An explosion on a small tour boat turned a dream vacation in the Bahamas into a nightmare for one Rutland family. Doctors gave 22-year-old Stefanie Schaffer a 50 percent chance of survival, but now after six months — and dozens of surgeries — she's back home in Rutland reclaiming her life.
National news was filled with images of the June 30 blast that killed one passenger and injured nine others, including Schaffer.
Schaffer doesn’t remember much about the boat explosion. Her family had been vacationing with friends in the Bahamas. They’d signed up to swim with wild pigs off Exuma Island. It was supposed to be a fun, touristy half-day excursion.
But things went terribly wrong.
"I just remember, like, sheer panic,” said Schaffer. "And I couldn’t tell you what was going on at the time. That's just — wake up, and I remember, like, something terrible happened.”
The 22-year old’s injuries were massive. She was flown to Nassau, Bahamas, where doctors amputated her lower legs to save her life. Then she was airlifted to a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Her back and pelvis were broken along with an upper leg bone. She’d fractured her right wrist and her left forearm was shattered. Her spleen and liver were damaged, and her kidneys had shut down from all the blood loss. She had to be on constant dialysis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVMI-qzTXL8
Schaffer’s mom, Stacey Bender, was also seriously hurt in the blast, with multiple fractures and a collapsed lung. But Bender said at the time, she knew she’d recover. She said it was much harder for the family to watch as doctors tried to put Schaffer back together.
"So to picture your daughter lying there with all those breaks … I mean, I knew that she was sleeping, and couldn’t feel anything. You know, she was in the medically induced coma,” explained Bender. “But the thought of all that ... And I kept thinking, 'How is she going to be strong enough to get through these surgeries?'”
When doctors gradually brought Schaffer out of the coma about six weeks later, her condition remained critical. She got infections from her tracheotomy. She got pneumonia. And, her family had to break the news multiple times to the 22-year-old that she had lost her legs.
Schaffer said her brain didn’t want to believe it.
“I remember having this clear thought of looking at my legs and seeing that they were hurt, but to me they were just bandaged,” said Schaffer. “And I remember thinking, ‘Well, thank God I didn't lose my legs,' you know. And then a day later I’m told, ‘You lost your legs.’ And I was like, 'What do you mean? They’re right there.’”
Eventually, she said, reality sank in and her condition slowly improved.
After six weeks in Fort Lauderdale, Schaffer transferred to Boston — first to a hospital, then to a rehabilitation facility. While there, she said she met several people who’d lost legs in the Boston Marathon bombing.
“It was pretty awesome, because they heard about the accident, they reached out to me," said Schaffer. "They walk into the hospital and they visit you and they tell you about their work and their family and everything that they're doing — and you just see that it's still possible as an amputee,” said Schaffer.
“It’s like you join a family," she added. "It’s not one that you ever think you’re going to be a part of, or that you really want to be a part of, but it makes the whole situation a little bit better.”
Five months to the day after the accident, Schaffer came home. It felt great to be back in Rutland, she said, but the reality of her new life began to sink in.
“I thought by the time I made it home that I would be walking in and that things would be normal, and I didn't realize how hard for me it was going to be,” she admitted.
The family redesigned their driveway and friends helped build a ramp onto the back of the house to make it more accessible.
But coming home from a recent physical therapy session, Schaffer struggled to get through the ice and snow with her walker and had to switch to her wheelchair. Her mom pushed her daughter up to the house, but it was slow and difficult in the winter conditions.
"Most days I'm good. But there’s still days where it'll just hit me and I just realize how different everything is. And I’ll just, you know, need to stay at home, just cry for a whole day." — Stefanie Schaffer, Rutland
Then there’s the shower – Schaffer said they plan to make the bathroom more accessible, but that project hasn’t happened yet.
“We dropped her yesterday,” admitted Bender. “So that was our first real fall trying to get into the shower, and we couldn't get her out.”
“She couldn't get up,” continued Bender, "so we had to call her dad who had to close his ski shop and come down and pick her up off the floor.”
Schaffer's life is now full of moments like that — when everyday tasks become a test of will and patience.
“Most days I'm good," Schaffer said. "But there’s still days where it'll just hit me and I just realize how different everything is. And I’ll just, you know, need to stay at home, just cry for a whole day."
“And my mom’s pretty awesome," she continued. "She just lets me cry. You know, and that's really all you need. You just need someone to just sit there and let you cry.”
Those kind of days are less frequent now, said Schaffer. She’s looking forward more and has signed up for online college courses that’ll start this month. She’s studying public health at Castleton University and wants to complete her degree.
Schaffer has also thrown herself into physical therapy, which she does three times a week.
On a recent Friday morning, Schaffer is learning how to walk with crutches. Kate Moser, co-owner of Back on Track Physical Therapy in Rutland, stands nearby, encouraging Schaffer to use her arms for balance and feedback instead of her legs.
Schaffer is petite and focused. Growing up she studied ballet, skied and played soccer — and doctors have repeatedly told Schaffer that her strength and athleticism probably saved her life this summer.
At this physical therapy session, Schaffer slowly maneuvered the crutches across a black mat, lifting her hips to swing around each leg in turn. It’s much harder to put one foot in front of the other when your lower legs are made of foam and metal, have complicated hinges and weigh 8 pounds apiece.
“Woah!” shouted Moser. “Seriously you slammed my other goal with crutches! One step is what I had, and she did four and then she did it backwards!”
Moser gave Schaffer a high-five. Then she set up a full-length mirror between a set of parallel bars and had Schaffer practice walking without crutches.
After nearly an hour, Schaffer moves to a nearby mat to work her core.
“It doesn't always feel like I’ve come very far,” she admitted. “But then when I really think about it, think where I was at the beginning — you know, I wasn’t awake, and I couldn't even sit up on my own and I couldn't move out of bed at all.”
She meets with a personal trainer once a week and exercises at home every other day as well.
“I don’t want to stay like this for the rest of my life,” said Schaffer, “You know, I want to get better, and I just gotta keep trying.”
The family filed a civil suit against the tour boat company in the Bahamas, but Stacey Bender is not overly optimistic. She said medical bills from the accident have topped $2 million. Their health insurance company has been great, she said, but her daughter has another complicated surgery this month, so the bills will keep coming.
A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $174,000 which will help with those bills and with upgrades to their home.
Schaffer said the money will also help her buy new, lighter prosthesis — they’ll replace the pair she wears now, which admitted she hated at first.
“I was so embarrassed and I was so self-conscious," said Schaffer. "I remember thinking, 'I’ll never wear shorts or a swimsuit again.' But now, that I've realized how hard it is to walk, I'm like, I can't wait till I get better prosthetics. And I’m kinda thinking that it’s going to be kind of awesome for everybody to see that I have prosthetics because they’re going to look at me and they're gonna know that I've, you know, worked super hard to be up and walking.”
