By Randy Parks
Burns Times-Herald

Emily Mues can’t remember anything about Oct. 12, 2007, but it’s likely a day she’ll never forget.

On that particular Friday in the fall, Mues, who was attending University of Portland, was driving back home to Burns for a week-long break from school. One mile east of Sisters on Highway 20, Mues was involved in a serious crash. “I don’t remember the accident, or even driving that day,” Mues said.

Having suffered severe head injuries, Mues was taken by helicopter to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, where she was placed in the critical care unit. “I had a traumatic brain injury, which caused swelling in the brain, so they had to remove part of my skull,” Mues said. “And doctors said from here down (pointing to just above her eyebrows), my face was pulverized.”
Mues was placed in an induced coma to keep her motionless while the swelling subsided. She remained in the critical care ward for 10 days before being transferred to intermediate care.

Twelve days after the accident, Mues regained consciousness. “I woke up in the middle of the night and thought I was in Corvallis at a friend’s house,” Mues said. “I had to go to the bathroom, and I started to get out of bed. My dad was there, and had his hand on my arm, and he woke up when I started to move.”

Her dad, Dave, then had to try to get her to stay in the bed, as well as explain to her where she was, and what had happened. “It’s a good thing he was there because I probably would have just headed for the bathroom with all these tubes attached,” Mues laughed.

Mues was released from the hospital on Nov. 12, but the reconstruction of her face and rehabilitation continued. After 12 surgeries, Mues now sports titanium cheeks, a titanium chin, titanium left eye socket with a nylon plate that supports the eyeball, a titanium plate above her left eyebrow and titanium plates throughout her skull. “I’m sure I’ll set off the alarms in an airport,” she said with a smile.

Mues still has two more surgeries coming up to implant three of her front teeth.

Mues said she has chronic headaches, double vision, which is corrected with prisms in her eyeglasses, and has pretty much lost her sense of smell. “I put a lot of spices on my food,” she said.

Mues stated the support she received during her time in the hospital, and when she returned home, was special. “The community was great,” she said. “The hospital even had to kind of change their visitation rules a little. There were only supposed to be a certain number of visitors in a room at a time, and then the whole volleyball team comes in at once.”

Because flowers weren’t allowed in her room while she was in critical care, her mom, Debbie, took photos of every bouquet she received and then passed the flowers on to another patient.

Mues returned to the University of Portland campus in the fall of 2008 to continue her pursuit of a nursing career. “It’s kind of funny, I’m getting better grades now than I did before the accident. All ‘A’s for the fall semester, and ‘A’s and a ‘B-plus’ this semester,” she said.  She has also been officially accepted into nursing school.

While some people might feel overwhelmed by such an experience, Mues has shown her character by taking it in stride. “It’s just something that happened, just another step you have to take in life,” Mues said with her unwavering smile. “You have to appreciate everything you have.”