Diana's Story
When I woke up in the hospital to find that my right arm had been amputated after an ATV accident, my life changed forever…in the best way.
My name is Diana Gazzano Gibson. I’m the Founder of The Diana Adapted Foundation and a thriving amputee.
In June of 2016, I was in a traumatic ATV accident. We were only driving for a few minutes before we approached a bend that turned to the left. Going way too fast, the driver swerved to the right to overcorrect the turn at 40+mph. The ATV flipped onto its right side, where I was sitting in the passenger seat, and slid across the dusty dirt road until it came to a complete stop. It was when the ATV flipped over and slid along the dirt road that my arm was severely injured. I knew immediately that what occurred was catastrophic.
After a trip to the closest hospital, I was medevacked to a trauma hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. I still remember talking to Dr. Reece, the on-call doctor at the time, when I arrived at the hospital. He said he was going to do everything he possibly could to save my right arm and that I would be going into surgery right away. I began to cry as I fell asleep.
When I woke up from my surgery, as they were wheeling me back to the recovery room, I looked down at where my right arm should be. I realized it was gone. What was left was wrapped in thick white bandages.
I started to cry and asked the nurse a very obvious question, “They couldn't save it?" She said, “ No, sweetie, I'm sorry.” My head dropped back down to my pillow in sadness and I cried more until I was back asleep.
What I went through the day of the accident was a traumatic and significant life change. If you’ve experienced sudden limb loss, I’m sure you can relate to all the feelings I've described. Those first few hours and days can be filled with heavy emotions that can feel impossible to process. But one thing always remained the same for me: I vowed that the loss of my arm would not define me as a person.
In the days following the accident, one of the first things I made sure of was that I allowed myself to grieve and be sad about the loss of my arm. I gave myself permission to be mad about what happened to me. I allowed myself to be in physical pain from everything my body had endured. And during this time I also made the conscious choice to focus on my abilities, not my inabilities.
Read more about Diana on Equip Products: equipproducts.com/blogs/news/...
A Short Film by Rick Evans and Rick Evans Media, produced by Equip Products.
rickevansmedia.com/
Equip Products - The Leader In Adaptive Fitness
equipproducts.com/
Diana Adapted Foundation
www.dianaadaptedfoundation.org/
#adaptiveathlete #equipproducts