By Molly Magennis
When Williamstown mother Kerrilie Rice dropped her daughter off at kindergarten for the first day of the year, she expected she would be there again at the end of the day to pick her up.
However, a walk on the beach with her friend would prove life changing.
It was January 6, 2022 and Kerrilie was walking along a particularly rocky section of the Williamstown dog beach.
All of a sudden, after placing her foot on a rock with seaweed, she slipped, smashed her knee and cut a crucial artery that ran along the back of her leg.
She was rushed to hospital, where she had multiple surgeries to try and repair the artery. However, the muscles in the bottom half of her leg and foot had already started to die.
She was given two options by doctors, endure four more operations to keep her leg which would never be properly functional again, or receive an above-the-knee amputation. She chose the latter.
“I just said I don’t see what’s the point of having a dead leg,” Kerrilie said.
“It probably took maybe two weeks or 10 days or something but I just said look, I said this at the beginning and I’m confirming it now, I want an amputation.
“I could not see a reason not to do it.”
Kerrilie had left a three-year-old daughter back at home with her partner Meg, who had been under her full time care since a major incident 11 years ago which caused her to have severe brain damage.
Prior to the accident, Kerrilie had been in charge of everything.
“So I do the shopping and run the household and we have a three and a half year old…..so I do the vast majority of the physical parenting,” she said.
“When Meg’s wheelchair gets damaged or you know, she’s got pain and she needs a medical appointment, all of that, I do all of that.”
While Kerrilie has now left hospital and is in rehab, she has a long road ahead of her, one that is sure to be expensive.
To help cover the many costs, including a prosthetic leg, a friend has set up a GoFundMe, which has already raised almost $18,000.
While initially reluctant, Kerrilie is now unbelievably grateful for all the people who have rallied around her and donated.
“Thank God she did it, because now I realize why she was doing it, at the time I didn’t really have a comprehension of what I was facing,” she said.
“We’re so lucky to live where we do with people being so kind to us, and I think it will be the same when I go home.”
Kerrilie’s GoFundMe is still open for donations, with the goal of raising $30,000. Those interested can donate via www.gofundme.com/f/give-kerrilie-two-legs-for-a-full-and-caring-life
