Benefit to help woman waiting for arm

Bigfork veteran and mother Susan Bennett has waited 10 years for a prosthetic right arm, living on resolve but little else.

Two Bigfork chiropractors hope to change that with a benefit Sunday, March 11, to help sustain her during her fight.

Chiropractors Oliver Whipple and Delaney Carlson invite the public to attend the event and meet Bennett from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Kalispell VFW on First Avenue West.

“She’s a very inspirational person,” Whipple said.

He said he first met her at the school both their children attend. They got acquainted as they waited to attend a parent-teacher conference.

“She was at an absolute low point,” he recalled

With a policy of treating veterans without resources for free, Whipple invited her to come to his office for help with some of her many physical problems. The more he learned and got to know her, the more impressed he became with the obstacles she has overcome in her life while also caring for a 6-year-old son.

Learning that she lived on just $800 a month with bills of $760, he and Carlson decided she deserved help and they wanted to provide it along with a fun evening of food, music, a silent auction, drawings and more for a suggested cover charge of $5.

A former naval petty officer, Bennett said she was taken aback by their offer of help. She said Whipple asked her to call him if she ever needed anything on that first day she met him.

“Well, of course, I don’t like ‘taking’ so I never did” call, she said. “It was like two months later when I saw them again and he asked me to come in for an adjustment.”

About the third time she came to the office, Whipple asked if he and Carlson could put on a benefit for her. She was shocked but agreed that she could use the help.

Bennett said she was used to people wanting to take what she had. She called them the most awesome, unselfish people she has ever met.

“I told them I probably would never, ever be able to repay them for this,” she said. “He said, ‘I don’t want repayment. I want you and your son to be OK.’”

From the beginning, Bennett, 38, has traveled a rough road beginning with her youth in Marion. Her mother took off when she was a toddler, leaving her in a home so abusive that she asked to be placed in foster care where she remained until she was grown.

 One constant in her life was a love of physical fitness and working out. Bennett said she loves the people and atmosphere of fitness centers.

She was into body building competitions before the accident and always wanted a career in physical work.

“I’ve been training since I was 13,” she said. “If you ever needed or wanted me, I was in the gym.”

Because of a dynamic recruiter, Bennett decided to join the Navy after school. Her accident occurred in 2002.

She said she cannot discuss the details of her long struggle to receive proper care and a suitable prosthetic.

“It’s kind of stupid,” she said. “A simple accident turned into all this.”

 Bennett said that she and another person were delivering two dogs back to a customer who was coming out a heavy door. The person with Bennett didn’t control one of the dogs, which ran under her and tripped her.

To keep from falling, she grabbed the hinge side of the door as it closed. Bennett said she wishes she could replay that moment and let herself fall.

“He slammed the door on my fingers,” she said. “When we got to the hospital, I went into shock.”

Bennett went into surgery to close up her wounded fingers but her troubles were far from over. She went to specialists and fought for proper care but ended up with eight more surgeries over ensuing years.

“I tried hard to keep my arm,” she said. “I did everything I could. My files are thick.”

By 2005, her middle finger was stiff and infected. Bennett said there was no choice but to remove it. Not long after, she discovered that she was pregnant, which put most other medical treatments on hold.

“All I did was take my medications and wait,” she said. “My son was born in July of 2006.”

His father supported the child for a brief time but then quit paying, adding to her financial problems. But Bennett still calls him her miracle baby.

“I met the wrong guy but got the right result,” she said with a smile.

Bennett was faced with caring for her baby with her right arm and hand wrapped against a steel bar to keep her from bending it. Trying to change diapers was a nightmare.

“Thank God my daughter was there,” she said. “She was really good. She’s awesome.”

By 2008, Bennett said her fingers and hand worsened. She described her hand as resembling a chicken’s foot all curled up.

“That’s what my hand looked like,” she said. “It was disgusting.”

A surgeon in Washington removed her hand above the wrist. When her elbow became fused, she had her final surgery about a year ago that left just a portion of her upper arm.

Her physical fitness had declined after losing her dominant right arm. Bennett said her weight hit 186, a depressing situation for a woman who describes herself as a “hard-core” fitness advocate before the accident.

“One day my son made a comment, ‘Mom, why is your stomach so poofy,’” Bennett recalled,” she said. “That was it. I went to my family doctor and said ‘I’ve got to do something.”

She also wanted to do everything in her own power to prepare to succeed with her prosthesis. Her last surgery was in preparation for a specific high-tech arm that she found with help from Doug Jack of Northern Care Orthotics & Prosthetics.

Created by Biodesigns, it features an advanced socket interface for comfort, stability and energy efficiency.

“I think it has some 30 attachments for working out in the gym,” she said.

To prepare, Bennett went to The Summit and invented her own fitness program including using machines as best she could. Over a year she reduced her weight from 186 to 141.

While she remains proud of her accomplishment, she said the weight loss had a downside. She said her pain got worse with no fat to cushion the nerve.

“My biggest problem is pain. It never goes away,” Bennett said. “It’s called complex regional pain syndrome. It’s from a traumatic injury.”

Another blow came when the approval for the prosthetic she chose was withdrawn, but her battle continues. In spite of her problems, Bennett remains committed to physical fitness, which she said was immeasurably helped by a protein drink invented and sold by Cherri Schmaus at Good Medicine Espresso & Deli inside The Summit.

“They work. Trust me,” she said. “I get one every day after I work out if I can afford it.”

Her son remains her inspiration to keep fighting for the right prosthetic and to keep in shape. Bennett said too many people use a handicap as a crutch or an excuse to just sit at home.

“The reason I started all this was I wanted my son to know that there was more to life than sitting at home on a couch,” she said. “Sure, I may never go back to work, but at least I know my son sees me trying.”

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.