Human Touch continued
A new path emerges from heartbreak
Janet Karr’s injuries were so severe that she had hand therapy for seven months.
When Mrs. Karr, of Troy, Texas, started therapy with Mr. Ortiz, the fingers of her
left hand were stuck in a claw position and she could not lift her wrist. She could
not type. She could not cut her meat at dinner. “I couldn’t brush my daughter’s hair
or put it in ponytails,” she says. “That really bothered me.”
Mrs. Karr’s left arm was nearly severed in a car accident that also claimed
the lives of her two young sons. The collision occurred in Brenham in 1999,
so she was flown to a Houston-area medical center, where surgeons put her
arm in an external metal device to hold the fractured bones in place. After
returning to the Temple area and meeting with Dr. Weber and Dr. Fornfeist,
Mrs. Karr decided to have her follow-up surgery at Scott & White.
The Scott & White hand surgeons performed a bone graft, taking a piece of
her right fibula, a leg bone, and grafting it to the bone in her upper left arm.
“Dr. Fornfeist and I worked together to save her arm and then rebuild its
function,” Dr. Weber recalls. “But the injury itself was horrible. I was so
impressed with Janet’s bravery.”
Through the teamwork offered by surgeons and occupational therapists at Scott &
White, Mrs. Karr recovered. “I progressed to the point where I have very good
function in my arm. I feel blessed that I even have an arm, much less one that’s
functional,” she says. “I was even able to hold my new baby when he was born.”
Because of the care she received at Scott & White, Mrs. Karr was inspired to
attend nursing school. She is now an operating room nurse at Scott & White.
“It is incredible to actually witness and be a part of the kinds of surgeries that
Dr. Weber, Dr. Fornfeist, and Dr. Probe did for me,” she says.
Dr. Douglas S. Fornfeist with
onetime patient and Scott & White
nurse Janet Karr, RN.
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THE CATALYST Spring 11 | www.sw.org