AEDC employee featured as student success story

Published Dec. 13, 2010
By Patrick Ary
AEDC/PA

ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn -- Like many young people venturing out into the world after high school, Hillsboro resident Emily Dutton has changed the path she wants to take in life more than once in the last couple of years.

Sometimes, the path has changed for her.

When she's not working in the contract management office at Arnold Engineering Development Center, Dutton, 20, is working on finishing up another semester at Motlow State Community College.

With graduation on the horizon, she is ready to move on to the next chapter in her life - after the book on it nearly closed for good a year ago. And she's thankful that making it through the toughest test of her life so far now is being used to inspire others.

"It does feel good to know that my hardship can make somebody else realize they can do it," she said.

It was this time last year, that Emily's life was about to change forever.

She had just finished finals at Motlow on Dec. 16, 2009. Three nights later, she was riding in the back seat of a friend's car when the driver lost control on the rainy roads. Some 150 yards later the car came to a stop in trees alongside the road. The crash was so severe, Emily says one of the tires ended up sitting right behind the driver's seat.

The passenger in the front seat suffered a concussion and a ruptured spleen. The driver of the car ended up walking away with a scratch on his leg.

Emily spent the next 47 days in the hospital.

She can tell you these facts, but it's secondhand information.

"I don't remember it at all," she says.

What she does remember is leaving her friend's house the night of the accident. Her next memory is waking up in a trauma unit at Vanderbilt Hospital 11 days later with a broken neck, back and leg. Her left arm was paralyzed, and she couldn't talk because of a tracheotomy tube inserted in her neck to help her breathe.

She had missed Christmas. She would end up not celebrating the New Year holiday. She would even miss watching her favorite college football team, the Alabama Crimson Tide, winning a national championship.

"I didn't know anything," she said. "I had to write my mom a note and ask her if I had wrecked my car. I didn't really know what was going on."

Today, the body brace she wore is gone and she walks without the help of a cane or wheelchair. She can move her arm again. The damage is still there though, beneath the skin. She has a metal rod in her leg. There are two rods and six screws in her neck, and she's only able to turn her head about half the distance most people are able to do.

And while her arm is no longer paralyzed, it's not at the strength level she wants it to be yet. That forced her to change her first career choice. Her dream of becoming a nurse is no longer an option because of the damage to her arm.

"It needs to be really strong before I could go to a nursing program," she said. "And I want to make my career before that has time to get all the way better, I think."

Now, Emily's need to get back in the classroom has drawn her into the spotlight on Motlow's website as a Student Success Story. The Student Success Story program is designed to inspire other students to reach their academic goals. Her story is one of the first to be profiled.

Despite the injuries she received and the intense road of recovery she has been on, Emily started back to school at Motlow this past fall. After all the pain, the time in the hospital, the wheelchairs and braces, the surgery and learning how to move again - she ended up missing only one semester of school. She also is on track to graduate on time in May of 2011.

That's one of the reasons Motlow Director of Student Success Rhonda Cotham wanted to feature her as one of the success program's first stories. Cotham, who is also Emily's academic adviser, says she was impressed by her will to continue in school after her dream of becoming a nurse was taken away.

"I feel it is important for students to see that drive and determination," Cotham said. "Many of them may feel like stopping when life throws them a curve. Emily's story of determination is definitely a valuable one to students who may not feel that they can keep going."

Emily says one of the moments it sank in that life had thrown her a curve was when her friends came to visit her in the hospital, a day before going back to class from the holiday break. It hit her then that she would not go back with them.

"All you ever hear about school is once you take a break, you don't go back," Emily said. "Once you sit out one semester, you can give it up. You're never going back. And I know my circumstances were different. I wasn't just sitting out because I wanted to, but I felt like maybe that would happen. I would come home and get to working again, and that would just be it."

Her desire to get back on her feet didn't stop in the classroom, either. Before she was even out of rehab, Emily was trying to get her mother to sign her up for the next softball season (she didn't). She was back at work at Red Lobster just two months after getting out of the hospital. She was no longer able to wait tables, so she worked as a hostess. Chalk it up to being stir-crazy.

"I'm a people person," she said. "I can't stand to just sit."

The physical toll was hard on Emily, even though her managers at the restaurant were accommodating. She also had to deal with the emotional toll - answering countless questions about the noticeable loss of motion in her neck.

So Emily started thinking about other career options, which led her to AEDC. She learned about the Stay in School program for students and decided she wanted to get her foot in the door on the base. She landed a job as a secretary in the contract management office in September. Emily says she plans to stay as long as she can, because the people she works with are kind and know what she's been through.

"I couldn't have asked for better people to help me deal with it," she said. "I feel like they know before they have to ask what I can and can't do."

Joe Warren, the director of contract management, said Emily has been a breath of fresh air in his office. He said she's an asset to the Stay in School program, and they will keep her in the office for as long as they can.

"She's the first person that people see when they come through the door, and she's always got a smile on her face," Warren said. "They can be in a bad mood when they come in the door, but they're in a good mood when they go out."

After graduating from Motlow in May, Emily plans to continue school at Middle Tennessee State University, possibly earning a business degree and putting it to use at AEDC. Many people will be watching to see where she ends up.