SERVING UP INSPIRATION

An accident took her left leg, but K-M senior Victoria Zimmerman’s drive, desire were left fully intact

The accident crushed a limb, but not her spirit. Claimed a leg, but not her heart. Changed her life, but not her outlook.

Such a horrific turn of events might have driven some people into a secluded shell. Instead, Victoria Zimmerman has become a pearl of inspiration as a Kent-Meridian High school senior.

It’s true in the classroom, as she is enrolled full time in the Running Start program at Green River Community College. And it’s true on the tennis court, which, in a figurative way, she felt tugging at her even as she lay in a hospital bed in January 2007 pondering what life would be like without her left leg.

“I wanted to play tennis,” Zimmerman recalled, taking a break from a recent turnout on one of those rare spring afternoons when the Royals actually were able to practice outside. “I played volleyball freshman and sophomore year, and didn’t play junior year. But I was like, ‘I want to play tennis’”

This spring, thanks to a prosthetic leg specially designed for the sport and the various moves that it requires, the 17-year-old Zimmerman is playing tennis. And while most of her action has been at the junior varsity level (she has worked her way into two varsity contests), one would look long and far to find any player who’s having a more enjoyable time of it on the court.

“I always liked the net – and now, I have to be at the net,” Zimmerman said through a grin that never seems to melt. “I’ll always walk and move differently from everyone else. I have to have that in the back of my mind – and make sure to lift my foot.”

Julie Such, a K-M varsity regular, was more than happy to team up with Zimmerman for a match earlier this spring. (Zimmerman also has played several JV matches.) While the final result wasn’t what they had in mind – Kentwood’s Niki Skinner and Camille Madsen won, 6-0, 6-2 – Such was thrilled just to be able to team up with her pal.

“She and I are really good friends,” Such said, adding with a smile, “There’s never a dull moment with her.

“Sophomore year, I always wanted to play with her,” Such added. “But then she had the accident.”

Wrong place, wrong time

Then she had the accident.

It happened on a Friday – Jan. 12, 2007. After finishing school for the day, Zimmerman was walking to a bus stop on Kent’s East Hill. On the way there, a car skidded on the icy road, jumped the curb and pushed Zimmerman against a retaining wall.

“I blacked out,” Zimmerman recalled. “When I woke up, I was on the ground thinking, ‘This isn’t cool.’ I don’t remember a whole lot. I kept coming in and out.

“I thought, ‘Oh, great – I’m going to be on crutches for two months.’”

She was taken by ambulance to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she spent the next six weeks. During that time, she had seven operations, including one in the immediate aftermath to remove what remained of her leg.

“(The car) crushed it so bad, there wasn’t any chance (to save it),” Zimmerman said.

She recalls the first couple of weeks as being “really hazy.” But Zimmerman remembers something else, too:

Right from the get-go, she didn’t have much use for any pouting, brooding, or “why me?” attitude.

“I didn’t really have any emotions,” she said. “The doctors kept checking in (with me), but I was completely OK with it. My brother said the first week, I didn’t talk about it – I would avoid the subject.

“After that, I was telling them to get over it.”

Zimmerman was discharged at the end of February and began physical therapy. Like everything else, her attitude helped smooth out what can be a rugged, arduous process even in far less severe situations.

“It was easy because I’ve always been a coachable person,” said Zimmerman, who said she has been involved in sports since kindergarten.

Among the components on her prosthetic leg is a shock absorber type of device to help deal with the natural impact of pursuing a tennis ball. Legs can be tailored for a multitude of activities, whether athletic or recreational. Zimmerman also has one for routine every-day use.

Like everything else medical-related, they don’t come cheap. Zimmerman said her every-day prosthetic costs about $10,000. The one she uses for tennis, because of its additional components, is closer to $15,000.

“It’s made of carbon fiber. They say you can run over it with a truck,” Zimmerman said, then adding with a grin, “but I haven’t tried that.”

On-court reunion

Royals coach Randy Werner was delighted to welcome Zimmerman back to the team this spring, having had her aboard as a freshman and sophomore.

“She can move on the court real fast,” Werner said. “She just hustles her butt off. She’s so inspiring to other people. She’s always here, always comes with a smile.”

Zimmerman, the youngest of seven offspring of parents Mark and Teri (she has four brothers and two sisters) sports a 3.5 grade-point average. And despite missing all the class time in the immediate weeks after the accident, she never fell off track academically. She plans to head to Western Washington University to study business, but says what she really wants to be is a chef. Or maybe a baker.

“I like to bake more than I can cook — I’m always baking,” she said.

As for that upbeat outlook of hers?

Zimmerman figures that’ll serve her as well as any finely crafted prosthetic as the years go by.

“The women in my family live to be 100,” said Zimmerman, adding that her great-grandmother came within one month of that magical mark, while one grandma is 84 and another is 78.

“So I have a long way to go.”