A new leg up on life

AUGUSTA — Augusta resident Pavey Barnes will soon have a new routine. Every night Barnes will have to take her left leg off and plug it in to recharge.
Barnes is expected to soon get a $60,000 bionic leg that will allow her to walk up and down hills, climb stairs and do more without fear of falling.
The mother of three, Barnes lost her leg in an automobile accident in August 2000 as she was driving along Ford Hill Road near Augusta.
She was transported by Maryland’s Trooper Five Medevac Unit to Cumberland Memorial Hospital and soon transferred on to Baltimore’s Shock Trauma Center.
Doctors at the trauma unit gave family members very little hope, as tests revealed compound fractures in both legs, dual fractures in the pelvic area, skull and facial fractures, severe road rash and bruising of the brain.
Miraculously, Barnes suffered no internal injuries.
Doctors kept Barnes in a sedated coma for nearly three weeks as they worked frantically to save her life.
At one point, Barnes’ normal 110-pound body reached a weight of over 200 pounds because of the fluids being pumped into her system.
After at least 30 pints of blood and four weeks in the shock trauma unit, Barnes stunned doctors and nurses alike by recovering and eventually being transferred to a nearby rehabilitation unit.

Six months after being released from the hospital — her left leg amputated 6 inches above the knee and a metal rod in her right leg — Barnes was fitted for a standard prosthesis.
Wearing the same prosthesis for the past six and one-half years has been trying at times, according to Barnes.
“The slightest weight fluctuation affects the way my leg fits into the socket,” said Barnes.
Barnes actually has developed internal scar tissue from the prosthesis that sometimes gets infected and becomes very painful.
The leg she now uses is a simple prosthesis that works at the knee similar to that of a door swinging on a hinge — only with nothing to stop the movement.
“So if it wants to go out from under me, it does,” Barnes said.
The accident, nor the amputation, has stopped Barnes from living life to its fullest.
She volunteers as an aide at Augusta Elementary School, rides a motorcycle with her husband, Michael, and has even been known to try the trampoline with her children.
But watching her fall and struggle with the original prosthesis, Barnes’ mother, who lives in Leesburg, Va., decided to make a few contacts to see if she could make things better for her daughter.
Contacting the Mills Foundation, her mother talked to a man in the Ukraine by e-mail, telling him about Barnes.
“I didn’t even know she was doing this and all of the sudden I get a call from a man in the Ukraine asking if I could come and stay for four months,” said Barnes.
With that being impossible because of her responsibilities at home, Barnes declined the opportunity, although she said she was very appreciative of her mother’s efforts, and the invitation to try out a new computerized leg that could make life so much easier.
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