Sully's Story

Sully (pronounced Sue-Lee) is a 22 year old vivacious young lady living in the campo (countryside) of Costa Rica. She is beautiful, brilliant and full of life, a life matured way beyond her years – more about that shortly.

Sully graduated from high school with high aspirations of becoming a nurse and working in a hospital or clinic. In her words “I would like to be a professional. I want to work in a health center because I love the people, I like the direct contact and I have the capacity to act in difficult situations in order to help people. I wish to share the atmosphere that there is in a clinic or hospital where the people need someone who can help them and relieve their pain in their body and in their mind.”

In early 2004 (the academic years begin in January – February in Costa Rica) Sully was on a solid track to realize her dreams. Because of her excellent grades in high school she was going to the University of Costa Rica (UCR) with a full academic scholarship, some help from her parents and a part time job.

Her third year was going pretty much as did the first two (getting wonderful grades, and thoroughly enjoying herself) until October 24th, 2006 when the first of two overwhelming events occurred. While walking to her apartment after school she was abducted by four men and held hostage for about four hours in a car. During that ordeal she was physically and sexually abused and tortured. One of her captors insisted that she be let go when he remembered her as a nurse that cared for his child in the hospital.

Sully was absolutely devastated by the attack, both mentally and physically. Burned and bruised she was told by the university’s psychiatrist the she should not continue her studies and should take time to heal. This was an agonizing time for Sully. She desperately wanted to continue with her studies as she was preparing for her final yearly exams and completing her practical, yet she knew that she needed time to recuperate. To complicate matters she also had partial amnesia; blocking out much of the attack, having a hard time remembering her name and telephone number but being able to remember most of her schooling.

Sully began settling in with her recovery, resting and receiving psychological help. Just as things were beginning to improve, on December 27, 2006 tragedy struck in the form a car versus motorcycle accident. Sully and her father were traveling along the Pan American highway on their way home on her father’s motorcycle (the family’s only form of transportation) when they were struck by a hit and run driver. Sully’s father received crushing injuries and abrasions, but Sully’s injuries were much more severe. When she arrived at the hospital she found that she had, among various bruises and abrasions, fractured her left femur in two places and her left tibula-fibula in 5 places. Due to the nature of her injuries, including open wounds in the fracture areas, she was told by the attending physician that she would have to have her leg amputated. After much begging and pleading she was transported to Mexico hospital, a more modern facility, in San José. There she received slightly better news when she was told that if there was no infection that the doctors would try to repair her leg. She had emergency surgery for stabilization, but then started the waiting game with Instituto Nacional de Seguro, the national insurance agency. She found that in order to receive the type of surgeries that she needed she would have to wait until after the first of the calendar year. So, for the next week she received basic care, IV antibiotics and pain management while in the ICU.

Her “real” care then began. Her first surgery on January 6, 2007 was to repair her femur and perform initial tib-fib alignment using external fixation and lasted eleven hours. Her second surgery on Jan 27th involved removal of the external devices and insertion of pins and screws in the lower leg and lasted 10 hours. She was then transported back to the hospital near her home (due to insurance reasons) for recuperation. For the next two and a half months Sully was alternately at home and in the hospital, for wound care complicated by infection, all the while receiving NO physical therapy. Part of her initial decision process (attempt to save her leg or receive an amputation) was that if she received the surgeries there would be no money for physical or out patient therapy. If she had opted for the amputation she would have received therapy – quite the dilemma! Since there was not adequate insurance, Sully had to clean her own wounds. She and her mother traveled on the bus daily to the clinic where a friend worked. This friend had made arrangements with the clinic to provide her with gloves, dressings and antibiotics, but there was no money to pay to have the work done.

All the while Sully’s parents were very supportive, providing round the clock care, helping her to the clinic and taking care of the mountain of paperwork. As soon as she was able, Sully began going to an internet café to learn what to do in the form of physical therapy, despite being told she would never walk normally. From the internet she devised her own program using the local pool. This involved using crutches to get to the local bus stop for transportation to town and then crutch walking to the pool. In July of 2007 she began to walk with crutches and by December she was walking without a cane – nearly one year after her accident. She began working part time in the store of a friend of the family.

In February of 2008 she had “hardware” removed from her leg and some scar repair.

She began making decisions about her future. She was told by her doctors that a nursing career was out of the question, that there was no way that she could stand for any length of time, move patients or otherwise function in that career. Undeterred, Sully took 6 courses in psychology, paid for by her father, hoping to embark on another professional health career. Then money began to be a problem. Since her family had limited income, and her sister’s “turn” for education was upcoming, Sully obtained a scholarship at Instituto Nacional de Aprendizage (INA) to learn to speak English. By August she was walking nearly three miles a day. Her plan was to get a job in a call center, abandoning her dream of a nursing career.

Sully began coming to David and Raylene’s house in September of 2008 with a group of INA students where they had weekly “conversation groups” - an opportunity for students to practice their English skills with native English speakers. As Dave and Raylene began to know the students better they got to know Sully’s story, and began to see her incredible potential. She had given up on nursing, her first love, but her desire to be in the healthcare field was still prominent.

When Pam came to Costa Rica in early December 2008 and met Sully, she saw that although it would not be easy, it may be possible to embark on a program of therapy that would allow her to perform all of the standing, walking and lifting functions of a nurse. Sully began to dream again and formulate a plan. She spent the next several days doing the footwork, investigating her career options and educational requirements. She decided that her best option was to first become a clinical psychologist and then to complete her nursing studies.

We are all committed to helping this most deserving young tica, and insuring her success with her "project".

Friday, January 30, 2009

Supplemental money to Sully for February

We gave 35,000 colones (approximately $65) to Sully today.
This was for roundtrip (to and from school) transportation by bus and food and drink at school for February, along with a partial payment for this cuatrimestre’s books.
For more specifics, Click Here Read more Entry>>
Posted by Dave at 5:21 PM 0 comments

Pam’s medical update of Sully

Sully has had a total of 4 visits over the last sixteen days. The first visit was for evaluation only.
Although I was amazed at her physical condition, resulting from her own self directed rehab program some challenges remained, including her belief that she would never again walk freely without pain. Those of you who know me personally know my adversity to the medical prognosis of hopelessness, and my belief that anything is possible, so we stated there.

Sully’s current physical challenges at her first evaluation included:
•Incision scaring with muscular, tendon and fascial damage to L hip, anterior lower leg and lateral L ankle.
•Loss of sensation over incision and wound on L anterior lower leg
•Pain in L hip, L anterior lower leg and lateral L ankle aggravated by walking, standing and sitting.
•Abnormal range of motion and partial dislocation of L hip during walking due to accident trauma.
•Swelling L leg during and after walking and standing
•Unequal leg lengths due to severe fractures
•Digestive symptoms and loss of apatite
•Depression and anxiety, difficulty sleeping

Treatment during the visits has included muscular and fascial release work, energetic body work and trauma release, breathing techniques and visualization.
We are waiting for a shoe lift to correct her leg lengths.
Home work has included daily strengthening of L hip, daily application of Arnica for pain control and healing, and intermittent Ibuprofen for break through pain.

Current treatment results to date are as follows:
•Elimination of pain in L lower leg and ankle in all activities.
•Significant decrease in pain in L hip during and after ambulation despite an increase in activity due to attending classes.
•Return of sensation over L lower leg incision and wound area
•Decrease in swelling in L lower leg
•Increase in appetite and less digestive symptoms
•More feelings of “joy for Life” and happiness, more energy and “clearer thinking and memory”. And my personal favorite, “I feel like Sully again”.

Don’t you just love the sound of a dream coming true? Keep checking back for more updates ~ Read more Entry>>
Posted by Dave at 3:11 PM 0 comments

Monday, January 19, 2009

Supplemental money to Sully in January

We gave 35,000 colones (approximately $65) to Sully today.
This was for roundtrip (to and from school) transportation by bus and food and drink at school for January, along with a partial payment for this cuatrimestre's books.
For more specifics, Click Here Read more Entry>>
Posted by Dave at 3:01 PM 0 comments

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Sully Signs up for College!


In order to get Sully started at the university, we paid 222,000 colones (approximately $400.00)for registration and tuition for four psychology courses at Universidad Latina de Costa Rica (Latina University). Latina is a private university which has a campus nearby and offers night courses five nights a week. They started their four month semester on January 20th. While attending school, she will receive therapy from Pam and try to get a part time job to help with her education costs and her family. If the therapy goes well, she plans to reevaluate continuing her nursing education/career. She would wait to finish her nursing educaton after she finishes her Psychology curriculum in 2010.
For more information about Sully's education costs, Click Here
 Read more Entry>>
Posted by Dave at 5:45 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 16, 2009

Sully Security

People may be wondering why we are using terms such as “in town”, “nearby town” (instead of using the names of the towns) and have not used Sully’s second and last names. The reason we are not being more specific is to protect Sully’s identity and privacy. She has been advised by the local police to be careful about divulging such information because they are concerned that her attackers may have “unfinished business” with Sully and would do her more harm if they knew where she lived, went to school and spent her time. They have advised her to act cautiously for at least the next couple of years. As a matter of fact, Sully has given the police the address of this blog in order for them to “screen” its content.

Sully feels comfortable walking around her home town but still does not go to the greater San José without someone to accompany her. We completely understand her need for privacy and will do our utmost to protect her. Read more Entry>>
Posted by Dave at 12:36 PM 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)