Ventura surf instructor goes home after arm is saved at UCI Health – Orange
Team of highly skilled surgeons worked together to reattach woman’s limb after train accident
IN THE NEWS: Elieah Boyd is breathing fresh air for the first time in a month. The Ventura surf instructor who recently lost her arm after a passing train clipped her bike has left the hospital after a successful reattachment surgery at UCI Health — Orange, formerly known as UCI Medical Center.
Boyd’s highly skilled team included trauma, vascular, orthopedic and plastic surgeons, who collaborated during a 10-hour operation to save the young woman’s arm.
Boyd, 24, shared the disbelief she felt the moment she woke up at UCI Health — Orange and realized she still had two arms (absolute disbelief), how it has been to learn how to write with her non-dominant hand and how she can't wait to put her feet in the water again with the Orange County Register, KTLA Channel 5 and Inside Edition.
Watch the KTLA interview
Feeling 'a little tingling sensation'
Two of her physicians, Dr. Michael Lekawa, chief of UCI Health Trauma and Critical Care Surgery Services , along with vascular surgeon Dr. Siwei Dong, spoke about caring for her. Lekawa, who greeted Boyd upon her arrival in Orange, discussed the importance of choosing life over limb.
“When Ms. Boyd arrived, she was awake and conversive. It was almost surreal that somebody could have that kind of injury and be that way. When it’s life over limb, we choose life. Because her life was stable, we were able to worry about reimplanting the limb.”
Dong also addressed Boyd’s overall prognosis.
“It’s a little hard to know the exact timeline. She’s already feeling a little tingling sensation, which means that her nerve is starting to regenerate. Hopefully her motor nerve fibers will regenerate, too.”
Additional members of Boyd’s UCI Health surgical team included Dr. Eric Wang, who specializes in reconstructive surgery, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Tyler Johnston and nurse Reina Rodriguez.
UCI Health ― Orange, home to the only Level 1 trauma center in Orange County, provides the region’s most advanced care to help people of all ages survive life-threatening injuries. Trauma, burn and critical care specialists with UCI Health deliver lifesaving care around the clock, 365 days a year. These clinicians are the region’s leading experts in the treatment of all critical and traumatic injuries.
About UCI Health
UCI Health, one of California’s largest academic health systems, is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. The 1,317-bed system comprises its main campus UCI Medical Center, its flagship hospital in Orange, Calif., the UCI Health — Irvine medical campus, four hospitals and affiliated physicians of the UCI Health Community Network in Orange and Los Angeles counties and a network of ambulatory care centers across the region. UCI Medical Center provides tertiary and quaternary care and is home to the only Orange County-based National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, gold level 1 geriatric emergency department and regional burn center. Powered by UC Irvine, UCI Health serves 5.6 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).