Boston bombing survivor determined to dance again
(CBS News) BOSTON - In the aftermath of last week's Boston Marathon bombing attack, 36 of the wounded are still in the hospital while one is in critical condition. Many of the wounded -- among them a dancer who lost a limb-- are beginning a long journey.
Progress is measured in steps now for Adrianne Haslet-Davis. This was her first day of physical therapy. The 32-year-old dance instructor was watching with her husband, Air Force Capt. Adam Davis, when the first bomb exploded.
"He looked down," she recalled, "and grabbed onto my leg and lifted it up and just started screaming. It was terrifying because I was just losing so much blood, I thought that that was it."
Haslet-Davis thought she was going to die at that point. "This all was gone," she said, demonstrating what was missing through her intact leg. "The lower part. From here down was all gone. It had been completely blown off. My shoe was gone, long gone. And that was all missing and there was just blood in the gallons, it seemed like."
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She crawled inside a restaurant. Her husband found her and used his belt as a tourniquet to slow the bleeding.
"I started crying and screaming and telling him that I loved him," said Haslet-Davis.
Haslet-Davis woke up in the hospital the next morning.
"I was lying in bed and I opened my eyes and I saw my parents. I didn't think about anything else. I was just happy to be alive, happy to see them and I immediately just remember saying 'Dad and Mom!' And then I said, 'Mom, will you help me,' because I feel like my foot is falling asleep. And she said, 'Adrianne, honey, you don't have a foot.' And I just lost it. I was really, really upset. I just started crying and thought, 'My career is over,' and I just thought, 'My life is over.'"
However, Haslet-Davis turned the corner. "I find my optimism becauseI feel like you have two choices: You could either be the one sitting eating potato chips and not having friends and not talking to people and feeling sorry for yourself.' Or you can say, 'This is who I am now.' I wouldn't let one of my students come to me and say, 'This happened to me.' I wouldn't let them say that their life was over. I'm hopeful for the future and hopeful to dance again."
As for whether if she'll be on the ballroom floor, Haslet-Davis said with confidence, "Yes. I know so."
Haslet- Davis hopes to be fitted with a prosthetic leg by her 33rd birthday in June. She has already been talking with a prosthetic engineer about designing an artificial leg specifically made for dancing.