Dancer Who Lost Foot in Boston Marathon Bombing Vows to Take to the Floor Again
A week ago, Adrianne Haslet and her husband, Adam Davis, were watching the Boston Marathon from the sidelines. Then the bombs went off.
Davis, a U.S. airman, had just returned from Afghanistan.
"We sat up and I said, 'Wait, my foot hurts.' And then he held up my foot and we both just screamed bloody murder," she told ABC News today during a phone call from Boston Medical Center. "I didn't feel heat from it. I just felt air and then I fell to the ground."
The blast had torn off the dancer's left foot - a devastating loss for the ballroom dance instructor at Boston's Arthur Murray Studios. The bombings killed three people, including an 8-year-old boy, and injured at least 200 people.
Haslet, who appeared on the cover of the Boston Herald this morning, said she had not lost her spirit.
"I absolutely want to dance again," she said.
Dr. Linda Arslanian, a physical therapist at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, said Haslett likely would dance again thanks to the advancement of prosthetic technology.
"If they were walking before they had their amputation, we can have them walk again," she said. "Much depends on the level of their amputation and all of it depends on what their goals and objectives are."
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"If they want a vigorous life, we can give them a prosthesis that will allow huge amounts of versatility in their demands," Arslanian said. She did not treat Haslet.
Last year, ABC News interviewed Aimee Mullins, a model and athlete, who'd been born without shin bones and had to have legs amputated at the knee when she was a year old. With the aid of prosthetic legs, she became the first amputee to compete on an NCAA track team and competed in the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta.
Haslet today said she was determined, like the rest of the city, to get back on her feet again.
"I just want people to know that you can come out of a situation that might seem like the end of the world and come out stronger," she said.