The Thirty-Aught-6

[Jim Fenton]

Jim, was Shorty injured in the crash, what is the actual result of her leg injury, did she lose her leg?

Yes, Shorty had his left leg all but severed in the crash.

If you look at the clip linked above of them loading him into
the ambulance, you’ll see that the angle of his left foot is
horribly out of line with his body.

He ended up jammed between the bike and the guard rail,
where he could hear Leslie calling for help from the water below
but couldn’t get up out of the wreckage to help her.

Along with the left leg, which he described as shattered with
bone showing, he had broken ribs, broken shoulder,
collapsed lung and several deep lacerations.

He opted to try to save the leg of course when they took him
but is still having great difficulty with it as you could imagine.

Leslie’s left leg was severed on impact before she was thrown
over the guard rail which had a 10’ – 12’ drop to a canal to
Lake Griffin below.

This was at night so she was in murky water and had to get
to shore on her own with no help.

To give you some concept of the circumstances she faced,
here’s a shot of the actual crash site I took last February.

This is broad daylight with the sun out.

Can you imagine being thrown over this railing in the dark at
10:30 at night? It would be scary enough with all your extremities
let alone just having lost one.

You can see the section of new railing and new post
at the point of impact.



After multiple surgeries she’s rehabbing now with a new prosthetic,
after experiencing issues with the first few prosthetics.

These two good people have been through hell to put it mildly.

Here is a recent shot of them from last month on the USS Fenton
when we enjoyed a pleasant day with them on the lake where we live.