Her leg was saved, but recovery has been painful (drunk driver)

[Omaha Steve]

The costs, about half of which are expected to be covered by the driver's liability insurance. Single payer health care now.


http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10562809

Published Friday February 13, 2009
Her leg was saved, but recovery has been painful
BY TODD COOPER
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

About 12 days after a drunken driver crushed her right leg between his front bumper and a parked car, Danielle Dischinger had to make a decision.

Have a surgeon transplant muscle to save her leg - or cut it off upper-thigh.

Dischinger's initial response: "Cut it off - now! I want out of this hospital, out of this pain."


Danielle Dischinger says doctors think she may be able to walk with a cane in two years.

Fortunately, Dischinger said, her family and friends convinced her otherwise.

Nine surgeries, four months in a wheelchair and two months on crutches later, Dischinger is glad she kept her leg, however painful it is, however mangled it seems.

Now, she just wishes she could amputate all the physical, emotional and financial pain she's endured since the July 27 crash outside the Kum & Go convenience store, 108th and Emmet Streets.

FULL story at link.

[DS1]

1. This pic says it all about driving while drunk

You could be the person who makes someone else look like this

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. Oh My God.

That poor woman. That picture says it more than any words ever could.

[DS1]

3. Yep (graphic)

She was very pretty, but some drunk asshole broadsided her car, and it caught on fire and she burned a lot.

There is a cop who was burned even worse who finally got Ford Motors to revisit their gas tank placement and technology after he was rear-ended by someone and his patrol car erupted in flames. He was so bad the Doctors in the ER actually, despite the Hippocratic Oath, questioned whether or not they should work on him. They did. His wreck looked like this:



and now he looks like this:



That's him on the right, and him on the left, driving isn't something to be fucked around with.

[pansypoo53219]

6. she deserves a face

transplant. our paper just did a series on people who died from drunk driving. now they have to do another series on ones that survived a crash.

[LisaL]

7. Face transplant would mean she'd have to be on anti-rejection

meds for the end of her life.
Of course if she wants it she should get it. But it's not an easy choice.

[DS1]

8. It's been done in France

It was about a year or so ago, but the last I read, I was successful. The person had to go through some counseling regarding having a new face, but I think she's doing ok.

[Qanisqineq]

4. I saw her on Oprah

I cannot imagine the pain that she went through, both physically and emotionally. I salute her in being able to lift her head up high and embrace life. I honestly don't think I could do it if I was in her situation.

[MadMaddie]

5. I am glad she has found the courage to continue to heal

The deaths and injuries from drunk driving are catastrophic, this makes me so damned angry.