How did Stef Reid lose her leg?

The answer can make some people squeamish, so consider this the warning…

When I was 15, everything about my life changed in an instant.  I was up at a friend’s cottage for the bank holiday weekend, and we were out tubing on their boat.  Tubing is when you attached a rubber inner tube to the back and go flying across the water.

I had fallen off the tube, and was waiting in the water for the boat to come back and pick me up, like it always had.  But unfortunately, there had been a miscommunication between the spotter and the driver, and the driver didn’t know I was in the water.

 When I saw the boat coming towards me, I knew instantly that something was wrong.  The boat was coming way too fast.  My brain immediately switched into survival mode – I  knew I needed to avoid the propellers, and my best chance to do that was to surface dive.  I thought if I could get as far below the water as possible, and wait for the boat to pass over top, everything would be fine.

It was a good plan…except I forgot I had a life jacket on, and I couldn’t get under the water.  And at that point, it was too late.  The boat was on top of me, and there was nothing I could do except hope for the best.

Unfortunately, I did get caught in the propellers, and I had deep lacerations to my lower back and my right foot.  I knew it was bad.  I could see it in everyone’s face. There was way too much blood, and I was scared I was going to die.  We were miles away from a hospital and I needed help.

It was a miracle not only that I survived, but that I came away with such limited damage.  The propeller caught my back in such a way that there was no damage to my spine or my internal organs.  But my skin and muscle tissue were a mess, the risk of sepsis and flesh eating disease terrified everyone and they had to use a special technique of surgical debridement along side a system of mesh wiring to close the wound and bind the skin and muscles back together. 

It was serious, but everything would heal with time.  Inches were the difference to me being cut clear in half, or the propellers hitting my head or chest.

My foot was actually the least serious of the injuries. But in the end, it was too badly damaged, and the surgeons were forced to amputate.  It was a strange space to be in – I was so thankful to still be alive, but at the same time, this was not how I wanted to live my life.

               I didn’t know anything about leg amputees, I didn’t know anything about disability, and I had no idea what my life was going to look like moving forward.  But there were only really 2 choices: be miserable for the rest of my life, or decide to make the most of it and have an adventure!