Kim Whittley put a hand to her left cheek: Every morning when I wake up, the weight of the worlds right here. The pain never stops.
Her face and mouth were extensively injured in a frightful fall from the bed of a utility bucket truck following Thayers Sept. 1 homecoming parade.
One second, Kim was sitting in the truck. The next, she was on the street writhing in pain. I dont know how it happened. I was waiting for traffic before getting down, then I was on the ground spitting out teeth and rocks.
She rode on the truck to be near her four boys, ages 3, 6, 8 and 10, who were on kid-sized conveyances in the parade. The boys, testing their independence, didnt want Mom walking beside them.
Having been a licensed practical nurse for nine years and working at Ashley Clinic, Kim immediately knew she needed medical care. Rather than wait for a Chanute ambulance, family friends carried her to a pickup truck and raced to Chanutes hospital, 15 miles away.
Examinations found she had facial fractures and a large hematoma to her left cheek. Some of her teeth were driven into her left cheek bone. Four teeth were dislodged, two more extracted soon after.
She also suffered a stress fracture to her right foot, where a knot remains. A sprained left wrist was the only injury that has healed.
Complicating treatment and healing, Kim suffers from autoimmune disease.
FURTHER complicating matters, Kim faces grave financial concerns, which before March largely would have been absorbed by health insurance. But last spring her six-year-old son was diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). To help deal with his challenges, Kim shifted her work schedule to part-time at Ashley Clinic. In so doing, Kim, a single parent, lost the familys health insurance coverage.
Heres where she stands:
Based on her income, the hospital bill of $21,000 was reduced to $3,000 under a charity program honored by Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center.
Extraction of two teeth cost $100 at Pittsburgs Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, which also takes into account ones income.
But a dental specialist in Joplin charted a plan that requires an initial payment of $8,000 for repairs that cant be either denied or delayed.
Kim earns about $500 a week at Ashley Clinic and is paid $50 for occasional 12-hour shifts as a volunteer EMT at Cherryvale.
From divorce, she receives $40 a week in child support for each son.
