For Caitlin Mills, family and community support has made all the difference as she adjusts to losing her arm following a car crash.

“I’m so thankful for everyone,” says Caitlin, a senior at the Iowa-based Mount Vernon High School. “It’s amazing how our community can pull together.”

Caitlin and her boyfriend, Mason Marshall, were coming back from Cedar Rapids on January 3rd when the Marshall family’s Suburban hit a patch of ice, spun and rolled, landing on its wheels.

“I don’t know what happened to my arm,” says Caitlin.

Both she and Mason were wearing their seatbelts. However, Caitlin’s right arm was severely damaged.Caitlin says Mount Vernon Fire Department and Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance volunteers “were amazing” in their response and care after the wreck. Caitlin was transported by ambulance to Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids; Mason suffered minor injuries.

Emergency room doctors and nurses at Mercy delivered excellent care, Caitlin says. They recommended Caitlin be transported to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for more expertise in handling her arm injury.

At the University of Iowa, Caitlin’s right arm was amputated just above the elbow.

“I feel very lucky,” Caitlin says of the care she received. She says she’s also fortunate she and Mason survived the crash.

“I’m not an arm – I’m a whole person,” she says of the loss of her right arm. “I feel very, very lucky.”

Caitlin says her family members – parents Jeffrey and Phyllis and younger sister Brenna, a middle school student – have been very supportive as she’s been at home since the crash. The same is true of friends, school staff and the overall community. While in the hospital, Caitlin says she had so many visitors that nurses commented they’d never had a patient who drew such a crowd.

“It’s just amazing,” she says.

Caitlin is working hard to adjust with the amputation. She says an occupational therapist gave her several tools to help her. Caitlin was right handed, so one such tool is a pair of special scissors that allow her to cut without using left-handed scissors.

“It’s been difficult to do everything with my left hand,” she says.

But she takes it all in stride, with a positive outlook.

“I get to call the Wii I got for Christmas my physical therapy,” she says, adding that she’s been battling her sister in tennis on the video game system.

She’s also learning to type with her left hand. She says she’s been using the social networking site Facebook to gather opinions about what kind of prosthetic arm she should get.

Her favorite suggestions have been a velociraptor dinosaur claw and one with a “lightsaber attachment.”

Caitlin has already begun shopping for a prosthetic, which she’ll likely get shortly once the swelling of her arm goes down. She says she met a nurse’s assistant at the University of Iowa, who has a prosthetic and he recommended a couple of companies. She’s also using the Internet for her search.

She’s not sure when she’ll return to school, but says she’s thankful her teachers are working with her to finish up first semester coursework and to come up with a plan for her final semester of high school. She says the school is already working with the Grant Wood Area Education Association on occupational therapy and possible technology tools to help in her return to school.

She plans to attend a small liberal arts college and major in art history. She’ll also likely continue with her speech and drama interests – she recently helped with Odyssey Theatre as an assistant director and stage manager. This summer, Caitlin says she’d like to return to her job as a lifeguard at the Mount Vernon pool. She says she’ll likely have to go through some training again to join the staff for a third year.

Caitlin and her family moved to Mount Vernon from Colorado before her sixth grade year. Support from the community, she says, makes her grateful for the place she now calls home.

Source: Jake Krob/ Lisbon Sun