June 18, 2024 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Amy Palmiero-Winters holds 13 world records for running... and happens to have one prosthetic leg.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts up. Next,
we'll be hearing from Amy Palmiero Winters, who is the
founder of the One Step Ahead Foundation. Amy holds thirteen
(00:32):
world records for running, and she also happens to have
one prosthetic leg. Here's Amy with her story.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I was one of three children. I had two older brothers.
We had one brother in between myself and my metal brother.
He had had a heart defect when he was born
and so at the age of six months old he
passed away. So my mother was not expecting to have
any more children. They had just lost their son, and
(01:07):
come to find out she was pregnant. I ended up
showing up three months early. I weighed two pounds and
I remember my dad telling me that from day one
that I was a fighter and I was just kicking
the incubator to get out. And I think that that
really sets the format for who I am and basically
(01:32):
my lifelong quest of achieving the unthinkable. You know, we
had a good childhood. We had a hard childhood. We
didn't have, you know, the best of circumstances. I grew
up watching my father abuse and beat up my mother.
As children, you can either become that or you can
(01:55):
choose to be something different. And for myself, I always
chose to go the different path and be the different person.
And when we were growing up, we didn't really have anything.
We didn't have the financial aspects. So for me, running
was something and that was free. It didn't matter where
you were, if you had money or you didn't have money,
(02:17):
anybody could run. Sports got me through everything. My sports
got me through the times when I watched my dad
beat my mom up.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And I remember.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Using sports as a tool. If I had a bad day,
I went out for a run.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
If I didn't feel good.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
About myself, I went out for a run. And running
and sports just changed everything for me. I was probably
eighteen and a friend of mine said, I bet you
can't run a marathon and I said, yeah, I can
run a marathon. And I was like, well, wait, how
(02:56):
long is a marathon? And he's said twenty six point
two miles And I said it's no problem.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I said, so when are we doing that, and he's
like next weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
So then that was basically the start of my kind
of like a long distance journey. We went out, I
ran my first marathon in a three twenty three or
three twenty four or something. So the first world record
that we actually broke. It was nothing that I was
setting out to do. And I always say we and
I can't help it, just because nothing good in life
(03:28):
is ever done by yourself.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So I wasn't running with anybody.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But I have a whole team who's behind me, and
we set the record for the first time marathon runner
for that course, and.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
It qualified me for the Boston Marathon. So we ended
up going off. We ran the Cleveland Marathon, the Boston Marathon,
which qualified me again then for the following year's Boston Marathon,
and then before going back to the marathon, is when
I was.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Hit m In growing up, we had everybody's junk.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
We had dirt bikes, mini bikes, go karts.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
We always had everybody's junk, and what we would do
is we would rebuild it. And so growing up for me,
riding motorcycles and riding dirt bikes was natural.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
It was just second nature.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
So when I moved on and I started working. Getting
a motorcycle was just kind of a logical progressional path
in my life. And in nineteen ninety four, I was
out riding with a group of friends. We were heading
down a road and as we came to the top
(04:44):
of the hill and we crested the hill, it was
a blind intersection.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
The whole thought process.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Behind coming to that intersection is so detailed to me
because that was the road that.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I learned how to drive on.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
So my FA when I was learning how to drive,
would take me down the road. He would bring me
to that intersection. He would make me stop my car,
he would make me roll down my windows, and he
would make me listen for any cars coming up over
the hill. So on that day in nineteen ninety four,
(05:19):
I was essentially that person coming up over the hill.
And I remember being thankful that my motorcycle was exceptionally
loud that if someone was sitting at that intersection.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
They were gonna hear me, even if they didn't see me.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And there was a blue car sitting at the top
of the hill in the intersection. And it's funny how
people will say time time comes to a slow or
time slows down.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Time.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Actually it comes to a halt and almost comes to
a standstill, and then it just moves out of snail pace.
Because when I crested the top of the hill, I
remember looking at the car. I remember looking at the
person in the driver's seat. I remember seeing that her
(06:13):
window was down. And in the time that I crested
the hill and started to come through the intersection, I
had actually made eye contact with her three separate times.
You know, I knew that she had seen me, and
I knew that it was okay to continue on.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I actually had the.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Right of way, and she was at a stop sign,
And so as I crested the hill and went through
the intersection, she darted across the street. And when she
darted across the street, her car slammed into the side
of my motorcycle, and the car actually smashed my entire
left foot in between the motorcycle and the.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Primary And you've been listening to Amy Palmiero Winter share
with us her story. She was born into a tough
family situation with an abusive father. Her own brother had
passed away before she was even born, but as her
dad said, she came into this world at two pounds
a warrior from the beginning, kicking the incubator, running became
(07:15):
her refuge. Running was where she was free, and then
the accident that would change her life or maybe not.
When we come back more of this remarkable story of
overcoming here on Our American Stories. Lee Hibibe here the
host of our American Stories. Every day on this show,
(07:36):
we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories
from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
can't do the show without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Give a little, give
a lot. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give.
(08:09):
And we returned to Our American Stories and to Amy
Palmiero Winters sharing her story. When we last left off,
her running career had just been put at stake. She'd
been hit by a car while riding her motorcycle. Let's
return to Amy.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I remember just kind of coming to a stop. I
remember picking up my leg and just standing there with
the motorcycle in the intersection, and a friend of mine
came up and he had jumped off his motorcycle and
literally lifted me off my motorcycle and laid me in
the grass, and I just laid there. And I remember
(08:51):
just more so being worried about the fact that I
just started a new job I couldn't miss work the
next morning, and also kind of worried about not crying
in front of anybody else.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
And I had just got a.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Brand new pair of boots and I really didn't want
anything happening to my boots at that time. And the
ambulance came and they took me to the hospital and
to the local area. I was I was an athlete,
and I was you know, I was a track hero.
I was somebody that everybody knew, or somebody that everybody's
(09:26):
family knew. And I remember just going to the hospital
and waiting, waiting more so to understand what was going on.
And I didn't realize at the time, but because of
the damage to my foot, what had happened was my
body just immediately went into shock. The doctor would come
in and shake his head and this lasted. The doctor
would come in and out, and I remember them trying
(09:48):
to give me different pain medications, but it just seemed
like nothing was working, and I remember the doctor coming
in the one time and he had asked my mother.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
He's like, you know, how is her pain tolerance?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
And my my mother literally grabbed him by the lapels
of his shirt and said, basically, you know what's going
on with my daughter? And he said, we're actually waiting
for another hospital to take her because right now the
only thing that we can do is amputator leg. And
so for my mother and my father that was out
of the question. And as they waited, it got to
(10:21):
the point where they had to perform the surgery because
my leg was crushed so bad that it was losing
all kinds of circulation and the longer you go without
blood flow to your limb, the more damage it does.
And the doctor came in with the papers and he
handed him to my mother to sign the papers to
amputate my leg, and just as she went to sign
(10:44):
on the papers, one of the nurses came running in
and said that a helicopter was coming from Pittsburgh. And
at that moment, I was basically rushed to the top
of the building and that's where I ended up being
flown to Pittsburgh. I spent the next two months basically
fighting to save my leg. I was very fortunate that
(11:07):
I was given the opportunity to fight for keeping my leg.
And after it was like after three years and I
had forty plus surgeries, and I went in and the
one doctor, you know, he was looking at the different
skin grafts and scars on my body and he said
to me, he's like, I'm really sorry that you had
(11:29):
to go through all this.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I'm really sorry.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It wasn't taken off that day. And he had let
me know that they had put.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Something in place so that will never happen again.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And I had told him, I said, if I could
go back and do it all over again, I wouldn't
change anything because of everything I went through and because
of what happened, it helped create who I am today.
I'm glad that it was able to help people in
the future not have to go through unnecessary procedures to
get to the.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Same finish line. But for me, it allowed me.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
To close one door and open another door. When I
lost my leg that day, I was focused on the military.
I was focused on being a police officer, you know.
I was focused on those things. So when you experience
something like that, it not only takes your leg, but
it takes a lot of your goals and your dreams.
So for myself, I had to rediscover who I was
(12:25):
because you couldn't go to the military with a prosthetic leg,
and you couldn't be a police officer with a prosthetic leg.
It was, yeah, redefining myself, and then on top of that,
it was you're never going to be a professional athlete.
Prior to going in to have my amputation, I talked
(12:45):
to my boss. I said, it's at the point where
I have to have my leg amputated. I can't keep
it anymore. It's so damaged that they're going to take
it off. So I really had no other choice, but
I had asked my boss any way, I said, well,
I have a job when I come back, and he
said absolutely, And so I went in to have my
(13:07):
leg amputated. I promised myself that I would be back
to work by my birthday, which was August eighteenth, and
my leg was cut off. July twenty seventh, I had
an appointment to go pick up my leg, and when
I went to pick up my leg, they called me
and they said that, well, your insurance said that your
(13:29):
leg is not medically necessary, so they're not going to
pay for it. So the place that I was going, luckily,
the prosthetic was so cheap and they told me that
you could.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Pay for it with a credit card.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So I actually kept my appointment and drove the two
hours to Pittsburgh and paid for my prosthetic leg with
a credit card. I remember getting up, I remember walking.
I was given no formal train with my prosthetic. It
was basically just here's your leg and basically just see
(14:05):
you later. But my focus was August eighteenth, being back
to work by August eighteenth, and I remember walking into
my job and I was proud of myself.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I was a really hard worker. I was proud of
the job that I did.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I was a furnace operator at a local company that
was prominent in our hometown.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
And I remember.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Walking in and every time I would walk in, my
employer would walk out the other side and I could
kind of couldn't.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Understand what was going on.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And then as you progress in wearing a prosthetic, you
go from tempt to permanent, and during that time, I
got to the point where it was time for me
to be fit with my permanent prosthetic.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
And so there was a local prosthetic facility.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That was nearby that was going to be the ones
to create my new prosthetic leg. And I remember going
in and getting things set up to get my new
prosthetic leg. And I remember going back to my job
and speaking to my boss finally and I said, well,
I'm ready to come back to work and he said, well,
I'm sorry, you don't have a job anymore.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
And in doing so, what had happened was is it
had timed me out for my insurance.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So I had lost my job, lost my insurance, and
had no way of paying for my new prosthetic leg again.
So here I was, you know, kind of right back
into the same situation. You know, basically, the road of
hard knocks kind of either.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Sets you one way or the other.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And it definitely made me a stronger person. So after
I had got my second prosthetic, I was under the
belief that I would be able to run.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
And that's what I did, was I tried to run.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Unfortunately, if you don't have the right set up and
the right components, your residual limb unfortunately takes the brunt
of everything. And so for myself, because I didn't have
the clearance or basically like a higher category prosthetic foot
that would absorb the shock. All the shock and the
pounding went up into my residual limb, and so when
(16:20):
I tried to run, I ended up getting a bone infection,
and because of that bone infection, I ended up back
in the hospital.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And I lost more of my leg. But just like
I said, you can take it two different ways.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
You can let it define you and defeat you, or
you can let it make you stronger. And so for myself,
I utilized it to make me stronger, and once I
had more of my leg amputated, it allowed me to
get a better prosthetic foot, and with that better prosthetic foot,
it allowed me to then start running again.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
And you're listening to Amy Palmiero Winter share her story
what happened after that ambulance came in all of the
years after fighting, as she said, for her leg three
years and forty surgeries. I'm sorry it wasn't taken that day,
a doctor said, and they in the future set up
(17:16):
protocol so that would never happen again. But true to
her character, she said she would have done it the
same way because it strengthened her character and also helped
others not have to go through what she went through,
throw in losing her job. But still there was that hope.
Still there was that attitude, and still there was that
(17:36):
little girl inside her kicking that incubator she held on to.
When we come back more of this remarkable story of
overcoming Amy Palmiera Winters here on our American stories? Can
(18:08):
we returned to our American stories and to Amy Palmiero
Winter's story. When we last left off, she'd just gotten
a new prosthetic leg and found out she would be
able to start her running career all over again. But
little did she know how far that career would actually
take her. Let's return to Amy and her story.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
It was a couple of years after I lost my
leg before I could start running again. So at that time,
training and stuff was more so just going out for
a run at lunchtime, and I would just run the
local five and ten k's. It was kind of a
natural progression to kind of want to get back to
running the marathon, and so my first one back was
(18:53):
the Cleveland Marathon, just because it was local.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And it was during that marathon that.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
We actually broke the world record for both male and
female amputees. I ended up going on to run and
race in the New York City Triathlon, and from doing the.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
New York City Triathlon, it actually qualified me.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Through the Hawaii World Championships in the triathlon.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And when I was there.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
And won the World Championships, I remember, you know, everybody
would kind of look at me and they would say
to me, They're like, you're really gonna run on that
because I had just like a walking foot, and I
had asked one of the other athletes. I was like,
there's got to be somebody that I can find to
help me.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
And I asked them, I'm like, where do you go?
Who you know, who's the best.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
And so that's when I was introduced to a Step
Ahead prosthetics in Long Island. All I can say about
a Step Ahead is I put my kids in the
car and we drove eight hours to New York to
Long Island, New York. And I'll tell you what, I
haven't looked back since I walked through the door. And
for the first time in ten years, I actually had
(20:09):
someone ask me what I wanted to do. I actually
had someone ask me what my goals were and.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I literally said, I, well, you know what, I want.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
To run one hundred miles and he goes, so, then
that's what you'll do. And I was casted at seven
thirty in the morning and by nine o'clock I was
running on the treadmill in a running leg. So I
was out running a race with a friend of mine
(20:39):
and he actually told me of another athlete.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
His name was Jim, and Jim.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Was the first athlete with a prosthetic to ever run
on the course of Western States. And Western States is
basically it's one of the oldest and the most basically
the most thought Apple Ultra Marathon, and Jim wanted to
be the first athlete with a prosthetic to qualify and
finish Western States.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
And so he got on the Western States course.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
And he made it to mile I think thirty five
and missed a time cut off or something and dropped out.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
And he told his family.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
He said, that was the hardest thing that I've ever done.
And he's like, I will be back and I'll finish it.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
And that was in June, and then in August he was.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
On a closed course and a cement truck got on
the closed course and the boom truck on the cement.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Truck came out and hit him and killed him.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
And when my friend told me that story, I vowed
that I would go back and do that and I
would do it for him and his family. And so,
in my pursuit to become the first athlete with a
prosthetic to finish Western States, I had to run a
specific race at a qualifying time and actually qualifive for it.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
So in doing so, I qualified for Western States. And
that's when I was.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Also focusing on qualifying for racing bad Water.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And for bad Water, I needed to do an additional.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
One hundred mile race, and so I was actually in
this hundred mile race.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
It was a looped course.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
It was a mile loop and you just ran the
mile loop over and over again until you reached one
hundred miles. And as I was running it, the race
director had said to me Amy, He's like, if you
run eighteen more miles, you'll qualify for the US team.
So I finished the one hundred mile race, I qualified
(22:42):
for bad Water, and then I want to say, a
month later, I went to the race that was across
the Years, and that's where I was setting my sights
on making the US team, and we ended up finishing
the race with one hundred and thirty point four.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
We beat the first guy by fourteen miles, and we
beat the first girl by thirty six miles. I think
it was and it was, in fact, the first time
that an amputee had won a race outright, and it
was the first.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Time in history that an athlete with a prosthetic had
made a world team because that race actually qualified me
for the US team. You know, I have a lot
of races that I've done, and they're all is equally
amazing and unique in.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Their own way.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
And so we just recently ran the Cocadona two hundred
and fifty mile race, and it is probably one of
the most meaningful and most amazing races that I've ever
been a part of, and it's because I carried the
American flag the entire way, and it had nothing to
do with me.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
It had to do with honoring all of those men
and women who stand up every day to keep us safe.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Who despite fear, despite pain, despite sleep deprivation, despite all
of those things that most people crumble because of, they
stand up every day and they keep us safe. And
so for me, I think that has to by far
be the most amazing race that I've ever been a
(24:26):
part of because it was for something greater than me,
because without them, we wouldn't be.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Able to do the things that.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
We do, and being out there for six days carrying
the American flag was by far the most amazing opportunity
that I've ever had.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
And from that day on, I've ran with the American
flag everywhere and go.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
When I moved to New York City, I had met
so many little children who had lost their limbs or
were born missing their limbs different various reasons.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I met all these little kids who steered.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Clear of sports because of their limb loss, and it
was my goal to get them involved in those sports
to help them build self confidence and understand who they
really and what they could be.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
And so for me, the.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Foundation ended up being a platform to provide children with
adventures to help them establish and create self confidence. I
meet a lot of patients who have been told all
these different stories like you're never gonna run again, You're
never gonna be able to walk without a limb, and
it's untrue.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
As long as you don't give up, you're gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
You don't have to accept on giving up on your
goals and your dreams.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
When faced with a you have two choices.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
You can either move on and be stronger and better
in spite of or you can give up. And it's
funny because somebody was saying, well, you know, what I
do is nothing compared to what you do because you
just ran two hundred and fifty miles. But I'm no
different than anybody else. All you can ever do is
give your best effort, knowing that when you cross that
(26:24):
finish line, or that you wake up tomorrow, you know
that you're happy with.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
What you did.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
You always want to cross that finish line, no matter
what it is in life, knowing that you gave it
your best effort. I hope people see my story and
understand that, yeah, bad things happen, but you don't have
to let them define who you are.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I'm a big believer.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
In things happen for a reason, and I feel that
my accident happened for a reason because I wouldn't be
where I am today without it.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
And a terrific job on the storytelling and production by
Madison Derekutt and a special thanks to Amy Palmiero Winters
for sharing her story and what a story it was.
I love what she said at the end. When you
face adversity, you have two choices, move ahead or give up.
And by the way, you can learn more about Amy
and her life at samerun dot com. Amy Palmiero Winter's
(27:16):
great overcoming story here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts up. Next,
we'll be hearing from Amy Palmiero Winters, who is the
founder of the One Step Ahead Foundation. Amy holds thirteen
(00:32):
world records for running, and she also happens to have
one prosthetic leg. Here's Amy with her story.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I was one of three children. I had two older brothers.
We had one brother in between myself and my metal brother.
He had had a heart defect when he was born
and so at the age of six months old he
passed away. So my mother was not expecting to have
any more children. They had just lost their son, and
(01:07):
come to find out she was pregnant. I ended up
showing up three months early. I weighed two pounds and
I remember my dad telling me that from day one
that I was a fighter and I was just kicking
the incubator to get out. And I think that that
really sets the format for who I am and basically
(01:32):
my lifelong quest of achieving the unthinkable. You know, we
had a good childhood. We had a hard childhood. We
didn't have, you know, the best of circumstances. I grew
up watching my father abuse and beat up my mother.
As children, you can either become that or you can
(01:55):
choose to be something different. And for myself, I always
chose to go the different path and be the different person.
And when we were growing up, we didn't really have anything.
We didn't have the financial aspects. So for me, running
was something and that was free. It didn't matter where
you were, if you had money or you didn't have money,
(02:17):
anybody could run. Sports got me through everything. My sports
got me through the times when I watched my dad
beat my mom up.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And I remember.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Using sports as a tool. If I had a bad day,
I went out for a run.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
If I didn't feel good.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
About myself, I went out for a run. And running
and sports just changed everything for me. I was probably
eighteen and a friend of mine said, I bet you
can't run a marathon and I said, yeah, I can
run a marathon. And I was like, well, wait, how
(02:56):
long is a marathon? And he's said twenty six point
two miles And I said it's no problem.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I said, so when are we doing that, and he's
like next weekend.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
So then that was basically the start of my kind
of like a long distance journey. We went out, I
ran my first marathon in a three twenty three or
three twenty four or something. So the first world record
that we actually broke. It was nothing that I was
setting out to do. And I always say we and
I can't help it, just because nothing good in life
(03:28):
is ever done by yourself.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So I wasn't running with anybody.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But I have a whole team who's behind me, and
we set the record for the first time marathon runner
for that course, and.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
It qualified me for the Boston Marathon. So we ended
up going off. We ran the Cleveland Marathon, the Boston Marathon,
which qualified me again then for the following year's Boston Marathon,
and then before going back to the marathon, is when
I was.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Hit m In growing up, we had everybody's junk.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
We had dirt bikes, mini bikes, go karts.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
We always had everybody's junk, and what we would do
is we would rebuild it. And so growing up for me,
riding motorcycles and riding dirt bikes was natural.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
It was just second nature.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
So when I moved on and I started working. Getting
a motorcycle was just kind of a logical progressional path
in my life. And in nineteen ninety four, I was
out riding with a group of friends. We were heading
down a road and as we came to the top
(04:44):
of the hill and we crested the hill, it was
a blind intersection.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
The whole thought process.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Behind coming to that intersection is so detailed to me
because that was the road that.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I learned how to drive on.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
So my FA when I was learning how to drive,
would take me down the road. He would bring me
to that intersection. He would make me stop my car,
he would make me roll down my windows, and he
would make me listen for any cars coming up over
the hill. So on that day in nineteen ninety four,
(05:19):
I was essentially that person coming up over the hill.
And I remember being thankful that my motorcycle was exceptionally
loud that if someone was sitting at that intersection.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
They were gonna hear me, even if they didn't see me.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And there was a blue car sitting at the top
of the hill in the intersection. And it's funny how
people will say time time comes to a slow or
time slows down.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Time.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Actually it comes to a halt and almost comes to
a standstill, and then it just moves out of snail pace.
Because when I crested the top of the hill, I
remember looking at the car. I remember looking at the
person in the driver's seat. I remember seeing that her
(06:13):
window was down. And in the time that I crested
the hill and started to come through the intersection, I
had actually made eye contact with her three separate times.
You know, I knew that she had seen me, and
I knew that it was okay to continue on.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I actually had the.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Right of way, and she was at a stop sign,
And so as I crested the hill and went through
the intersection, she darted across the street. And when she
darted across the street, her car slammed into the side
of my motorcycle, and the car actually smashed my entire
left foot in between the motorcycle and the.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Primary And you've been listening to Amy Palmiero Winter share
with us her story. She was born into a tough
family situation with an abusive father. Her own brother had
passed away before she was even born, but as her
dad said, she came into this world at two pounds
a warrior from the beginning, kicking the incubator, running became
(07:15):
her refuge. Running was where she was free, and then
the accident that would change her life or maybe not.
When we come back more of this remarkable story of
overcoming here on Our American Stories. Lee Hibibe here the
host of our American Stories. Every day on this show,
(07:36):
we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories
from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
can't do the show without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Give a little, give
a lot. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give.
(08:09):
And we returned to Our American Stories and to Amy
Palmiero Winters sharing her story. When we last left off,
her running career had just been put at stake. She'd
been hit by a car while riding her motorcycle. Let's
return to Amy.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I remember just kind of coming to a stop. I
remember picking up my leg and just standing there with
the motorcycle in the intersection, and a friend of mine
came up and he had jumped off his motorcycle and
literally lifted me off my motorcycle and laid me in
the grass, and I just laid there. And I remember
(08:51):
just more so being worried about the fact that I
just started a new job I couldn't miss work the
next morning, and also kind of worried about not crying
in front of anybody else.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
And I had just got a.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Brand new pair of boots and I really didn't want
anything happening to my boots at that time. And the
ambulance came and they took me to the hospital and
to the local area. I was I was an athlete,
and I was you know, I was a track hero.
I was somebody that everybody knew, or somebody that everybody's
(09:26):
family knew. And I remember just going to the hospital
and waiting, waiting more so to understand what was going on.
And I didn't realize at the time, but because of
the damage to my foot, what had happened was my
body just immediately went into shock. The doctor would come
in and shake his head and this lasted. The doctor
would come in and out, and I remember them trying
(09:48):
to give me different pain medications, but it just seemed
like nothing was working, and I remember the doctor coming
in the one time and he had asked my mother.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
He's like, you know, how is her pain tolerance?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
And my my mother literally grabbed him by the lapels
of his shirt and said, basically, you know what's going
on with my daughter? And he said, we're actually waiting
for another hospital to take her because right now the
only thing that we can do is amputator leg. And
so for my mother and my father that was out
of the question. And as they waited, it got to
(10:21):
the point where they had to perform the surgery because
my leg was crushed so bad that it was losing
all kinds of circulation and the longer you go without
blood flow to your limb, the more damage it does.
And the doctor came in with the papers and he
handed him to my mother to sign the papers to
amputate my leg, and just as she went to sign
(10:44):
on the papers, one of the nurses came running in
and said that a helicopter was coming from Pittsburgh. And
at that moment, I was basically rushed to the top
of the building and that's where I ended up being
flown to Pittsburgh. I spent the next two months basically
fighting to save my leg. I was very fortunate that
(11:07):
I was given the opportunity to fight for keeping my leg.
And after it was like after three years and I
had forty plus surgeries, and I went in and the
one doctor, you know, he was looking at the different
skin grafts and scars on my body and he said
to me, he's like, I'm really sorry that you had
(11:29):
to go through all this.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I'm really sorry.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It wasn't taken off that day. And he had let
me know that they had put.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Something in place so that will never happen again.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And I had told him, I said, if I could
go back and do it all over again, I wouldn't
change anything because of everything I went through and because
of what happened, it helped create who I am today.
I'm glad that it was able to help people in
the future not have to go through unnecessary procedures to
get to the.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Same finish line. But for me, it allowed me.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
To close one door and open another door. When I
lost my leg that day, I was focused on the military.
I was focused on being a police officer, you know.
I was focused on those things. So when you experience
something like that, it not only takes your leg, but
it takes a lot of your goals and your dreams.
So for myself, I had to rediscover who I was
(12:25):
because you couldn't go to the military with a prosthetic leg,
and you couldn't be a police officer with a prosthetic leg.
It was, yeah, redefining myself, and then on top of that,
it was you're never going to be a professional athlete.
Prior to going in to have my amputation, I talked
(12:45):
to my boss. I said, it's at the point where
I have to have my leg amputated. I can't keep
it anymore. It's so damaged that they're going to take
it off. So I really had no other choice, but
I had asked my boss any way, I said, well,
I have a job when I come back, and he
said absolutely, And so I went in to have my
(13:07):
leg amputated. I promised myself that I would be back
to work by my birthday, which was August eighteenth, and
my leg was cut off. July twenty seventh, I had
an appointment to go pick up my leg, and when
I went to pick up my leg, they called me
and they said that, well, your insurance said that your
(13:29):
leg is not medically necessary, so they're not going to
pay for it. So the place that I was going, luckily,
the prosthetic was so cheap and they told me that
you could.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Pay for it with a credit card.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So I actually kept my appointment and drove the two
hours to Pittsburgh and paid for my prosthetic leg with
a credit card. I remember getting up, I remember walking.
I was given no formal train with my prosthetic. It
was basically just here's your leg and basically just see
(14:05):
you later. But my focus was August eighteenth, being back
to work by August eighteenth, and I remember walking into
my job and I was proud of myself.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I was a really hard worker. I was proud of
the job that I did.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I was a furnace operator at a local company that
was prominent in our hometown.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
And I remember.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Walking in and every time I would walk in, my
employer would walk out the other side and I could
kind of couldn't.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Understand what was going on.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And then as you progress in wearing a prosthetic, you
go from tempt to permanent, and during that time, I
got to the point where it was time for me
to be fit with my permanent prosthetic.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
And so there was a local prosthetic facility.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
That was nearby that was going to be the ones
to create my new prosthetic leg. And I remember going
in and getting things set up to get my new
prosthetic leg. And I remember going back to my job
and speaking to my boss finally and I said, well,
I'm ready to come back to work and he said, well,
I'm sorry, you don't have a job anymore.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
And in doing so, what had happened was is it
had timed me out for my insurance.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So I had lost my job, lost my insurance, and
had no way of paying for my new prosthetic leg again.
So here I was, you know, kind of right back
into the same situation. You know, basically, the road of
hard knocks kind of either.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Sets you one way or the other.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And it definitely made me a stronger person. So after
I had got my second prosthetic, I was under the
belief that I would be able to run.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
And that's what I did, was I tried to run.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Unfortunately, if you don't have the right set up and
the right components, your residual limb unfortunately takes the brunt
of everything. And so for myself, because I didn't have
the clearance or basically like a higher category prosthetic foot
that would absorb the shock. All the shock and the
pounding went up into my residual limb, and so when
(16:20):
I tried to run, I ended up getting a bone infection,
and because of that bone infection, I ended up back
in the hospital.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And I lost more of my leg. But just like
I said, you can take it two different ways.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
You can let it define you and defeat you, or
you can let it make you stronger. And so for myself,
I utilized it to make me stronger, and once I
had more of my leg amputated, it allowed me to
get a better prosthetic foot, and with that better prosthetic foot,
it allowed me to then start running again.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
And you're listening to Amy Palmiero Winter share her story
what happened after that ambulance came in all of the
years after fighting, as she said, for her leg three
years and forty surgeries. I'm sorry it wasn't taken that day,
a doctor said, and they in the future set up
(17:16):
protocol so that would never happen again. But true to
her character, she said she would have done it the
same way because it strengthened her character and also helped
others not have to go through what she went through,
throw in losing her job. But still there was that hope.
Still there was that attitude, and still there was that
(17:36):
little girl inside her kicking that incubator she held on to.
When we come back more of this remarkable story of
overcoming Amy Palmiera Winters here on our American stories? Can
(18:08):
we returned to our American stories and to Amy Palmiero
Winter's story. When we last left off, she'd just gotten
a new prosthetic leg and found out she would be
able to start her running career all over again. But
little did she know how far that career would actually
take her. Let's return to Amy and her story.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
It was a couple of years after I lost my
leg before I could start running again. So at that time,
training and stuff was more so just going out for
a run at lunchtime, and I would just run the
local five and ten k's. It was kind of a
natural progression to kind of want to get back to
running the marathon, and so my first one back was
(18:53):
the Cleveland Marathon, just because it was local.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And it was during that marathon that.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
We actually broke the world record for both male and
female amputees. I ended up going on to run and
race in the New York City Triathlon, and from doing the.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
New York City Triathlon, it actually qualified me.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Through the Hawaii World Championships in the triathlon.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And when I was there.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
And won the World Championships, I remember, you know, everybody
would kind of look at me and they would say
to me, They're like, you're really gonna run on that
because I had just like a walking foot, and I
had asked one of the other athletes. I was like,
there's got to be somebody that I can find to
help me.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
And I asked them, I'm like, where do you go?
Who you know, who's the best.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
And so that's when I was introduced to a Step
Ahead prosthetics in Long Island. All I can say about
a Step Ahead is I put my kids in the
car and we drove eight hours to New York to
Long Island, New York. And I'll tell you what, I
haven't looked back since I walked through the door. And
for the first time in ten years, I actually had
(20:09):
someone ask me what I wanted to do. I actually
had someone ask me what my goals were and.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I literally said, I, well, you know what, I want.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
To run one hundred miles and he goes, so, then
that's what you'll do. And I was casted at seven
thirty in the morning and by nine o'clock I was
running on the treadmill in a running leg. So I
was out running a race with a friend of mine
(20:39):
and he actually told me of another athlete.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
His name was Jim, and Jim.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Was the first athlete with a prosthetic to ever run
on the course of Western States. And Western States is
basically it's one of the oldest and the most basically
the most thought Apple Ultra Marathon, and Jim wanted to
be the first athlete with a prosthetic to qualify and
finish Western States.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
And so he got on the Western States course.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
And he made it to mile I think thirty five
and missed a time cut off or something and dropped out.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
And he told his family.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
He said, that was the hardest thing that I've ever done.
And he's like, I will be back and I'll finish it.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
And that was in June, and then in August he was.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
On a closed course and a cement truck got on
the closed course and the boom truck on the cement.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Truck came out and hit him and killed him.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
And when my friend told me that story, I vowed
that I would go back and do that and I
would do it for him and his family. And so,
in my pursuit to become the first athlete with a
prosthetic to finish Western States, I had to run a
specific race at a qualifying time and actually qualifive for it.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
So in doing so, I qualified for Western States. And
that's when I was.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Also focusing on qualifying for racing bad Water.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And for bad Water, I needed to do an additional.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
One hundred mile race, and so I was actually in
this hundred mile race.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
It was a looped course.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
It was a mile loop and you just ran the
mile loop over and over again until you reached one
hundred miles. And as I was running it, the race
director had said to me Amy, He's like, if you
run eighteen more miles, you'll qualify for the US team.
So I finished the one hundred mile race, I qualified
(22:42):
for bad Water, and then I want to say, a
month later, I went to the race that was across
the Years, and that's where I was setting my sights
on making the US team, and we ended up finishing
the race with one hundred and thirty point four.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
We beat the first guy by fourteen miles, and we
beat the first girl by thirty six miles. I think
it was and it was, in fact, the first time
that an amputee had won a race outright, and it
was the first.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Time in history that an athlete with a prosthetic had
made a world team because that race actually qualified me
for the US team. You know, I have a lot
of races that I've done, and they're all is equally
amazing and unique in.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Their own way.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
And so we just recently ran the Cocadona two hundred
and fifty mile race, and it is probably one of
the most meaningful and most amazing races that I've ever
been a part of, and it's because I carried the
American flag the entire way, and it had nothing to
do with me.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
It had to do with honoring all of those men
and women who stand up every day to keep us safe.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Who despite fear, despite pain, despite sleep deprivation, despite all
of those things that most people crumble because of, they
stand up every day and they keep us safe. And
so for me, I think that has to by far
be the most amazing race that I've ever been a
(24:26):
part of because it was for something greater than me,
because without them, we wouldn't be.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Able to do the things that.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
We do, and being out there for six days carrying
the American flag was by far the most amazing opportunity
that I've ever had.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
And from that day on, I've ran with the American
flag everywhere and go.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
When I moved to New York City, I had met
so many little children who had lost their limbs or
were born missing their limbs different various reasons.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I met all these little kids who steered.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Clear of sports because of their limb loss, and it
was my goal to get them involved in those sports
to help them build self confidence and understand who they
really and what they could be.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
And so for me, the.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Foundation ended up being a platform to provide children with
adventures to help them establish and create self confidence. I
meet a lot of patients who have been told all
these different stories like you're never gonna run again, You're
never gonna be able to walk without a limb, and
it's untrue.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
As long as you don't give up, you're gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
You don't have to accept on giving up on your
goals and your dreams.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
When faced with a you have two choices.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
You can either move on and be stronger and better
in spite of or you can give up. And it's
funny because somebody was saying, well, you know, what I
do is nothing compared to what you do because you
just ran two hundred and fifty miles. But I'm no
different than anybody else. All you can ever do is
give your best effort, knowing that when you cross that
(26:24):
finish line, or that you wake up tomorrow, you know
that you're happy with.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
What you did.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
You always want to cross that finish line, no matter
what it is in life, knowing that you gave it
your best effort. I hope people see my story and
understand that, yeah, bad things happen, but you don't have
to let them define who you are.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I'm a big believer.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
In things happen for a reason, and I feel that
my accident happened for a reason because I wouldn't be
where I am today without it.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
And a terrific job on the storytelling and production by
Madison Derekutt and a special thanks to Amy Palmiero Winters
for sharing her story and what a story it was.
I love what she said at the end. When you
face adversity, you have two choices, move ahead or give up.
And by the way, you can learn more about Amy
and her life at samerun dot com. Amy Palmiero Winter's
(27:16):
great overcoming story here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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