 |
| Capt.
(Dr.) Eric Yao, left, and Capt. Anthony Alexander were
among several members of the 35th Medical Squadron who
pitched in to help assist Carol Miller after the DODDS
teacher suffered severe injuries after falling from
a gym treadmill. (U.S. Air Force photos) |
By
Jennifer Svan
Stars and Stripes Pacific Edition
MISAWA
AIR BASE, Japan — A bed and wheelchair are in her living
room; an inflatable pool for baths is in her kitchen. Cummings
Elementary School teacher Carol Miller’s world is upside
down.
Fiercely
independent, a Department of Defense Dependents Schools
teacher for 26 years in five countries, Miller is adjusting
to life with limited mobility and around-the-clock help.
On
April 21, she broke her collarbone and two bones in her
right foot and dislocated her left shoulder after falling
from a gym treadmill.
Despite
the temporary lifestyle change, stiff cast and chronic aches
and pains, Miller’s spirits are soaring: She’s already back
at school, teaching gifted education. And thanks to Misawa
Air Base’s 35th Medical Group and 35th Civil Engineer Squadron,
she’s mending at home. Otherwise, she said, she’d have faced
a lengthy and costly recovery at the base hospital or at
a more specialized medical clinic outside of Japan.
The
medical staff, she said, rallied to find a way to get her
home after just 10 days in the hospital.
“This
was a unique case of ‘over and above the call of duty,’”
Miller said Monday afternoon at her Misawa city house. “If
they weren’t supportive, where would I have been? Up a creek.”
With
two artificial hips and a synthetic shoulder, Miller said,
she lacked the strength to regain her balance when a North
area gym treadmill spun faster than anticipated. “It was
like a tsunami,” she said. “I was on the floor.”
The
hospital’s lone orthopedic surgeon, Capt. (Dr.) Eric Yao,
and operating room nurses manipulated the artificial shoulder
back into place. But Miller could not walk and needed help
getting into and out of a wheelchair. Still, she was clamoring
to go home, she said: She knew she’d be more comfortable
there and each day in the hospital was costing $6,000, covered
only partly by health insurance.
Yao
said he, physician’s assistant Capt. Anthony Alexander and
physical therapist Capt. Brad Kime evaluated Miller’s home
for safety. They checked foyers and doorways for levelness,
rolled up throw rugs and rearranged furniture.
“It
was in the best interest of everyone for her to be at home,”
Yao said. “She didn’t require acute nursing care. What she
needed was access and help.”
Alexander
asked friend Senior Master Sgt. Jeff Malherek, a civil engineer,
to help provide a wheelchair-access ramp. Malherek and Tech.
Sgt. Steve Chandler built one at no cost to Miller in less
than a day. Nurses Lt. Col. Rebecca Kanter and Maj. Helen
Lynn helped Miller find specialized in-home equipment, such
as a portable bedside chair, at off-base department stores.
Medical staff also worked with Miller’s insurance company
to help defray some of the upfront costs.
The
final, key piece was at-home help. Since Misawa lacks in-home
nursing, Miller’s Japanese housekeepers agreed to stay at
her home during her recovery.
“My
initial thought was, we were going to have to keep her in
the hospital for six to eight weeks because of her decreased
mobility,” Yao said. “It’s kudos to everybody involved for
coming together” to enable her to go home.
Kanter
credited thinking out of the box. “We don’t have the resources
you would have in the States. You get a little creative
without breaking the rules.”
Miller
said she’s astonished by the support. “I’ve never heard of
anyone saying, ‘Let me have your keys. I’m going to your house
… to straighten it out a little bit.’”
