May 3--On Feb. 2, Sheila Turner felt like she had everything in the world going for her.
She was working nearly 80 hours a week between her two jobs -- one through Aramark at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility, the other at Kwik Shop. A normal workday started at 4 p.m. and didn't end until 10:30 a.m., and the 46-year-old Hutchinson resident couldn't be happier about it.
"I was enjoying it," she said. "I loved my jobs."
She was working to pay off bills and trying to save enough to move. She and daughter Millie had moved here from Colorado in 2005, encouraged by her brother who lived in Hutchinson. The mother and daughter had talked about relocating to Florida, even planning ahead and packing much of their belongings into cardboard boxes, which they stacked head-high near the front door.
Turner was losing weight -- she had recently lost more than 100 pounds, and increasingly felt better about what lie ahead on the horizon.
"I felt so energetic," she recalled.
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On Feb. 3, Turner was returning from Wichita with a friend when a van driven by Trisha Clark, 34, Hutchinson, attempted to cross the highway at Haven Road, pulling into the path of Turner's 1997 Toyota.
Her car on cruise control, Turner said she had no time to react before slamming into the van.
She has no recall after the impact, except waking twice in the hospital. Rescue personnel had to cut her from her vehicle and she was airlifted to a Wichita hospital. The collision fractured her spine and tore muscles along it, caused a head injury, and broke her knee and a leg bone.
Clark and a passenger in Turner's vehicle were also injured, though not as severely.
Eventually, Turner went from the Wichita hospital to a rehabilitation hospital in Dallas.
In one instant, with one decision outside of her control, Sheila Turner's energetic life of anticipation turned into a life of struggle and determination for even the simplest things.
Today, the boxes remain stacked near the front door, but the plans for Florida have been shelved. Working again is beyond her vision, the long hours she logged before unlikely to be seen again.
Since the accident, she's gained back about 40 of the pounds she lost before the accident, Turner said.
"I've got so far to go, it's not funny," Turner said. "To see where I'm at is so disappointing."
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Turner will tell you that she really doesn't like to have her picture taken. She didn't like having them taken before the accident, but more so today.
"You won't find any in the house," she noted.
She made an exception this week, however, for a couple of reasons.
First, she wants to thank all those who have helped her since the accident on K-96 left her partially paralyzed and battling to recover.
"I really appreciate what everyone has done," Turner said from the Fourth Avenue home she returned to just this week.
Donations made at local Kwik Shops and to a fund established at the Central Kansas Credit Union helped her get to the rehabilitation hospital in Dallas and allowed her brother, Tom Fitzpatrick, to buy materials for a large new wheelchair ramp that enabled her to return home.
She also wants people to think about how their actions -- even split-second decisions -- can change someone's life.
After the accident, Turner was initially completely paralyzed on her right side. She has regained some feeling and motion in her arm and leg, but her right hand and foot remain lifeless.
The Dallas hospital sent her home last week after her level of improvement slowed and insurance had ran out. She improved about 20 percent from when she went into rehab, said her mother, Alice Fitzpatrick.
"My foot is just numb," she said. "I can feel with my hand, but I can't move it. The fingers are curled up."
While she can move her arm, she has a limited range of motion, and movement is painful. But it's not as painful as the stiffness that sets in if she doesn't move the arm. In order to not limit her mobility and encourage her to exercise her limbs, the doctors never splinted or put a cast on her broken femur and knee. The leg and foot remain swollen.
Using a cane, Turner can take a few steps from her wheelchair, dragging her foot into place. But after only a few steps, she returns to her chair, exhausted by the effort.
Her head injury, Turner said, causes the right side of her face to droop when she gets tired. Some mornings she has trouble opening her right eye, so she pries it up.
The family is trying to find a hospital bed for Turner's home because she has difficulty sleeping in a flat bed. She also can use a lift chair or one that's high enough for her to be able to get out of. It took three tries to stand up from her wheelchair, her only seat in the house.
"I'm home and I'm functioning in it," she said. "I'm trying to figure out how to use it. In the hospital I knew how to get around. I have a hard time getting in the tub and I can't get out of it myself. My daughter helps me."
Turner expects to continue therapy on an out-patient basis in Wichita, Alice Fitzpatrick said, though details haven't been worked out.
Her family is hopeful that the determination that allowed her to hold down two jobs and lose weight, that then pulled Turner through the accident and out of the hospital, will continue to drive her recovery.
"The doctors hope in time she'll get it all back," Alice Fitzpatrick said. "But it's really hard."
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