- CONCORD, Mass. - She can't
pull objects from the sky with a gold lasso or deflect bullets with shiny
wrist bands, but Donna Stilwell is a superhero no less. At least in the
eyes of her husband, who has only tire-mark abrasions, bruises and a broken
arm to show for a mishap that could have been far more serious.
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- Last Sunday, Richard Stilwell was working underneath
a van in his driveway when the linkage slipped and the vehicle rolled on
top of him. In a feat of remarkable strength, Donna Stilwell lifted the
weight of the frame off her husband's body, allowing him to slip out from
under it.
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- "If it wasn't for her, who knows what would have
happened," said Richard Stilwell, recovering at their home in Bow
yesterday after two days in the hospital. "I can't believe she did
that."
-
- Neither can Wonder Woman herself. "I don't know
how I did it. I just lifted. It didn't feel that heavy," said Donna
Stilwell, who, for curiosity's sake, attempted a repeat performance yesterday.
The 5-foot-2-inch, 110-pound woman couldn't heft the vehicle even half
an inch.
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- "I really think it was adrenaline," she said.
-
- Certainly it was more than a hearty helping of spinach.
"It seemed like somewhat of a Herculean effort," said Scott Devanney,
the doctor who set Stilwell's broken arm Sunday night. "He told me
his wife picked the van off of him, and I said, 'This lady right here?'
"
-
- In his years of medical practice, Devanney has never
heard of such a feat firsthand. "You hear about it
-
- happening, but I've never actually had a patient who
experienced it," he said. "It's pretty amazing. She may have
saved his life."
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- It's hard to say what would have happened if Stilwell
had been pinned under the van for any length of time, Devanney said.
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- Stilwell had the van, a full-size Dodge Ram, up on ramps
and was making adjustments to the transmission he'd just replaced when
the vehicle slipped out of gear and started rolling down the steep driveway.
He tried to get out of the way but wasn't fast enough. The van's under
parts rolled him on his stomach, and its front tire came to rest on his
upper thigh.
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- Hearing her husband's cries, Donna Stilwell ran outside.
-
- Richard Stilwell can't believe his wife didn't panic.
"If the cat gets hurt, she goes into hysterics," he said.
-
- "He told me to go get the neighbor, but I was like,
'No, we have to move the van,' " Donna Stilwell said.
-
- Unfortunately, the keys weren't in the ignition. Donna
Stilwell ran inside, called the neighbor and grabbed the keys. A former
truck driver, she had no trouble easing the van forward off her husband's
leg. But their troubles weren't over. Richard Stilwell was now pinned,
belly down, beneath the vehicle's frame - and in a great deal of pain.
-
- "I said, 'Well, you're going to have to pick it
up,' " Richard Stilwell said.
-
- So she did.
-
- Grabbing hold of the van beneath the front wheelwell,
Donna Stilwell lifted the van enough for her husband to roll all the way
underneath it - Richard Stilwell estimates 4 or 5 inches, though no one
was there with a tape measure. She then hopped back in the driver's seat
and carefully backed down the driveway. Paramedics soon arrived and took
Stilwell to Concord Hospital, where he was treated for a broken arm, bruises
and abrasions. He's on painkillers to ease the throbbing in his arms, head,
chest and leg.
-
- Donna Stilwell is no worse for the wear.
-
- It's hard to say just how much weight the quiet, petite
woman lifted. Richard Stilwell figures the van, which is full of tools,
weighs 4,000 to 5,000 pounds.
-
- Raising that type of vehicle high enough for a person
to slip out from under the frame would not require lifting the entire vehicle
off the ground, said Dan Weed, a Concord mechanic. Rather, you would have
to lift the weight of the body off the suspension.
-
- "It's possible," Weed said. "But it takes
a lot to do it with a van that big."
-
- Donna Stilwell says she had plenty of motivation. "It's
pretty scary seeing your husband pinned under the car," she said.
-
- Just imagine what she could do with a couple of those
spiffy wrist bands.
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- http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/front2002/bionicwoman9877_2002.shtml
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