Student overcomes physical obstacles

On Easter Sunday 2002, high school junior Corrie NeSmith maneuvered her Mitsubishi Galant along the familiar dirt road, as she and her friend, Nina Talley, chatted their way to Fairhaven Baptist Church for the Easter service.

It was a beautiful, peaceful Sunday morning in Eastman, GA.The calm however, was interrupted when the Galant hit a bump in the road causing a seatbeltless Corrie to lose control of the car. It veered left into an embankment and began to flip.

Her fragile 17 year-old body slammed against the driver’s side window.

She blacked out.

Corrie awoke roughly 30 seconds later. She was lying outside of the car on jagged gravel, experiencing intense tingling, struggling for breath and only able to move her right shoulder.

“I didn’t panic. I told Nina, who had just climbed out of the broken windshield, to run to the church for help. It was less than a mile away,” Corrie said.

Corrie suffered a dislocated left shoulder, broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken back, resulting in a spinal cord injury.

On Oct. 19, 2005, maneuvering through the maze of gathered college students, Corrie, a junior mass communication major, is a beacon of light among the predictable backdrop of GC&SU’s fountain. The light is reflected from the top of her golden hair, to the glint in her eyes, to the curve of her warm smile and the shine of her metal wheelchair.

It is noon, and Corrie is hungry.

“I have the best parking space,” said Corrie with a smile.

She skillfully moves the wheelchair to her white car parked between the A&S building and the library.

The space is marked by a handicap sign.

Corrie opens the door and hoists herself into the driver’s seat. Her tan hands skillfully disassemble the wheelchair piece by piece and place it in the backseat.

Now Corrie is ready to go. She turns the key, and her custom-made car roars to life. She pulls back on a handle next to the steering wheel to give it some gas to reverse out of the parking spot. Then she brakes by pushing the handle forward. She adjusts the steering wheel and pulls back once again. She is on her way out of the parking lot.

Corrie gets a call is from her brother, GC&SU senior Joel NeSmith. She laughs as she reads the playfully dramatic text message he sent her.

“He says he’s stranded, broke, tired and hungry,” Corrie said.

She turns the car around and heads back to main campus to pick up her brother.

Joel NeSmith meets Corrie at her usual parking spot and jumps in the car.

The two decide on Pig in a Pit for lunch.

Corrie parks the car in a spot in front of the restaurant and quickly assembles her wheelchair.

The front of Pig in a Pit isn’t immediately wheelchair accessible. So, Joel NeSmith protectively helps his little sister onto the curb.

After ordering her lunch at the counter, Corrie slides into a booth next to the door leaving her wheelchair out to the side.

Corrie goes to physical therapy three times a week to increase muscle strength in her lower limbs. She isn’t paralyzed, and theoretically, if she strengthens the muscles in her legs, she should be able to walk. The only muscles that won’t work again are those in her left foot.

Corrie has had many surgeries since her accident. With each surgery, the progress in her physical therapy sessions regresses, and she must begin again.

Her muscles are beginning to strengthen, but they’re not yet strong enough to support her weight.

“Soon I hope to be able to easily walk with leg braces and arm crutches,” Corrie said.

“Then roller skates, roller blades and moonshoes,” said Joel NeSmith.

They both laugh.

“Through this experience, I’ve realized that small things don’t really matter,” Corrie said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Dec 2 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry