Michelle Pietrangelo’s Road to Recovery Remains Long

Popular Bedford High School teacher Michelle Pietrangelo is still facing a long road to recovery from serious injuries sustained when she was struck by a delivery vehicle more than five months ago.

Pietrangelo, 35, is at Spaulding Rehabilitation Center, as medical specialists nurse her back from a serious traumatic brain injury and broken bones, according to Beth Billouin, who calls her “my closest colleague.”

Billouin said Pietrangelo has been treated at length at Massachusetts General Hospital, but suffered some setbacks over the past several weeks. She said the teacher has been “semi-conscious for much of that time, though “when she is in a good place” she has had animated Facetime conversations with her husband Matt and family members.

Doctors have said full recovery may be more than a year and half away, Billouin said.

Pietrangelo teaches chemistry, biology and marine biology at BHS. Billouin said that gives some students the opportunity to learn with her as sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

The accident occurred on a misty evening as Pietrangelo was on a Massachusetts Avenue crosswalk near her home in East Arlington. She and her husband have two children, ages eight and six. The family fought through the Covid-19 coronavirus last spring, Billouin noted.

The Pietrangelos came to the area from Michigan after Matt was recruited for a position in industry.

Billouin also teaches biology at BHS; the two teachers connected through their love of swimming. Billouin is coach of the high school swim team, and Pietrangelo is assistant coach. The two have a similar arrangement in the aquatics program at a Lexington summer day camp.

At the high school, “kids ask about her all the time. The kids want to do something, but they don’t know what.” Pietrangelo, Billouin said, is “the most determined person that I know. She tells it like it is.”

An account has been established to help the family with expenses. Financial contributions to support the family can be made through  https://gf.me/u/yzjqsu   Gift cards  for the family may be sent to Beth Billouin in care of Bedford High School, 9 Mudge Way, Bedford 01730.