Johnia Callicut
High Point, NC

Johnia Callicut was offering a band-aid to a worker at her family's new horse stable when the building collapsed, nearly crushing her and her two-month old daughter, Courtney. Several hours after a dramatic rescue, engineered by her husband, Rick, she was admitted to North Carolina Baptist Hospital. Dr. John Wilson, neurosurgeon, was just finishing an eight-hour procedure when he was summoned to consult on Callicutt's condition. Wilson undertook a 12-hour operation to repair and partially reconstruct Callicutt's spine. It was impossible to know if she would walk again.

"The noise was tremendous," she said. "It hit me from the back of the head and drove me into the ground. Courtney was pinned between my knee and my chest. She screamed one time, and then couldn't get her breath. I can't believe, in retrospect, it didn't sever my spinal cord."

Thanks to natural resilience and her mother's shielding effect, baby Courtney is fine. However, Callicutt describes her post-operative X-rays as something akin to an Erector Set project! "Dr. Wilson really had to improvise to get me 'back' together. I am so lucky to have him as my surgeon."

The nursing care was admirable, too. When she was transferred from intensive care to the neurosurgery unit, she arrived in emotional turmoil and face down on a rotating bed used to protect her from unnecessary movement. I was crying and one of the nurses crawled under the bed, took my face in her hands and said, We're going to take care of you. You're going to be fine.' It really calmed me down."

Callicutt's experience heightened her awareness of the advances made in medicine. "I try to remind myself when life gets hectic how fortunate I am."