Flames shoot from old Hewitt Soap facility - WHIO

Updated: Friday, December 23, 2016 @ 2:05 PM
Published: Friday, December 23, 2016 @ 1:40 PM
By: Rick McCrabb - Staff Writer

When Ann Brock wakes up Christmas morning, she won’t search under the Christmas tree for her present.

Instead, she will find it next to her bed.

This week, Brock, 51, of Eaton, who was involved in a serious motorcycle accident two months ago in Oxford, received her prosthetic left leg after weeks of therapy rehabilitation. For the first time since the incident, she will walk again.

And for that, Brock feels fortunate, where others in the same situation may feel cursed.

“I’m going to be blessed with the ability to walk again,” she told the Journal-News before a recent rehabilitation appointment at Atrium Medical Center.

Brock paused, then added: “And I don’t think there’s a better Christmas gift than that. To me, it’s just like a miracle. That is just so powerful. People take for granted that they can get up and go. This will be the most fantastic feeling.”

When told how his wife described the power of her prosthetic leg, Frank Brock, 44, managed a laugh.

Ann Brock, an emergency nurse at Atrium Medical Center and a Monroe firefighter, undergoes physical therapy Dec, 20 at the hospital with physical therapist assistant Alice Cutter. Brock is learning to walk again after having part of her leg amputated after a motorcycle accident this past fall. GREG LYNCH / STAFF (Staff Writer)

Staff Writer

“I can’t top that gift,” he said. “Nothing I can buy is better than a leg. We’re just very thankful that we get to celebrate Christmas together. It could have been so much worse. Another split second, who knows.”

Their lives changed forever on Oct. 29, an unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon. They left their home in Eaton and rode their motorcycles to Hamilton for a lunch with their 14-year-old nephew. On the way home, Frank led the way with his nephew on the back on his Indian, while Ann followed on her Honda.

As they were traveling on North College Avenue, a car driven by 20-year-old Miami University student barrelled into Ann Brock’s motorcycle. The student pleaded no contest to the two traffic violations and was fined $80.

Frank Brock heard the crash, looked in his rear-view mirror and didn’t see his wife. He immediately turned around, and a few seconds later, went from husband to hero. He saw that his wife’s left leg was cut off just below the knee and bleeding profusely, and instinctively, he took off his leather belt, and put a tourniquet on her leg.

He did this without any professional medical training. His wife is an emergency room nurse at Atrium Medical Center and a Monroe firefighter, while he runs a truck brokerage office.

Ann Brock, an emergency nurse at Atrium Medical Center and a Monroe firefighter, undergoes physical therapy Dec, 20 at the hospital with physical therapist assistant Alice Cutter. Brock is learning to walk again after having part of her leg amputated after a motorcycle accident this past fall. GREG LYNCH / STAFF (Staff Writer)

Staff Writer

How did he know what he was doing?

“No idea,” he said. “Maybe I had seen a movie or something. I don’t know. Maybe listening to all those firefighters. Maybe they mentioned it or something. I just knew we had to stop the bleeding.”

Ann Brock said she later was told by medical professionals the tourniquet was applied perfectly.

“My lifesaver,” she said of her husband.

Brock was flown to University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where the surgery was performed and she stayed in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit for two days, then in a hospital room for five days.

The entire time, Monroe firefighters were joined by Cincinnati firefighters and they never left her side, completing 12-hour shifts around the clock. Later, they built a wheelchair ramp and hosted a chili cookout that raised $1,000 to help pay Brock’s medical expenses. Even today, the firefighters take her to her medical appointments.

“They have been a fantastic support,” she said.

Brock, who has been a firefighter for 24 years, was asked to explain the camaraderie in that profession.

“Wow,” she said, her voice cracking, “I didn’t understand the brotherhood until this.”

Ann Brock, an emergency nurse at Atrium Medical Center and a Monroe firefighter, undergoes physical therapy Dec, 20 at the hospital with physical therapist assistant Alice Cutter. Brock is learning to walk again after having part of her leg amputated after a motorcycle accident this past fall. GREG LYNCH / STAFF (Staff Writer)

Staff Writer

For the first time in the interview, Brock appeared uncomfortable as she searched for the appropriate words.

“I’m overwhelmed with it. I’m honored to call each of them my brothers,” she said. “I have one sister as well on the fire department. It’s just … I don’t think I can really describe it. They are just there.”

Since the accident, there have been times when Frank Brock has noticed his wife’s optimism fading. Then, just as quickly, it returns.

“She’s strong, very mentally strong,” he said. “She’s a trooper without a doubt. She has such a wonderful outlook on life. The support seems to lift her spirits.”

There were no pity parties thrown at the Brock residence. No amount of sympathy was going to bring her leg back. So to help through what she called the “stages of grief,” she kept a daily journal, pages filled with encouragement.

“I don’t want negative around me because that doesn’t help at all,” she said. “We have said, ‘Let’s get through this. We will get through this.’”

Ann Brock, an emergency nurse at Atrium Medical Center and a Monroe firefighter, undergoes physical therapy Dec, 20 at the hospital with physical therapist assistant Alice Cutter. Brock is learning to walk again after having part of her leg amputated after a motorcycle accident this past fall. GREG LYNCH / STAFF (Staff Writer)

Staff Writer

In fact, when her husband retrieved the clothes she was wearing during the accident from the hospital, she told him to throw them away. She wanted no reminders of that day.

“Let’s start fresh,” she told him.

Before the accident, Brock planned to take a community firefighter position, a non-emergency role. Now, she said, all of her future career plans — her job as an ER nurse and firefighter — are undecided. But earlier this week, she was rehabbing like a person who wants to continue working. She pushed herself as Alice Cutter, a physical therapy assistant, gave instructions.

Brock said the goal was to strengthen her core and right leg so she can walk with a prosthetic. Cutter called Brock the “best amputee patient” she has seen in her career.

“She has an I-can-do-it attitude,” Cutter said. “She just goes for it.”

Today she will go for it, thanks to the best Christmas present.

http://ift.tt/2iln91x

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