Eye on MI | Lemonade for Lifesavers
By REPORTER STAFF
Mercer Island Reporter Staff
August 23, 2011 · 9:36 AM
Islander Lily James braved the heat last weekend to sell lemonade to raise money for Harborview Medical Center and Medic 1. She raised $200. James, 9, will be a fourth-grader at West Mercer Elementary School this fall. James was injured in a water skiing accident two years ago when her foot got caught in a ski rope and was nearly severed; only tendons remained. She spent 10 hours in emergency surgery at Harborview Medical Center to get it reattached. Two of the surgeons who worked to save her foot were doctors Nick Vedder and Bob Dunbar, both of Mercer Island.
Bellevue paramedic Phil Pierson was key in saving James and her foot immediately after the accident, which occurred in Lake Washington near the Beach Club on July 28, 2009. Pierson and James will be on the pitcher’s mound at the Sept. 14 Mariners vs. Yankees game to throw out the first pitch.
James is wearing a compression stocking on her leg to help with the circulation in her foot. She has resumed skiing and playing soccer. “She is not quite 100 percent,” her father Greg James said, but she is getting close. She continues physical therapy and will likely have another surgery in the future. “She is the bravest thing I ever met,” her father added. “And a sweet thing, too.”
“We are so very lucky to have a facility like Harborview,” Greg James said.
Contact Mercer Island Reporter Staff Reporter Staff at editor@mi-reporter.com.
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