Placerville Woman Relates To Boston Marathon Victims' Injuries

PLACERVILLE (CBS13) — Emily O'Meara hasn't had her foot for eight months now. She's learning to adapt, just like many victims from the Boston Marathon Bombings will do. But she really takes it one day at a time.

"It's a new normal," she said.

Emily lost her foot in a boating accident at Sly Park on Jenkins Lake in August. A tow rope wrapped around her ankle, pulling her from the boat.

The doctor told her he couldn't reattach her foot.

"Are you kidding me? I'm not going to have a foot? And of course that flashes through your mind: How am I supposed to walk?"

So when she saw images from the Boston Bombings, she knew the road to recovery would be difficult for the victims.

"It doesn't matter if it's a freak accident or a terrorist attack or diabetes. When you lose a limb, you lose a part of you. You lose that part of your life that you once had that you're not going to have anymore."

And she says the spectators who lost limbs will struggle most with pushing forward and accepting what's happened.

"Some amputees want to give up and they don't want to work. They don't see a future. They don't see this as something they can live with."

But Emily says there's life after amputation. She's found a way to enjoy the little things, like throwing a frisbee around with the kids. Still, she knows the battle ahead for the victims of the Boston bombings is different and in some ways more difficult than hers.

"To lose a limb from a terrorist attack, I would think that the anger part of the whole process of grieving would probably be a lot longer for them, a lot more emotional for them, because it's a terrorist attack.

Now Emily has gone back to work as a waitress, of all things. She says it's tough, but she wasn't about to give up. And she thinks many who were hurt during the marathon will have the same fight.