When the two Benton sisters “ survivors of last week's London bombings “ leave DukeUniversityHospital, it's going to be a bittersweet moment for the Duke staff who cared for them.
"They've had just the best attitude," said Julie Mitchell, a nurse on the Bentons' unit. "Considering all that they have gone through, they've been very sweet, very cheerful and positive. They're grateful for everything we've done for them.
"When they leave it'll be a happy moment because we all want them to get better, but it'll be bittersweet as well because they've made the unit a happier place."
Katie and Emily Benton arrived at Duke July 10 for reconstructive surgery. Emily Benton suffered broken bones and lost skin on one foot. Katie Benton suffered shrapnel wounds in a foot that exposed tendons and bones.
The two Tennessee residents were on a subway car in Edgware Station July 7 when an apparent suicide bomber set off an explosion, one of four set in London that day. The bombings killed 55 people and left more than 700 wounded.
Duke physicians this week said Katie, 21, who is planning to start veterinarian school at the University of Tennessee this fall, may be able to leave as early as late this week. Dr. Gregory Georgiade, one of their surgeons and vice chair of the Department of Surgery, said that Ear, Nose and Throat surgeons were evaluating possible hearing problems in one ear for Katie. Despite these continuing issues, Georgiade said Katie is well on the road to recovery.
"She has one problem; she's into horses," Georgiade said at a Monday news conference. "It's a problem I understand because I have it, too. We're concerned what will happen to her foot in the stirrup, so we've told her she's not to ride for six weeks when she gets back to Tennessee. But I'm told the horse is in pasture and will wait for her."
Emily's injuries were more severe, but Georgiade said she is expected to make a full recovery as well. Emily, 20, a student at Pellissippi State Technical Community College, suffered tissue and bone loss on the left foot.
"Everything is going well," Georgiade said. "They have a lot of close-knit friends who have visited them and helped them. They have a team in their family that is helping them, they had a team in their London doctors who helped them and they had a team here at Duke that is helping them. And with all those teams working together, we're heading toward a satisfactory conclusion."
Caring for the girls has been a pleasure, Mitchell said, noting that the girls always smile whenever staff members walk into the room.
"The girls don't ask for anything extra," Mitchell said. "Their positive attitude has made it easy. They've had a lot of visitors, but everyone has checked in with the nurses, so it hasn't been a problem."
The sisters were checked in under aliases because of the media attention, and staff members were careful to use the alias names when discussing them, said Jennifer Justice, the unit's nurse manager.
"The staff did a wonderful job," Justice said. "We didn't have to do anything different about their care, but we did have to keep in the back of our minds that they were bombing victims. With the bombing so much in the news, we needed to protect them. We know they are going to be OK physically, but the emotional healing will take time."
Attending physician Dr. Scott Levin, chief of the Division of Plastic/Reconstructive and Oral Surgery and professor of orthopedic surgery, who has cared for several American soldiers wounded in Iraq, said the girls showed the same determination he saw in the soldiers.
"I'll remember their bravery and determination under very traumatic conditions," Levin said.
At Monday's news conference, the girls' mother Patty Benton thanked the staffs at Charing Cross Hospital in London and at Duke for the care they've provided.
Patty Benton said the girls still have flashbacks of the incident. They were about 10 feet from the explosion. The woman next to one of the sisters died in the bombing.
"They'll never be the same, but they are strong girls," Benton said. "They both have scars down their arm. People will be seeing this and asking them where they got it, and they'll have to explain. So it's not going away, but the bottom line is the core of who the girls are hasn't changed."