While Elieah Boyd faces a long road to recovery, she is grateful to her doctors for regaining her arms and the community that supports her healing.
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Elieah Boyd describes himself as an active and creative person.
The manager of the Southern California Café loves surfing, hiking and hiking to run Australian cow dogs. She draws, travels as often as possible, and makes jewelry and bags.
She is right-handed too.
Now she’s seeing a long journey to recovery after her right arm was amputated in early July and then re-staked. However, the 24-year-old thinks the future is not a difficult process, but a “fun challenge.”
“I might be left-handed for a while,” she told USA Today at UC Irvine Medical Center. “Learn how to live a left-handed life.”
Boyd met his boyfriend on a friend’s e-bike on July 7th, when he came across the railway tracks that sweep through two Ventura neighborhoods. As she tried to squeeze a heavy bike into the truck, a passerby offered help. They were lifting their bikes together when Boyd saw the approaching train.
“I’ve done this hundreds of times,” she recalled. “People around here always do it to get from one side of town to the other. Everyone in the city is using this circuit all the time. This happened to be a dangerous time.”
She watched the train. She (and the man who stopped to help her) tried to get out of the way.
But Boyd estimated it took her about three seconds for her to respond before the train fell on them.
“Everything was silent.”
“I remember looking down at my arms. Everything was silent for a while,” she recalled. “I think I was still standing there, incredibly. The train was gone so fast… I looked at my right arm, grabbed it, there was nothing there.”
The man who saved her on his bike called for help. Boyd said he was a retired firefighter, so he knew what to do, so he made sure she was stable and told his first responder to find her arm.
“He saw it, but he knew (the arm was still viable,” Boyd said.
Boyd was taken to the nearest hospital and was taken by helicopter to UC Irvine Medical Center. Ten hours after the surgery, my arm was touched again.
She has had four surgeries since then, with more being planned.
But her outlook doesn’t need help.
“I feel alright and I try to stay as positive as I can,” she said. The pain was minimal and she was able to avoid mostly heavy painkillers, but she expressed how impressive the impressive and caring medical professionals in the hospital were. (Requests for comment from UC Irvine were not immediately returned.)
According to Massachusetts General Hospital, repotting (or surgical reinstallation of the limbs) is a complex process that requires several steps, including removing damaged tissue, shortening bones, recatalysis with pins or plates, and repairing muscles, tendons, blood vessels and nerves.
“Patients play the most important role in the recovery process,” the hospital noted, and Voids may have several advantages. Young patients are more likely to recover neurological function and emotions, and cleanly cut limbs like arms are more likely to recover. Doctors generally consider recovering 60% to 80% of function as a good result.
Community steps up to help women with “undeniable sparks”
Her community has stepped up to support her.
“She radiates joy, warmth and inclusiveness in and out of the water,” said Amber Jenks, a friend who met Boyd through the local surf community. “She’s not an incredible longborder, she’s the one who really lifts everyone around her.”
Jenks mentioned Boyd’s “undeniable spark,” adding, “Her recovery is something we cheer every day, that is fundamental to everything.”
The doctor has not given a date that Boyd can release, and is not sure how much functionality he can restore to his arm. She has at least 18 months of physical therapy and occupational therapy first, she said.
“The amount of support, donations, texts and messages, even from people I don’t know, keeps my positives moving,” she said.
Once she is released from hospital, she looks forward to returning to normalcy as much as possible. I look forward to everything I did before the accident, like surfing, going to the beach, playing with my dog, playing with friends and family.
