Snowboarder still rides, despite losing foot
- Details
- Created on Thursday, 31 March 2011 17:04
- Written by Dena Rosenberry
FRISCO, Colo. — In 2009, Arlene Cohen was faced with an unimaginable choice: Lose her foot or lose her way of life.
It had been three painful years and several surgeries since the Florida native shattered her left foot in a snowboarding injury on Peak 10 at Breckenridge Ski Resort.
In the most recent surgery, doctors were supposed to have removed bone from her hip to fill in gaps in her ankle, allowing it to heal. But when she woke up, Cohen knew something was wrong.
"I was expecting all this pain in my hip, and there was no pain," she said.
It was her boyfriend, Jorge, who explained the situation that night. It had become clear that the bones in her ankle couldn't be reconstructed, leaving her with only two options: Doctors could fuse her ankle, a process that would keep Cohen from ever being able to snowboard, dance, run or return to her job as a firefighter or they could amputate her foot.
For Cohen, now 41, it wasn't a hard decision. She spoke to her doctor the following morning.
"I just looked at him and I said, 'OK, can we amputate today?'"
Read the rest of the story about snowboarder and life-lover Arlene Cohen in the Aspen Times.
PHOTO: Contributed photo of Arlene Cohen (presumably after a mud run!).
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