Triple amputee faces big challenges

Arriel Rodgers just suffered a setback.

The 33-year-old, still recovering from a car accident last March, broke the femur bone in her left leg Monday afternoon. She’s back in the hospital.

“I was trying to do something on my own and fell off my wheelchair,” she said.

The original accident happened in the early hours of March 29 near the entrance to the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows.

“My little brother (Trevian) had come home from Texas,” said Arriel. “We went out. He fell asleep behind the wheel. He had a few bumps and bruises. I was ejected from the car. I lost both of my legs and my right arm — and I was right-handed. They say I stopped breathing in the ambulance. They brought me back.”

She spent two months at St. Louis University Hospital, and was at St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Center in St. Louis most of June. After she was released June 25, she moved in with her father, Larry Rodgers, in Fairview Heights. A metal ramp zigzags to the front door of the two-story home. There’s a basketball hoop on the driveway. Daughter Ryla’s pink and purple bike leans near a bush.

“I had to rearrange,” said Larry, a certified repairman for Ameren in Missouri. “The family room, sitting room, is now her room. I put a ramp in with the help of my brother.”

The single mom of a 7-year-old now spends much of her time in the room to the right of the entry. When she has a visitor, she scoots into her wheelchair and puts on false eyelashes and a straight-haired wig with bangs.

How does she stay busy?

“I’m seriously catching up on TV shows,” said Arriel. “I do a little social media. I enjoy going to church. Hopefully, I will be able to sing back in the choir.”

They attend Mount Era Baptist Church in Washington Park where her grandfather, Leotha Rodgers, was pastor.

Personal assistant Duranda Thurmond helps her 24/7.

“It was the natural thing to do,” said Duranda, a former co-worker. “She was still the same. She took it well. She wanted to talk about it. She don’t want you crying around her. She’s still the same person. She’s just missing an arm and hasn’t got her legs. We try to make it easy, but we give her a hard time sometimes. She is bossy, too, more than ever.”

Before the accident, Arriel lived in a third-floor apartment at Swansea’s Willow Creek. She worked for AT&T as a cell phone troubleshooter. Her life revolved around her daughter — that part hasn’t changed.

“I used to take her somewhere every week. We’d go to the park. In the summer, we play basketball together.

“I used to get up and go,” said Arriel. “Now, I rely on everyone. Now I need help all day long. I can’t go to the bathroom by myself. I’m trying to get some prosthetics so I can learn to walk, and just try to manage to live the rest of my life. ... I want to get back to doing things with my daughter. I like to go shopping, out to eat. Ryla’s favorite is Chuck E. Cheese.”

Arriel said her insurance coverage has reached its limit.

“My hospital bills were $1.4 million. Rehab was $85,000.”

Her cousin, Robert “Breeze” Foster, set up a Go Fund Me online account (https://www.gofundme.com/3k3kb3b2rb3) for her. Casablanca Hair and Skin Care in Fairview Heights raffled beauty products to benefit Arriel and deposited $468 into her account.

“Enchantra Ezell works there,” said Arriel, a 2000 graduate of East St. Louis High School. “I went to high school with her. She’s been doing my hair since 2000. She knew me and wanted to help me out with the Go Fund Me page.”

Waking up

After the accident, Arriel was heavily sedated for six to eight weeks.

“I remember waking,” she said. “I couldn’t talk because something was wrong with my voice box.”

When she could talk, she was worried about how she looked.

“I asked where my eyelashes were and why my hair was not done. I knew my arm was gone. I didn’t know I didn’t have no legs.”

Her father talked with her about her losses.

“She took it well,” said Larry. “Her attitude is amazing. Ever since day one, the positive attitude she has had. She is always in our prayers. My daddy is a pastor. We prayed that her state of mind will be good.”

Arriel is tough.

“I felt a little sad to not have my legs, but I was happy to be alive. He reminded me there was prosthetics, that my life wasn’t over. I could get prosthetics to continue life. I had my mind. There wasn’t nothing wrong with my mind. They sent someone in every four hours to see ‘How is she taking it?’ I was just fine with it, the fact that they wasn’t growing back.”

But she struggles every day. She has had several surgeries. She deals with pain from a rod and screw in her hip and phantom pain.

“It never leaves. When it gets colder, it aches.”

She is learning to write with her left hand.

“I know how to print my name and print a few words. They have me coloring, learning how to grip a pen. Ryla is left-handed. Now me and her are learning to write at the same level.”

Her broken femur will take a couple months to heal.

“I am going to fight through it. Everything is a learning process. I start everything like a little baby.”

Taking care of Ryla

Ryla stayed with her father Robert Johnson, of East St. Louis, and relatives after the accident.

“She was asking where I was,” said Arriel. “After a month and a half, she came to the hospital. She was brave.”

Arriel helped arrange a fun summer for Ryla.

“I sent her to Texas to visit her aunties. I needed to learn to get around the house. I didn’t want her to have a boring summer. She was in the airplane by herself, but had an escort.”

“It was the first place I flew to,” said Ryla. “It was fun. I got to see the clouds. ... Next year, me and my mom are going to take another trip to Texas. They have water parks and a lot of places to go.”

Arriel worries about how her disabilities affect her daughter.

“I’m trying to manage and be strong by her. She’s in first grade at William Holiday. I’m trying to do the little stuff I can. I help her get dressed in the morning. She helps me a little. She goes and gets things for me. She helps clean up. She’s a little shy. For the parent-teacher conferences, I had my auntie to go. I don’t want people to make fun of her and talk about her mom having no legs.”

What’s next

Arriel’s future is on hold.

“The problem we ran into is financial,” said Daniel Record, a prosthetist at Prosthetic & Orthotic (P&O) Care in Fairview Heights. “Insurance issues came up. Some of the coverage isn’t available. ... Long term, she should be getting other prosthetics, above the knee and a right arm.”

The cost of prosthetic limbs varies, depending on function. A below-the-knee prosthetic ranges from $5,000 to $20,000. An above-the-knee prosthetic costs from $7,000 to $30,000 because it has more moving parts. Arms with microprocessors are more expensive than those that attach by harness and are powered by the shoulder.

P&O advises patients that for every month they’re not walking to plan on that same amount of time to get back to walking again.

“It depends on their health prior,” said Moria Clapham, of P&O Care. “If they were healthy, yes, we have seen a lot of patients come back. It’s not easy. It’s a lot of work retraining the body. We’ve seen patients drive, work 40 hours a week, climb ladders. It’s doable. There’s an engineer who does bridge inspections. It depends on your own personal goals, what you want to accomplish and how bad.”

Before breaking her left femur, Arriel was using her below-the-knee left leg prosthetic on a limited basis. She was learning to stand, pivot and sit back down.

Daniel is optimistic about Arriel’s future.

“Arriel has a lot of spirit,” he said before learning of Arriel’s broken bone. “That keeps her going. The sooner we can get her up, the better on our part and her part. We want to fit (the prosthetics) as quick as we can. She will have more difficulties the longer she waits and is sitting around. She has great potential, especially to walk.”

This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 9:06 AM with the headline "Triple amputee faces big challenges."