For most people attending the Trussville Freedom Celebration this year, it was just part of their holiday, but for Amelia Woo’s family, it was a way to celebrate having their daughter after almost losing her the previous July 4.Amelia’s mother, Becky, said her friends began asking her in June what she wanted to do to celebrate Independence Day this year.
At first, she said, she thought she didn’t want to do anything because she was afraid it would remind her of how emotional the holiday had been for her the year before.
Amelia, 17, was involved in a car wreck July 4, 2007, when her friend, Marleigh Riddle, overcorrected her 1996 BMW after a piece of paper flew onto her windshield.
The car ran off the road on U.S. Hwy. 11 and flipped over, trapping Amelia in her seatbelt in a shallow pond for several minutes.
Woo was resuscitated by Trussville Fire and Rescue and received expert care at Medical Center East and Children’s Hospital, but suffered an anoxic brain injury in the process.
She remained in a coma for a few weeks, but has been in a minimally responsive state for the past year.
“I will not just sit around grieving,” Becky said. “Of course, we miss the way she was, but she’s here. It would seem like a contradiction of faith to grieve. I do get tired, but I think that is part of the process for those of us around her. There is no map for this. The waiting is just a different process than grieving for her if she were gone.”
Since the accident, Amelia has made progress. She passed several tests that determined her physical recovery ranging from being able to support her own weight when standing or getting to her knees to attempting to swallow two of three substances in a swallow test.
Her treatments have ranged from hyperbaric oxygen treatments and Omega-3 fish oils to intense physical therapy and different medications to help her focus over the last year.
One improvement in her condition since being at the Shepherd Center actually had Becky worried about attending the July 4 Freedom Celebration in Trussville because of the fireworks.
“Amelia has begun to have a very strong startle reflex,” Becky said. “I was worried the fireworks might be too much for her, but she did great. She was totally focused on them. That combined with the calls, cards, flowers and visits, which were such thoughtful gestures from our friends, was worth celebrating.”
Becky said she has had her down times, the most recent being a couple of weeks before the anniversary of Amelia’s accident and Independence Day.
But she knows those meltdowns won’t help her help Amelia so she tries to work through them as best she can.
Some of her inspiration to keep going has come from correspondence with other families who have dealt with similar situations.
She met one woman whose daughter almost drowned in Costa Rica and was sent right to rehab about 10 years ago when insurance would cover that kind of treatment.
Joy Vaughn, who currently lives in Huntsville, can now do normal things like walk, talk and even teach because she convinced people in her community to let her try things and see how much she could accomplish.
Another girl, Emily Harrison, suffered a similar brain injury, but recovered enough to live on her own in an apartment with two girls after going through rehabilitation.
She even graduated from high school and wrote a children’s book before she scalded herself using an unfamiliar faucet and died from an infection.
“These injuries get lumped in with all the regular traumatic brain injuries and they just aren’t the same,” Becky said. “I look at these other families as our inspiration to keep going. So few people survive these injuries you don’t hear much about the successes. It also helps that our community has been tremendous support. We would not be where we are today spiritually, mentally or physically without the help of our community.”
Becky said she was amazed by the immediate reaction of her neighborhood after hearing about Amelia’s accident, but was worried people would start forgetting that Amelia was still recovering as the months passed.
The people of Trussville are still proving her fears to be unfounded after just over a year.
Not only did the community organize providing dinner for the Woos every night from the time they came home after the accident until about November, their neighbors have also fed them after visits to the Shepherd Center and donated their time and skills to keep Amelia stimulated and limber for the time when her brain has healed enough to take the next step in her recovery.
Fundraisers throughout the year have included an “Amelia Woo Day” benefiting the family sponsored by Chick-Fil-A and the local Camp Fire Girls, a charity golf tournament organized by the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity at Auburn University and a Pampered Chef open house.
The family has also been given a van, which they refer to as the “Millie Mobile,” that has been customized to meet the family’s needs.
The van has such special features as a hydraulic lift to help get Amelia into the vehicle, a lock for her wheelchair to keep her in place, raised ceilings to allow her family to move around and help her, a DVD player to keep her visually stimulated during long rides and enough seating for Becky, her husband Harold and their two older children, Hilary and Jordan.
The family can also rely on volunteers to show up at least two days a week to assist with Amelia’s physical therapy, and Trussville City Schools recently began the process of evaluating Amelia to see what kinds of therapy they can offer her.
So far, Becky said the school would be willing to offer speech and occupational therapy, and may even be willing to help with the physical therapy.
“They may do all of that from home, and she may eventually go to school,” Becky said. “It has been emotional to think this would have been her senior year, and her going to school would be a chance for us to take a little break. But it’s still emotional for me and I’m not sure whether I would want her to go to school.”
The Woos also recently found out that some of their friends made Amelia a partner in their shaved ice truck that will stay parked on U.S. Hwy. 11 except for special events.
Another fundraiser in the works is a cookbook that will compile the favorite dishes of anyone who submits a recipe.
“As we found out, the people around here will not let you go hungry and we have some fabulous cooks in Trussville,” Becky said. “The recipes don’t have to be brought to us, they can be sent in. Once we get all the details worked out, we will put something on our Web site. We are just in awe of how well we have been treated throughout this process.”
Amelia’s family keeps in touch with the Shepherd Center and continues treatments recommended during their two-week visit.
Amelia wears removable casts on her wrists and legs to keep her stretched and limber at night and she remains in a network of contacts the family gained from the center that will notify them as soon as new developments are made.
“The center specializes in adolescent recovery from brain and spinal injuries,” Becky said. “The deep-brain stimulation was something the center was one of the first to try and Dr. Darryl Kaelin [Amelia’s doctor at the Shepherd Center] attends conventions that keep him informed of anything new. Right now they are researching the use of adult stem cell transplants in China. If there is anything cutting edge, she is going to come up.”
The Woos have continued to celebrate Amelia’s life and any other positive events that have happened.
While Hilary’s birthday was not celebrated last year, this year her July 5 birthday was an important part of the July 4 celebrations, as it had been in the past.
Hilary, 24, will also be graduating from UAB in May 2009, and Jordan, 21, will be graduating from Auburn University the same day. Becky seems a little worried about how that will work out, but she wants both of her children to celebrate their graduations properly.
Although Amelia is not the person she was before the accident, it is making her friends change their lives for the better.
“Amelia will make sounds, but not words, especially at night,” Becky said. “We’ll wake up hearing her make two or three syllables of sound at a time. It’s as if she is just on the other side of a pane of glass. I know she’ll come back, but I am not good at waiting. Some of her friends have totally changed their lives since the accident, so that keeps every day positive and uplifting to know she can affect so many people.”
