep schools open as a resource for those struggling.“There were a lot of kids who were struggling already, that really needed that contact in the school with the teachers and professors,” Catholdi said while talking about the effects the shutdowns had on students.
“When there’s nothing for people to do, and no support in place, and a big question mark day-to-day about what they’re doing,” Catholdi added. “It was a big disaster waiting to happen.”
She said that students and adults “lost that structure,” and it led to a huge uptick in mental health concerns. Now therapy has become a big point of discussion.
“I did start therapy, and it actually helped quite a lot,” Nesbitt said.
But Nesbitt also said that despite these concerns being more publicly talked about, some students aren’t opening up enough.
“I would recommend that help to anyone,” Nesbitt explained, “Those who may be going through something, but even if you’re just alive, it’s good to just have that outlet.”
As things continue to open up, and people adjust to a normal life after two years shut down, those mental health concerns continue to be analyzed. The Healthy Minds Study is still in the process of gathering data during this time, and more colleges are being enrolled to help diversify the results.
