Thursday, December 9, 1999 Older Editions

Selectman hopeful seriously hurt

By Neil Fater

Ted Teichert, president of Andover Junior Football and a candidate for selectmen, is recovering in the intensive care unit of Beth Israel Hospital after falling off his roof Saturday.

Teichert lost a lot of blood, and counts six broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a broken wrist among his injuries, says Erin Lynch, Teichert's sister.

"He was cleaning his gutters and he slipped and fell onto his deck. It was about a 15- to 18-foot fall," she says.

After falling off his roof, Teichert was taken to Lawrence General Hospital and then air-lifted to Beth Israel in Boston. Lynch says doctors there were still running tests on her brother as of Tuesday afternoon, three days after the fall.

"He's banged up," she says. "Right now, (new information) is an hour-by-hour thing, when they do this test or that test.

"He's still in ICU at Beth Israel, and as of an hour ago, they needed to do an MRI, so there's still a lot of questions," says Lynch, Tuesday afternoon. "'It was a close call,' was how the doctors put it at first. That was quite a shock."

Lynch says her brother is answering questions, but is on medication and sleeping a lot.

Her family has been touched by the outpouring of support from Andover, and by the efforts from local emergency and hospital personnel.

"How do you say, 'Thank you.' It just seems that's not enough at this point. It's incredible how helpful people are," she says. "These people, they just can't be any nicer and that's touched us all."

Teichert's family also expressed gratitude to the selectmen for holding a moment of silence before their joint meeting Monday. Preparing to run for selectman, Teichert has been a familiar face at recent meetings.