ROGERS -- Melissa Clement has always been driven to succeed, whether it was on the volleyball court, in the classroom or in her personal life.
As a volleyball player at Rogers High, Clement, who carried a 4.0 GPA, helped the Lady Mounties to the Class 7A State Championship Match as a sophomore and again as a senior.
At A Glance
Melissa Clement
Age: 23
Notable: Played high school volleyball at Rogers High and then Hendrix College. … Suffered heart failure last summer and spent almost seven weeks in the hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. … Had her right leg amputated just below the knee in October.
"She was dynamite," said Lady Mounties volleyball coach Jeana Breedlove. "Melissa was always happy, never in a bad mood."
Clement then took her game to Hendrix College in Conway, where she started almost every match. When she graduated with a degree in Allied Health in 2013, she left with school volleyball records in kills and blocks.
She then moved to Kentucky and enrolled in a Physician Assistant (PA) program, where she continued to excel.
Clement has set a few more goals for this year: One is to learn to walk again, and perhaps go hiking this summer with her boyfriend, Sam Crocker, a medical student at Kentucky.
Returning to school in the fall is also a goal, and then possibly run, or jog as she puts it, in a 5K run in October.
Clement is enthusiastic when talking about her future because the 23-year-old is just thankful to be alive.
July Picnic
It was a hot day in Lexington last July 31 when Clement went to class that morning. She then had lunch before heading off to a picnic, and some friendly sand volleyball competition, about 20 minutes from campus. Crocker, a Kentucky native who aspires to be a family practitioner, was with her as the pair have been dating since their days at Hendrix.
Clement was playing her second match of the day, while Crocker was on the sideline talking with other medical students. One of those he was talking with was Shawn Luo, a fellow medical student at Kentucky
That was the first of many breaks that day.
As the second game of the day progressed, Clement collapsed and she laid unconscious on the sand.
At first, it was thought that she could be suffering from heat stroke, but it soon became apparent it was worse. Much worse.
"Once we realized it just wasn't some little thing, I started into CPR," Crocker said.
Clement was convulsing and she was throwing up blood. Then those who rushed to Clement's side, including Crocker and Luo, realized she wasn't breathing and that her pulse was faint. Then there was no pulse.
Clement had suffered heart failure.
Crocker then got some help, including assistance from Luo, who graduated from Virginia with a nursing degree before enrolling in medical school.
"Thankfully, someone else with more experience and skill stepped up," Crocker said. "Shawn Luo was one of them. I just helped clear her airway. She was vomiting quite a lot of blood."
Luo had just met Crocker on the sideline and did not know Clement until he started helping with the CPR.
"I had just met Sam a couple of seconds before this happened," Luo said. "Someone then came up and said, 'Sam your girlfriend has collapsed.' I went and checked her pulse. There was one and then I soon lost it. We did CPR, and fortunately several people knew CPR and we switched off."
Another Break
After nine minutes, emergency personnel arrived. St. Joseph Hospital was about a mile away. Another of the lucky breaks that day.
"They shocked her twice before they got her in the ambulance," Crocker said. "Then once, twice more before they got her there (to St. Joe). We were real fortunate that we were that close (to St. Joe)."
Clement was at St. Joe for about two hours, but her vital signs showed no improvement. Clement later learned that one of the doctors, Ever Luizaga, told Crocker to prepare for the worst.
"The doctor told my boyfriend that I was dying," Clement said.
"It was tough seeing her totally covered in blood," Crocker said.
With Luizaga with her, Clement was then transferred to UK Chandler Hospital. She was shocked three more times on the short drive.
Crocker quickly reached out to Clement's parents, Jon and Doris, in Rogers. About 90 minutes after that phone call, Melissa's parents soon began what was the longest car ride of their lives, a 10-hour trip to Lexington. Along the way, they received numerous updates from Crocker and their daughter's doctors.
"It was a very quiet car ride," Doris Clement said. "I was waiting for the next phone call. I figured every minute that went by, that was one more minute she was alive. When we left Arkansas, we didn't know if we would bury our daughter or help her recover."
Clement was immediately sent into heart surgery and she was put on ECMO (lung/heart bypass) in the right femoral artery.
"The doctor said she was stable, weak after the surgery," Crocker said. "The whole point of putting her on the ECMO machine was to give her heart a break and time to heal. It wasn't strong enough to pump her blood to keep her alive. He said she may come out of it, she might not. It was a matter of wait and see."
The heart surgery was a success, but another big problem soon developed.
Losing Part Of A Leg
Clement was on ECMO for less than 48 hours and she was unconscious the entire time. But the machine reduced the circulation in her right leg.
"My foot turned black," Clement said.
Several procedures were done to remove dead tissue, but in the end it proved to be ineffective. The lower part of Clement's right leg was dying.
"It's a medical condition called compartment syndrome," Crocker said. "One of the problems with ECMO is that it is a mechanical heart that is outside your body that is working for you. But the way it is inserted, it can cause a lack of blood flow. She wasn't getting good blood flow to her right leg and it was causing some tissue death."
Clement was eventually discharged almost seven weeks after the collapse and she soon went to Barnes-Jewish in St. Louis to get a second opinion on her right leg. She was not very optimistic the leg could be saved.
"By that point I was ready for it," Clement said. "I had mentally prepared myself for almost a month by then. I was done with my leg and my foot. I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't feel my foot since July 31. I had a dead limb on me. "
On Oct. 10, Clement had her right leg amputated just below the knee. She spent a week in the hospital and then spent four days in rehab.
"I was getting most of my energy and mobility back by this point," she said.
Clement would have to return to St. Louis for regular checkups, and she was about to get some help.
Wings of Hope
Wings of Hope is a St. Louis-based organization that has among its many operations a service that flies people free of charge with medical needs to their hospital within a 500-mile radius of the city. Clement was soon traveling from Lexington to St. Louis in a private six-seat aircraft.
"It's a great company," Clement said. "They do a lot for kids with medical needs. I was thankful they took me on. It would have been impossible for me to get back and forth. I would have had to live in St. Louis, or my mom would have had to live with me and drive me back and forth."
Now, the trips are less frequent and life is slowly getting back to normal. Clement's car has been retro-fitted with a new set of pedals so she can drive with her left foot, and she is getting even more mobile on crutches. She is also currently in the process of getting a prosthetic leg fitted.
Once that is fitted, Clement can move on to the next phase of her recovery.
"Hopefully, everything will be put together in a few weeks," Clement said. "It will be a little bit of a learning experience, and I will have to go to physical therapy for that. I want to be able to hike by summer. That is a goal of mine and my boyfriend."
Why Clement suffered heart failure has not been determined, but it was most likely a viral infection, Clement said.
"It got in my heart and it made it stop pretty much," Clement said. "The only thing I remember from that day is getting in the car to go to the picnic. Everything that I have learned has come from other people. I was very fortunate that I wasn't working out in my apartment or at the gym. I was very happy that I was taken care of by the medical students, and everybody that day and since then."
Crocker has also been a huge help. The Kentucky Medical School even granted him a brief leave of absence from his studies.
"A lot of the credit also goes to my boyfriend," Clement said. "He has literally and figuratively carried me through all of this. He is always there for me physically, emotionally and mentally. I'm very thankful for all the people in my life."
"She had many angels looking after her," Doris Clement said.
Clement has also maintained contact with Luizaga, the ER doctor who likely saved her life.
"He found me on Facebook not long ago," Clement said. "He was so amazed, and he wanted to talk to the biggest miracle he has ever seen."
Paul Nielsen can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAPaul
Sports on 01/18/2015