Kathi and her husband Ralph moved to Copperopolis 2 years ago and immediately became involved in community groups like the Lions and the Friends of the Library, thoroughly enjoying their semi-retirement and their new found home town. After spending 20+ years in human resources and training and development Kathi was excited to be part of community groups that were doing such wonderful things for their own community. Veterans Day was one such occasion.
The day started with her excitement over the upcoming first annual Veterans Day parade and as she was active in the Lake Tulloch Lions Club she would be helping to serve hotdogs to raise money for the Lions who in turn were donating the proceeds to the newly formed Copperoplis VFW Post 12118.
After a day of pride and fun with friends Kathi took a trip 'up the hill' to run some errands. Upon arriving home she placed her bags of purchased items in the dumbwaiter and headed upstairs. She checked her phone to see if there were messages from her husband who was away for the weekend and placed the phone on the counter. She walked the few steps to the dumbwaiter and reached for her bags, at this point the dumbwaiter came crashing down trapping her arm just above the elbow in the contraption. After 20 minutes of frantically trying to get out Kathi knew it was futile. It wasn't long after that Kathi realized she had most likely lost any hope of regaining use of her arm if she was rescued, so concentrated on staying awake. She remembers telling herself, "If I fall asleep or pass out, I might bleed to death" due to the additional stress on her arm. Yelling was useless and the phone remained out of reach.
When she didn't call in to work the next morning her boss knew something was amiss and called the Sheriff. At the same time friend Al DeMott had been contacted by her husband concerned about Kathi's whereabouts. 20 hours after the dumbwaiter had captured her arm rendering her helpless, Al and the Sheriff were banging on her door. Kathi yelled the combination and they swept in and immediately called the fire department. "The fire department sawed off the door that was holding my arm and I was medi-flighted to UC Davis trauma center. My daughters, my husband (Ralph) and my best friend were there by my side."
Any hope of saving her arm was short lived as the doctors informed her that keeping the limb was slowly "doing damage to other organs." After the first surgery while in recovery a "large swarm of ladybugs covered my recovery window on the third or fourth floor, the doctors and nurses had never seen anything like it. They were gone after that but returned after my second surgery, again on the window." Kathi's daughter looked up the possible symbolic meaning of the ladybugs and found that in old Celtic lore ladybugs were thought of as protectors. 3 surgeries later and lots of prayers and well wishes from friends and even people who didn't know her, Kathy is learning to function as a left handed, single armed adult.
With this experience still fresh in her mind and a passion to give Kathi is wanting to take a leap of faith and is feeling driven by this experience to help others who have lost limbs, especially veterans. "It makes me want to give back so much more, especially to the veterans" who have lost limbs. "I want to give back as much as I can."She is not sure how to start or where to start but she knows this is what she will be doing, "Somehow giving back." She already knows that whatever she begins will have the name 'ladybug' in the title.
Kathi wishes to thank all the people in the community who reached out to her with support. "I didn't know some of the people and my husband would read to me the things they said and I was so touched." Through a site called caringbridge.com people in the community could send her well wishes, supporting thoughts and healing sources. "Everyone was so supportive, the fire department, the churches, the Lions, the whole community."
Kathi's husband Ralph's only concern about an article written about his wife was, "She has been my secret for 20 years, now everyone will know how wonderful she is."
by,
Charity Maness
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