Susan Walton has endured 25 surgeries, overcome obstacles, remains positive
By Zach Taylor
Tribune-Star
Susan Walton remembers going to the credit union at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building the morning of April 19, 1995, to make a deposit.
She remembers it was a beautiful spring day. She remembers being in a hurry so she could get some studying done for a college exam.
But those are the last solid memories Walton has from that day.
At 9:02 a.m., just as the credit union opened, a bomb exploded, gutting the Murrah building and killing 168 people.
"I have no memory of that day, so sometimes it's hard for me to totally put it into perspective what did happen," Walton said. "I feel that it's a blessing that I can't remember."
Walton, among the hundreds of injured, suffered a skull fracture and nerve damage behind her eyes so severe that she couldn't close her eyes. She lost six teeth and fractured her jaw in six places. Her spleen ruptured and her legs were severely crushed from the knees down.
Walton's ankle was broken so badly that three pieces of bone fell out of a hole in her foot while she was on the operating table. She also temporarily lost the ability to speak and had no identification on her.
"Later that day, I kinda have a hazy memory of laying on my back and looking up at the ceiling," said Walton, who had been taken to the hospital. "I was a Jane Doe until about 6:30 that evening because my billfold was still in the credit union.
"Every once in awhile a doctor or nurse would come to my side and say 'Honey we don't know what you're trying to tell us.'"
What they didn't realize was that Walton, whose ID was in her lost billfold, was relying on what she did remember - the sign language she was studying just prior to the explosion. She was spelling her name out with her hands.
The hospital called in an interpreter and Walton provided her name and her mother's phone number.
Since then, Walton has had 25 surgeries to put her back together, including 15 over a five-week period right after the bombing. Eventually, at least one knee will need to be replaced, if not both, and her right ankle will have to be fused.
"But my orthopedic surgeon says as long as I can stand the pain there's no need to do that yet," Walton said.
Until a year ago, Walton needed a nurses aide to help her with rehabilitation and day-to-day activities.
Today, she has overcome many of the obstacles placed before her and remains positive about her life. The 50-year-old Walton is able to walk with the assistance of a cane, a knee brace for her right knee and arch supports in her shoes.
She has returned to school, but has changed her major to public service. Walton also founded a non-profit organization, Suited for Success, that provides women who are coming off welfare with clothing for job interviews.
"I try not to think about what I can't do. I try to think about what I can do or a new way to do things anyway," she said. "I kind of miss the simple things. Anything that involves getting down on your knees I can't do anymore and I don't guess I'll never be able to ski. That was one thing that I always wanted to try."
Despite all her progress, Walton said she isn't ready to watch the execution of Timothy McVeigh, the man convicted of the bombing.
McVeigh's execution in Terre Haute will be fed via closed-circuit television to Oklahoma City for survivors of the bombing who want to watch.
"There will be enough witnesses that I will know that
his sentence has been carried out and justice has been done,"
Walton said. "I think it's a just punishment."
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