Teen 'who hung from power line for an hour after car crash' on losing her leg
Kennedy Littledike from Nampa, Idaho, survived a terrifying car crash in 2021. Left without her leg, the teenager has turned an amputation into a story of inspiration.
Kennedy, who was 16 at the time of the accident, took her car and her friends to go watch a nearby sunset. The teenager was just getting over a recent breakup.
But while driving back, Kennedy started crying again. Losing focus, her car swerved off the road. She explained that she "overcorrected too far," and the car flipped and began rolling. The teens weren't wearing seatbelts. Suddenly Kennedy found herself hanging in a power line by her broken leg.
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A teenager who survived a terrible car crash and amputation is sharing her story with the world (Kennedy Jean Littledike/Instagram)
She now talks to teenagers about the importance of safety and seatbelts (Kennedy Jean Littledike/Instagram)Though this terrifying moment seems like it should have killed the girl, it actually saved her life, according to doctors.
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"In the process of getting thrown, my arm was actually torn off, was hanging on by the skin on my back, and then my femur was snapped over the wire and hanging in front of my face," she said in an interview with Inside Edition
"A lot of people ask, 'How did you not bleed out?' Well, the main artery in my leg was pinched off by the power line, and then the main artery in my arm was actually cauterized when I got electrocuted," says Littledike.
Kennedy was determined to fight until help arrived. "I remember I was drowning in my blood because it was running from my leg, it was running from my arm, and it was going in my nose, and I was just wiping it out because it was literally drowning me," she says. "I didn't know what to do in that situation. I felt so helpless. And I remember I started to cry, and I remember telling myself, 'If you cry, you're done.' I would die."
A group of people gathered below Kennedy, who she talked to as she tried to stay awake. All the while, she had no idea how badly she was injured. After dangling from the power line for an hour, first responders began working to free her.
"(A first responder) just grabbed my leg and had to take it out of the wire, and you just watch my body lifelessly fall on the stretcher," she says. "They put the tourniquet on and had to take my bone back off the wire. And they said I screamed. And then, once I hit the stretcher, it was silent."
Kennedy shows others what its like to do a host of activities with one leg on her social media (Kennedy Jean Littledike/Instagram)
Despite losing her leg, Kennedy is making the most of her life - sharing her story to help others (Kennedy Jean Littledike/Instagram)Kennedy wasn't sure if she would survive. Because of the extent of her injuries, Kennedy was airlifted to the University of Utah. She had a broken femur, a broken humerus bone, a broken clavicle and a brachial plexus injury. Doctors tried but couldn't save her leg.
At just 16, Littledike had a total of five amputations. Doctors tried to save as much as possible, as "the more leg that you have for a prosthetic leg to walk, the easier it is," Kennedy says.
The surgeries were something out of anyone's nightmare. Doctors amputated her leg at the knee, but unfortunately, it kept rotting, so they had to continue to go in and remove more and more of her leg. They finally removed the entire thing.
When she woke up, her father had to be the one to tell her that her leg was gone. Kennedy spent seven weeks in the hospital. She first saw her leg during a physio session. She said, for the most part, her leg was covered under the gown until the gown slid off, and she finally got a glimpse of what was left.
Doctors and nurses urged her not to check it, and while she was overcome with emotion when she did, the teenager managed to turn the situation around quick. “Within 20 minutes, I was fine with it. I literally named it. I named my nub Gobi, and I made a whole dance for it,” she says.
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When she got back home, Kennedy had to learn how to do everyday things with just one arm - hers had been injured and eventually required shock therapy. Even simple stuff like brushing her teeth or having a shower was hard because she felt so weak. But her family and friends continued to support her during the healing process.
A few months after the accident, Kennedy started her last year of school, focusing on getting better.
Now 19, Kennedy talks about her daily life and her accident and shares updates and jokes about her injuries online. "I kind of was like, well, I have a pretty sick story, and why not share it," she says.
The accident changed how Kennedy sees the world. She's now a speaker who tells her story to help others, even though it can be difficult. She talks to other kids about driving safely and the importance of buckling their seatbelts.
She's also a content creator on TIkTok and Instagram, amassing over 40k followers with her positive message.
“I would go through this accident. I would go through the pain, I would go through it all again, just to have that rewarding feeling, and feeling like I made a difference in someone's life," she says. "So I love it. I really do. And it makes me feel like I make a difference in this world.”
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