Student perseveres following accident

LAFAYETTE - In two minutes, the motocross arena would have closed, and Angela Roether would have avoided the accident that ultimately left her without a leg.

Still, the Allen East High School senior knows everything happens for a reason.

"I learned so much about other people and myself," said Angela, who now walks with a prosthetic leg. "I look at things a lot differently. You are always stronger than you think you are."

Angela's perseverance earned her the Lima Exchange Club's Accepting the Challenges of Excellence Award.

Angela rode motocross bikes for four years. Having spent the day at the track, she wanted to get one more lap in.

"I came up two inches short on a double jump," she said of the January 2007 accident.

Angela shattered her ankles and wrists and underwent reconstructive surgery. She caught a staph infection in her right ankle, which inhibited the bone from healing. Multiple surgeries and antibiotics still didn't save the bone.

"I thought am I ever going to ride again, ever going to walk again," she said. The hardest part, she said, was waiting between surgeries.

In May, doctors amputated Angela's leg four inches below the knee. More problems occurred, prolonging getting a prosthetic until November. Angela missed much of her junior year, doing the work at home. She didn't want to return last fall, but did.

"I did not want to come back when I still couldn't walk," she said. "I didn't want anyone to see me without a leg."

Angela has pain, but is getting used to the prosthetic. She's allergic to the pain medicine, so a day at school is tough.  Still, she doesn't feel sorry for herself.

"Other people have worse problems. It could have been worse," she said.

Angela takes postsecondary classes at Rhodes State College and plans to enroll in the medical assistant program at Apollo Career Center. She'll then head to Kettering University to study prosthetic and orthopedics. She wants to open a clinic and help fit others with prosthetics.

"At first I didn't want to have anything to do with people like that," she said. "I didn't want to see it. I wanted to forget. But then I thought, I went through it, why not help someone else."