H o m e |
THE SEAT BELT SAVED HER LIFE, BUT CHANGED IT FOREVER A year after nearly dying in a summer car crash, UM-St. Louis student Ali Frede is ready to return to classes and the rest of her life by Amy Lombardo Alicia "Ali" Frede's life was altered forever while taking a simple road trip last summer. She and her family were returning home after vacationing at the Lake of Ozarks. Frede and her brother, 17-year-old Jason, were in his '97 Ford Explorer with him at the wheel and their two dogs, Bailey and Brandy, in the back. They were the middle section of a three-car family caravan on eastbound I-70, with her mother in the lead and her father behind. Frede remembers stopping in Kingdom City to use the restroom. She even remembers beginning to read one of her textbooks for a UM-St. Louis summer class as they started to drive away. She does not remember much else of the summer of 1997. No one is sure how the accident happened. One witness said she saw what looked like a re-tread tire fly up and hit Jason's truck in the windshield. This may have caused him to swerve and lose control of the Explorer. The Explorer hit some soft dirt in the median and flipped over, hitting on-coming vechicle in the westbound lane. Luckily, the Explorer finally landed on its wheels. Frede recalls waking up for a moment and feeling really hot and thinking that it hurt to breathe. That's her last memory before September. Frede's seat belt had been embedded in her shoulder. Paramedics used a pocketknife to cut her out of the vehicle. Helicopters transported her brother and a woman from the other car to Columbia. An ambulance had already transported Frede to the nearest hospital because she had respiratory failure and was not breathing. While Frede's mother was getting into the ambulance, a woman walked up holding one of the dogs, Bailey. There wasn't a scratch on him. Brandy, unfortunately, did not survive the accident. All of this happened on July 13, a Sunday. On Monday, doctors told Frede's parents that she was not expected to make it. Tuesday, the doctors told them that it was unlikely that Jason would walk again. The injuries to the children were severe. Jason's neck was broken neck and his arm was fractured. One of Ali's lungs collapsed; the other was punctured. And she needed a tracheotomy. Her right arm was broken so badly that in places the bone tore through the skin. But Ali's most serious injury was the "abdominal seat belt trauma." Her seat-belt rested too high - on her stomach instead of her hips. The number of these injuries is increasing due to the large number of people using their seat belts. The injuries are also more apparent because of the well-trained paramedics and better emergency medical services available today. A decade ago, an individual would not have survived Frede's injuries. Dr. Michael Metzler was Frede's surgeon at University Hospital in Columbia. "What the belt does is, it just brings everything back and squishes it against the spine and then it scrapes across the abdominal wall," Metzler said. "The abdominal wall is just gone. It tears it right off, shreds it." The seat belt Frede was wearing rubbed away her skin and three layers of muscle from her hipbones to her breasts. She still has no muscle in her abdomen, although this summer she has surgery scheduled which may wrap around muscle from her back to her stomach. As for this affecting Frede's appetite, she was unable to eat for 201 days. Fortunately, she's now back on track and eating normally. The only things that disagrees with her are dairy products. "I think the doctors fixed me up pretty well if I can have Taco Bell," Frede said. In all, Frede has had 15 surgeries and lost 20 pounds. April 10 was her most recent surgery, in which doctors removed the rods from of her right arm. Frede credits her survival to her age and good physical condition. "Seat belts do save lives. If [Jason and I] hadn't been wearing them, we wouldn't be here," Frede said. "But if we do have seat belts, they have to fit us correctly. They shouldn't cause injury." Frede is certainly getting her message out. She is planning to travel to Jefferson City with Metzler to go before the state legislature and talk about the seat belt issue. In late May, Ladies' Home Journal is sending a reporter from New York to interview Frede and her mother. "The more people I make aware, the sooner the legislature will do something about it," Frede said. "And people in the automotive industry can start thinking about a new design [for seat belts]." Jason returned to school on time with his classmates, fulfilling a goal he had set for himself in rehabilitation. He is now out of his wheelchair and not only walking, but will hopefully be playing sports again next year. Ali Frede is most definitely living. She is getting back into her normal routine, slowly but surely. Ali is currently finishing up the UM-St. Louis classes she missed last summer, and is registered for the fall semester. She even started driving by herself last month. She plans to take a well-deserved rest this summer. She is recovering not only from the accident but the chicken pox. Her brother, Jason, gave them to her last month. |