I’m a sucker for stories like this, about people who aren’t victims or disabled by their own anger and hate, but who power forward through life, despite really devastating setbacks:
Kellie Lim knows all too well what it is like to be a very sick child.
Struck with a ravaging bacterial infection that destroys limbs, she became a triple amputee at age 8 and soon faced a life of prosthetics, wheelchairs and often-painful rehabilitation.
But from that suffering, Lim forged a life of achievement. On Friday, she will graduate from UCLA’s medical school and then will begin a residency program at the medical center there.
Her chosen specialty? Pediatrics, with a possible concentration later on childhood allergies and infectious diseases.
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Lim carried out her medical training with a determination that awed her professors and fellow students and won her the school’s top prize for excellence in pediatrics.
Opting not to use a prosthetic arm, she showed that she can perform most medical procedures with one hand, including taking blood and administering injections. She lives on her own in a Westwood apartment with no special features for the handicapped and drives a car with only one adaptation: a turning knob on the steering wheel. She is learning to swim, is trying horseback riding and even went tandem skydiving recently.
Lim, whose legs were amputated about 6 inches below her knees, gave up her wheelchair years ago and walks so well down the long and crowded hospital hallways — with a slightly bouncy stride — that new classmates and patients often don’t have a clue for weeks that artificial limbs fill her shoes and pant legs.
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Previously right-handed, she learned to write and do chores with her somewhat diminished left hand, having lost three fingertips on it to amputation, along with her entire right hand and forearm. She has been fitted with prosthetic arms, but does not wear one in public anymore and uses it at home just for rare tasks, such as assembling an IKEA desk by herself.
“I hate failing,” she said. “It’s one of those things that’s so ingrained in me.”
That view was intensified by another disability in the family. Her mother, Sandy, went blind in her 20s and, except for not driving, sought to continue as normal a life as possible in raising three children. She cooked, cleaned and walked the youngsters to school.
“She definitely was a great role model for me,” Lim said. “It was hard for her to overcome her blindness, and I think she definitely instilled a strength in me.”
You can read the rest here.
Filed under: Uplifting stories
In a world of “extra time for my exam”, and “points on my application for living in a bad neighborhood”, and “I deserve a break because my ancestors had a hard time”, Kellie Lim stands out.
Bravo!
Strength is a rarity precisely because it is not easy, it is not inherited, and it is not a result of purity.
Of course you are a sucker for these stories, Book, since most classical liberals have a strongly vested interest in seeing humanity progress, succede, and beat unbeatable odds. That mark on your soul is not easy to erase, for anyone.
These stories come very close to home. My youngest sister is special, living with our Mom next door. (Imagine yourself approaching 80 with a dependent child!) My sister is practicing for a little surprise recital for the church seniors. She is learning to play Amazing Grace on her new lap harp. It is enough to bring tears to the eyes.
As I told my remedial readers, if they used their abilities to the best of their abilities their lives would be wide open with potential
Dear readers,
I can identify with the Doctor. I was born with cerebral palsy and graduated from med school in 1981. What she has done is much,, much more challenging. I treated patients with amputations of the arms and legs. She show that there is no limiotatation tio the human spirit.
Darell Pone,MD
Old Westbury, NY
I salute you, Dr. Pone. I wish our culture would more often celebrate the human spirit and not be so obsessed with those who constantly cry out that life is unfair. In that regard, I especially appreciated Earl’s comment (#1), because Dr. Lim is an amazing antidote to the parents who make up false handicaps for their kids in order to milk the system.
I had a lovely young woman in my Biology classes back in the ’80s….all the promise in the world. Except for her cystic fibrosis. Med school turned her down…she reapplied. I could understand their reasoning, but we didn’t think it was right, and went to bat for her. They took her in after the entire faculty bent their ears; she trained while also marrying, and then had two kids…. She lived to be 37, if I remember, and died of the CF, beloved by her family and everyone who knew her. Mourned, of course — but what a spirit! It chokes me up just remembering her – she fought the good fight and never asked for quarter. I will never forget her!