Inspire, Summer 2001

Alumni Profile: Lonnie NoIt'00 Finding a New Path Lonnie Nolt '00, experienced a We-changing tragedyjust as he was ready to begin his senior year at Cedarville. Here, in his words, is his story ofovercoming obstacles and beating the odds. 0 n August 17, 1999 I was riding my motorcycle down a country road in Pennsylvania when I crested a hill and met a van in my lane. I slid sideways,and my right leg was crushed between my motorcycle and the van's front bumper.I flew off my motorcycle and landed in a ditch on the other side of the road. The van driver was on his way home from work—which happened to be the company my uncle owns and my dad works for—so he called back to the office for help. My cousin took the call and knew right away that the injured man was me,because I traveled that road every day at the same time. My cousin was one of the first to arrive on the scene,and he calmed me enough for the medics to work on me.That night I was in surgery for eight hours. The next day the doctors found that my heel was dying from lack of circulation. They planned to remove the dead tissue from my heel and shin and replace it with muscle tissue grafted from my back. What was supposed to be a six- to nine-hour operation ended up taking 15-plus hours•due to complications. During the surgery, they rolled me onto my broken elbow, which caused me to wake up from the excruciating pain. Because the surgery had gone so long,I had "maxxed out"on pain medicine and was told that they couldn't give me more. They finished the surgery quickly while I lay there screaming. Afterwards I went to intensive care again. At that point, they found an infection under one of the muscle grafts. I was told that my leg would have to be amputated,and I immediately went back into surgery. After this, I was in the hospital for one week and a rehab hospital for two weeks. Even though the doctors had told me I would have to miss a year of school,I headed back to Cedarville for a reduced load of eight credit hours after spending two weeks at home. My senior year was a little rough,but I did manage to graduate with my class, thanks to my roommate,Dale Sorensen '00. Dale was also a mechanical engineering major,so he helped me get caught up. His help meant a lot to me. Another thing that meant a great deal was that my unit had tapes of the Fall Bible Conference sent to me in the hospital. That particular year David Jeremiah'63 spoke on the book of Psalms and how he had survived cancer. While he was talking about going through tough times and lying awake in the hospital at 3 a.m. with no one around,I could relate, as that was exactly what I had been dealing with. In November 1999,the tip of my tibia pushed through the skin at the end of my leg because ofa sharp bone edge that was left on during the amputation. I had two more corrective surgeries. (I still have a few more corrective surgeries ahead.) When all was said and done,I was in the hospital for nine weeks with more than 50 hours of surgery. I asked the doctor how many stitches and staples were in me;hejust laughed and said that he had no idea but guessed it was in the range of 500-600. I graduated in June 2000 and in July started myjob at Ohio Willow Wood in Mount Sterling, where I work as a research engineer. My first introduction to this prosthetics company was through Jay Kinsinger, adjunct instructor and mechanical engineering technician at Cedarville. He had worked as a research engineer at Ohio Willow Wood before he came to Cedarville. When he found out that I lost my leg, he invited me to tour the plant and showed me what was possible with prosthetics. It was then that I became involved in testing new products for the company,including their award-winning "Pathfinder" design. With my prosthetic, I now do most of the things I did before—volleyball,ice hockey,rollerblading,running, mountain biking—I've even been skydiving. I was told I would never be able to do most ofthese things again. Looking back over this experience,I find that the pain was all worth it. For the first six months that I worked at Ohio Willow Wood,I traveled all over North America, meeting both amputees and able-bodied people that I would never have known had my accident not happened. One of the verses that I now live by is Habakkuk 3:17-19: "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord,I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet ofa deer,He enables me to go on the heights." Inspire 19