Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 27, 1990 TAG: 9007260243
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JEFF MOTLEY SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
It was a normal Friday afternoon, and Aust had just gotten tickets for the Pulaski County Cougars' football game that night and was on her way home to change clothes. But as she started down U.S. 11 toward her Pulaski home in her MG Midget, her life was turned upside down - literally.
According to Aust, her car was forced off the road by another car. The MG flipped five times, throwing her out. Then the car rolled over her, breaking her collarbone, crushing her thigh and ripping a four-inch gash in the back of her head.
Aust was taken to the Pulaski Community Hospital and airlifted by Life-Guard 10 helicopter to Roanoke.
"I can still remember lying out there on the ground before anybody got there," said Aust, 18, "and I was just hoping that I wouldn't live because it hurt so bad."
She was a trauma case and brain damage was feared, but miraculously there were no internal injuries. She spent the next two weeks in the hospital and didn't return to school until November.
"There were a lot of people there who said that I wouldn't live," Aust said. "I had two transfusions, and I couldn't move at all while I was being treated. I had a hard time breathing and they thought I was going into shock."
As she was lying conscious, writhing in pain, her thoughts were of karate.
"I knew sort of what was going on, and I knew I was hurt bad, but the first thing I asked the doctor was if I would be able to do karate again," Aust said.
The answer wasn't the one she wanted to hear, but she was determined that she would do karate again, no matter what the experts told her.
Along with her black belt, Aust has many trophies. She was getting ready to take the test for second-degree black belt when the accident occurred.
After the crash, she walked with a noticeable limp, with two metal rods in her leg that had been inserted from the hip.
Slowly Aust began to recover. She made her biggest strides three weeks ago at the CorEast State Games in Roanoke.
"I went to the state games planning on coaching," Aust said. "But at the last minute I sort of disappeared so that I could register."
Her opponents probably wished she had stuck to coaching.
The Radford University sophomore won the silver medal in the women's kata division. It was her first competition of any kind since her accident.
Kata is a non-contact form of karate. "Basically, it is doing all your moves against an imaginary opponent," Aust said.
She entered the competition without informing her doctor, but she said she didn't think he would be angry.
As happy and excited as she was after winning the medal, Aust knows there are realities she must face.
"Right now I have no bone marrow in my leg, so the slightest bit of pressure could cause it to snap," she said. "I really doubt if I will ever be able to have full-contact karate again. I can't take any chances on contact at all until the marrow comes back in my leg, and that should be sometime in August.
"And I will never be able to kick my leg to head level again. It will be hard to ever get it to shoulder level."
Not only has the accident upset her karate career, but it also has eliminated her favorite hobby - scuba diving.
"I loved to scuba dive, but now my body can't support the pressure of the tank, so that is out."
Aust's physical recovery is remarkable. One look at her and you could never tell she had been in an accident at all. But, she says, it hasn't been that easy mentally.
"I still have to drive through [the crash site] sometimes, but I don't like to," Aust said. "I try to avoid it when possible, even if it means going way out of the way. But every time I do come through there I picture the accident happening again every time."
Thoughts of that Friday afternoon may never leave Aust, and the physical damage may keep her from a second-degree black belt. But in determination and strength of will, there's no doubt she is a kick above the rest.
by CNB