By Susan Bromley
Staff Writer
Fitness centers across the country are filled at this time of year with thousands of people who have made it their new year’s resolution to lose weight or get physically fit.
At In Motion Anytime, 4 N. Ortonville Road, they could find some fresh inspiration in Barbara Delisi, a member there who has been working out for years, even after losing part of her leg.
‘It’s annoying to get out of bed and have to attach a body part before you can do anything,? notes the 61-year-old Atlas Township resident on a recent Friday afternoon at the gym after challenging her body on various exercise machines. ‘I miss it everyday, but you just have to keep plugging away. You get up in the morning and decide what you’re going to do and do it.?
It was a sunny September day in Wisconsin seven years ago when Delisi and her husband, Joe, were riding their BMW motorcycles back to their hotel after attending a motorcycle rally. Barbara Delisi never saw the semi-truck as she crossed the road? the truck driver didn’t see her until it was too late. She heard him apply the brakes and Joe, riding ahead of her, heard the crash.
‘He struck my left leg and I rode the bike down sideways,? recalls Barbara, who never lost consciousness. ‘I attribute the fact that I didn’t lose my life to riding a BMW? when the bike fell, it fell on the engine and didn’t crush me.?
She was also fortunate that one of the first people to stop was a registered nurse. Emergency workers arrived, but the ambulance didn’t move to take her.
‘I was bleeding out, but didn’t know my leg was severed,? Delisi said. ‘I remember thinking that I was tying up traffic.?
Rescue crews called for a helicopter to take her to a trauma center in Marshfield, Wisc. where she was put into a medically induced coma. When she awoke from surgery, she learned that her leg had been severed 9 centimeters below the knee.
‘I’d had my suspicions, but there wasn’t much I could do about it,? she says simply. ‘It happened in the blink of an eye. I wondered what I could have done differently, but you can dwell on ‘what if???
She spent a month in the hospital and endured eight more surgeries to debride the remaining limb. Muscle was taken from her abdomen, leaving her with a foot-long incision and skin was grafted from her thigh. She was strung up in bed that month and then a bone infection threatened to force an amputation of her leg above the knee.
‘Keeping my knee was so important? it would have been much more difficult to keep my balance and walk if I was an above the knee amputee,? Delisi noted.
She returned to her job at the Marshall Field’s cosmetics counter on crutches, telling people she was there for the pity sale. She was happy to be doing something, however, and she worked in therapy to get the use of her knee back. Six months after her accident, she was fitted for a permanent prosthetic limb. ‘It was not difficult to walk on a prosthetic limb, I felt free again,? Delisi said. ‘Other than not having an ankle, I was walking like normal again.?
The retired Air Force Major was always in shape and prior to her accident, had worked out at a gym for three to five days a week for 20 years. The loss of her leg wasn’t going to stop her from doing what she had done before. Shortly after getting her new prosthetic limb, she went back to her workouts. But the ‘trainer leg? presented a special challenge.
‘I’d be working on the machines, and my leg would come off,? she said. ‘It was embarrassing. I’d say, ‘My leg came off? and put it back on. It was real primitive, but I didn’t let it stop me.?
Delisi eventually progressed to a more advanced prosthetic. She doesn’t run anymore, and there is some gym equipment she can’t use. She recently requested a personal trainer’s advice on exercises she could do to strengthen her left thigh and hip, and he noted the right side of her butt was bigger, so she has been concentrating on working muscles on her left side.
At 5 feet 5 inches tall and about 115 pounds, Delisi looks to be in incredible shape and at least 10 years younger than her actual age. She works out three days a week for at least an hour each time at In Motion, using ab machines, the treadmill and elliptical, free weights and working her upper body. At home, she does push-ups, squats, and lunges.
She still works as a cosmetics consultant a few days per month and looks for opportunities to speak to other amputees and give back.
‘It doesn’t change who you thought you were,? she said. ‘It’s your leg, or whatever body part, it’s not you. It’s not who you are. You can adapt and do what you want to do.?