Excerpt from: The Sacramento Bee (click for full article)
Patti's comment: Something about the administration of this trust seems off a bit...
Wearing a dimpled smile, Malyia Jeffers slashed through the door
on her "special legs," aluminum poles attached to crystalline plastic
feet covered with shiny black Mary Jane shoes.
Ducking into
Classroom 2 at Hillsdale Avenue Head Start in her flouncy pink skirt and
black top, she let go of her father's hand. She stuffed her pink Minnie
Mouse backpack into her wooden cube, pulled off her leather jacket and
joined her classmates around a small table for fruit and oatmeal.
Malyia
is 4 years old, nearly two years removed from the medical trauma that
claimed parts of all four of her limbs. She is walking and running on
prosthetic legs. She uses the stumps of her heavily scarred hands to
hold utensils and peel bananas and write her name and mold clay. At her
school, tucked into a strip mall
behind a smog station in North Highlands, she is practicing her colors
and numbers, improving her vocabulary and making new friends.
Her parents, Ryan and Leah, have the means to take care of her every
need, from prosthetics to clothing to computers, thanks to a
multimillion-dollar financial settlement they reached with Methodist Hospital.
It was in the Methodist emergency room, in early December 2010, where
the family waited five hours for treatment of an infection that raged
out of control and led to the amputations of Malyia's lower legs, her
left hand and part of her right hand.
"Life has changed a lot in
the past year," Ryan Jeffers, 31, observed early one morning, his eyes
tired as he settled into one of the tiny blue chairs in the classroom.
"Malyia is doing great. But every day brings a new challenge."
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/28/4943522/big-step-for-injured-girl-two.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy
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