A long road ahead for Kim McCoy

From Kim's sister, Jessica: Yesterday morning at around dawn, while Kim was running in the Last Annual Heart of the South (HOTS) ultra, she was struck by a car at an intersection that had limited visibility. She was conscious at the scene and before surgery, and was able to give consent to name our mom as her emergency contact. She was rushed to the ER at Huntsville Hospital in Huntsville, AL, and rushed into surgery, where, unfortunately, they had to amputate her right leg above the knee because there was too much damage to her leg to save it. Her right arm was also broken in multiple places. However, we are very grateful that her brain and spine seem to be okay, and there weren't substantial internal injuries. As an ultra runner, Kim knows what it is like to face down a long and challenging road, and I know she has the heart and the grit to make a full recovery. When I spoke with her this morning, she was even joking about how she might be able to get into the Boston Marathon through the Achilles Track Club, and how she might be able to find a right legged sole mate to split the cost of running shoes with. That said, we both know that the road to recovery is going to be long, and we don't know what the future holds. We also do not know what expenses will be covered by her insurance through work, or the driver's insurance (or if they even have insurance). Kim and I live together in a walk up building in NYC, and there is no way that she will be able to navigate 4 flights of stairs for a while, and she may end up being transported from Alabama back to Iowa so she can convalesce with my mom and aunt in our childhood home, if that will work for her insurance. If not, we may need to move to an accessible building. It will also be a long time before she is back working as a nurse, and she may have to figure out how this will change her career path. Right now, there are many unknowns. The knowns are: Kim is alive, her brain is loopy from meds, but intact, and bones are broken and a limb is missing, but she can recover from that. And we don't know what the financial future will look like, but it is likely that there will be many expenses that aren't covered by insurance, and if you can help, we would appreciate it.