Shawn Smith

Amanda with her fiancé Shawn Smith

    On November 17 last year, I had the most life changing experience in all of my 21 years. While hanging Christmas lights on my roof  I slipped and plummeted ten feet to the ground. Pain shot through my body as I laid on the driveway screaming for help. While my fiancé was dialing 911, I got up and hobbled to the car not realizing how serious my injuries were. We drove to the ER where I was immediately admitted and taken for x-rays. 
    After many hours of testing the doctor told my family and me that I had shattered the L1 vertebrae. My only hope for recovery was to undergo a surgical procedure called a thoractomy. We listened while the doctor tried to explain exactly what would be done during this operation and how it would affect the rest of my life. The orthopedic surgeon would create a new vertebrae by grafting pieces of my rib with donor femur. He explained that with bone donated by a tissue donor I would have a complete recovery. Unlike organ transplants, bone that is transplanted rarely has problems with rejection, therefore I would not have to take immunosuppressant medications.
    I stayed in the hospital for three days before I could have the surgery. During that time I was not allowed to eat or move. At any time the shattered bone fragments could move and injure my spinal cord, rendering me paralyzed. 
    Finally, the day of the surgery came and I was ushered away from my family and friends. I don't remember much of what happened from that time until I arrived in ICU much later that evening. 
I was still not allowed to eat, but remember being fed ice chips by my fiancé who so graciously sat with me the entire night. After I was able to breathe again on my own, I moved back to a regular room to recover. 
    During the next few days I was fitted with a TLSO. This procedure is much like having a plaster mold made of your entire torso. Once my brace arrived I practiced walking around the hospital with my walker, to work my muscles that had been dormant for so long. I also had to learn how to get out of the hospital bed because the brace didn't allow for any movement throughout the torso. So, I had to turn over and essentially do a push-up to get up. 
    Within one week of returning home I attended my college graduation. Although I had to have some help as I walked across the stage, the feeling of being there and actually being able to walk made the entire experience much more enjoyable. 
    I still had work to do. I had missed the last month of school and needed to take many tests and write a few reports. It was a struggle to concentrate sometimes because of the pain and fatigue but somehow I managed to get all A's that semester! 
    Once I was over that hurdle I had to face the six weeks of physical therapy that would help me learn what I could and couldn't do once I got my brace off. The good thing about the brace was that it gave me incredible posture for a long time after it came off! In physical therapy I had my bad days where I would be so sore and tired it felt as if I was moving backward in the stages of progression and then I would have those days that I felt as if I could take on the whole world. 
    I finally made it through and currently am enjoying all the activities that I did before the accident. I have returned to backpacking only 9 months after the accident and actively work out at the gym. This experience was one of the most terrifying of my lifetime and I never want to see a hospital again, but I know that I am extremely lucky to have had someone donate bone in order to make my life easier. I will be 100% recovered by November this year and am looking forward to many more trips to the beautiful backcountry.