Obituaries - Death Notices - Funeral Cards

July 6, 1999 Thursday  Middletown Journal, Middletown, Ohio 
Tom OSUST
Former gym champ Tom Osust dies

    FRANKLIN - Former state high bar champ and Franklin High School star gymnast Tom Osust, who was paralyzed after breaking his neck as a freshman in college, died Sunday.  He was 32.
After leading a Franklin squad that took home the state and national championship his senior year of high school, Osust went on to attend Slippery Rock State University in Pennsylvania.  In the spring of 1986, he was practicing for the NCAA Division II National Tournament when he fell during a workout.  Osust had qualified as a vaulter but was working on the high bar when the accident took place.  During the dismount, Osust landed on his head and the back of his neck.  The injury left him paralyzed from the neck down.
    Osust had also broken his neck when he was 13.  He snapped the third and fourth vertebrate in a diving accident.  At that time, doctors were able to take bones from his ribs and wire them together for stability in the injured area.
    Osust was ranked number one in the state and number three in the nation at the high bar in 1985.
Survivors include his parents, Thomas and JAcqueline Osust of Franklin and three sisters, Paula (Robert) Karl of Columbus, Jacqueline Wiot of Cincinnati and Kathryn (Stephen) Wilkins of Columbia, SC.
    Arrangement are being handled by the Wilson-Schramm-Spaulding Funeral Home.