Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 12, 1994 TAG: 9404120122
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Dave Wert, her father, was out of breath when reached by phone Monday afternoon. The reason: he was cleaning house in preparation for the homecoming.
"Things look real good," said Wert, who spoke with Kelly that morning. "She's still real weak and real tired. She sounds good on the phone."
Kelly Wert was working as a substitute teacher in Montgomery County schools and seeking a full-time teaching job last fall when a movement disorder, first diagnosed at age 13, worsened.
She was unable to work because of constant, exhausting whipping motion of her right arm, which she had to restrain with her left arm. The disorder also slurred her speech.
But it didn't impair her spirit. "This may sound odd, but I look at this as something that can be a positive experience ... [one that] builds strength, patience, independence," she said in a January newspaper interview.
The surgery, conducted last Thursday at New York University Medical Center, was successful. "There's no more movement," Dave Wert said.
Kelly Wert and her mother, Vicki, a Roanoke schoolteacher, were to fly into Roanoke Monday night. Kelly Wert, who has been in New York with her family since March 30, will spend several days recuperating at home.
"She's made real good progress and we're all real pleased," Dave Wert said.
Kelly Wert's case gained attention in the New River and Roanoke valleys earlier this year when supporters conducted a fund-raising drive to pay for her surgery.
She had been denied coverage under a short-term health insurance policy she purchased after graduating from the College of William and Mary and leaving her family's policy last year.
The Illinois-based insurer, Golden Rule Insurance Co., considered her movement disorder, called paraxysmal choreoatheosis, a pre-existing condition, according to Vicki Wert.
But lobbying efforts by her parents led to her coverage being restored under the family's policy with Travelers Insurance Co.
Travelers will now pay almost all of the cost of her surgery and treatment. Fund-raisers will decide what to do with any surplus once Kelly Wert recovers.
by CNB