LEARNING TO LIVE WITH AN ARTIFICIAL LEG
Learning to live with having an artificial leg
SUZANNE Kelly and her mother, Christine, were on a shopping trip together when the Omagh bomb exploded.
It left Suzanne with only one leg, her mother lost her sight in her left eye and smashed her femur in her left leg. Both know how lucky they are.
For the past few weeks, trainee teacher Suzanne (20) has been learning to live with an artificial limb at Belfast's Musgrave Park Hospital, but she remains positive.
"I just have to get on with my life," she said. She was standing with her mother at the bottom of the street when the bomb went off and remembers everything about the blast in clear detail.
"I looked down and realised that my foot had been blown off. I started to scream when I saw dead bodies around me. I wanted to get back to my mum and I wanted away from the bodies.
"Two men ended up taking me to casualty in a car. My mum was left behind which was very hard and I was trying to get someone to go and help her."
Suzanne's leg was amputated below the knee on the Saturday night, as her mother lay in a coma.
An emotional reunion with her brother and father took place the next morning.
"I was just crying and they told me that mum was in intensive care," Suzanne said.
Now, after only a few weeks, Suzanne is coping with her new limb.
"I just try to get on with it," she said.
"Some days I feel OK about it and other days I just fed so angry. It is good to get moving again but I do get very frustrated that I can not do the things I used to do.
"My friends have been brilliant and I have been working from home on a laptop that the college in Liverpool sent to me.
"I want to try and get back in February or March and I still plan to share a house with friends."
Suzanne is doubtful that she will ever return to settle in Northern Ireland after what happened on August 15.
She said: "You never think something tike this will happen to you, let alone two people in one family. Sometimes it is just so unbelievable that we were part of it.
"But hopefully my mum and I can help each other get through it."
SUZANNE Kelly and her mother, Christine, were on a shopping trip together when the Omagh bomb exploded.
It left Suzanne with only one leg, her mother lost her sight in her left eye and smashed her femur in her left leg. Both know how lucky they are.
For the past few weeks, trainee teacher Suzanne (20) has been learning to live with an artificial limb at Belfast's Musgrave Park Hospital, but she remains positive.
"I just have to get on with my life," she said. She was standing with her mother at the bottom of the street when the bomb went off and remembers everything about the blast in clear detail.
"I looked down and realised that my foot had been blown off. I started to scream when I saw dead bodies around me. I wanted to get back to my mum and I wanted away from the bodies.
"Two men ended up taking me to casualty in a car. My mum was left behind which was very hard and I was trying to get someone to go and help her."
Suzanne's leg was amputated below the knee on the Saturday night, as her mother lay in a coma.
An emotional reunion with her brother and father took place the next morning.
"I was just crying and they told me that mum was in intensive care," Suzanne said.
Now, after only a few weeks, Suzanne is coping with her new limb.
"I just try to get on with it," she said.
"Some days I feel OK about it and other days I just fed so angry. It is good to get moving again but I do get very frustrated that I can not do the things I used to do.
"My friends have been brilliant and I have been working from home on a laptop that the college in Liverpool sent to me.
"I want to try and get back in February or March and I still plan to share a house with friends."
Suzanne is doubtful that she will ever return to settle in Northern Ireland after what happened on August 15.
She said: "You never think something tike this will happen to you, let alone two people in one family. Sometimes it is just so unbelievable that we were part of it.
"But hopefully my mum and I can help each other get through it."
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/0466
Published Date: 22-Oct-98
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