A 20-year-old Sidney woman had her legs amputated after she was hit by a car on I-75 near Stanley Avenue last month.
Rachelle Cooper had stopped to check on her friends, who had been involved in a separate crash around 8 a.m. on April 29, when she was hit by another vehicle that had lost control on the wet highway, according to a crash report.
“Our friends ended up hydroplaning,” Cooper told News Center 7’s Caroline Reinwald. “I went to lean up to give her a hug and a car hit me.”
Cooper and her boyfriend were on their way to The Greene for a car show when the crash happened and she’s been at Miami Valley Hospital since.
“When I woke up my entire bottom half of my body was just numb. I had no feeling,” Cooper said.
Doctors immediately amputated her left leg after the crash and three weeks later, Cooper said she authorized doctor’s to remove her right leg three weeks later once she was told it could not be saved.
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“Just because bad something happens to you doesn’t mean you have to put your life on stop and give up on yourself. You can make it through anything if you try.”
Cooper’s mother, Lori Cooper, said the next steps involve rehabilitation and eventually a fitting for prostheses.
“She knows there are going to be a lot of new adventures in her life but it’s going to be tough,” Lori Cooper said.
For more information on Cooper's recovery visit her Facebook support page.
