HARRISONBURG, VA
23-year-old Eastern Mennonite University student Cara Witmer underwent emergency surgery on Monday to remove an iPhone 6s, which had been lodged in her left hand since late 2015.
“It was touch and go there for a while, but Cara’s a real trooper,” said Cara’s concerned father Henry. “When she went under the knife I just bowed my head and said, ‘Lord, she’s in your hands now.'”
After an exhausting ten hour surgery, a team of highly-trained and experienced surgeons was able to extract the iPhone from her hand, though Cara did put up some resistance.
“She was under heavy anesthetics, but she still wouldn’t release her grip,” said Dr. Schantz. “Even with all the specialized equipment we had, the only way we could extract the device was when her father whispered promises of an iPhone X in her ear.”
The Witmer family has been fundraising for the costly surgery for well over a year and have sold more than 600 shoofly pies to help offset the expense.
“It’s been a real hardship, but it’s been worth it,” said Henry. “People were more than happy to contribute when they heard about Cara’s tragic accident. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes I wish she’d never stepped into that damn Apple Store.”
Miss Witmer will also be undergoing surgery this spring to regain the ability to communicate with real human beings and lift her head to an upright position.
(photo credit: Dave Parker/CC)
