FORT WORTH (February 8, 2012)--Academy ISD eighth grader Haley Johannsen, 14, who was left paralyzed after a collision between a school bus and a delivery truck, went on her first outing Wednesday since the accident on Jan. 17.
Accompanied by staff members, she left the Fort Worth rehab facility to which she was transferred on Jan. 30 from Scott & White Hospital in Temple to see the movie “Big Miracle.”
The film is about an effort to save a family of gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle.
The outing gave the teenager a chance to practice negotiating ramps and getting in and out of her wheelchair.
She was able to move herself from the wheelchair to her seat in the theater without assistance.
Haley suffered a broken back in the collision between a Lowes delivery truck and the Academy ISD school bus.
She underwent surgery after the accident and faces months of rehabilitation.
She was moved out of intensive care three days after the crash.
She and bus driver James Johnson, who remains at Scott & White, were the most seriously hurt of the 29 students and three adults who were taken to hospitals after the collision at the intersection of FM 93 and Old Highway 95.
The bus, which was carrying elementary and middle school children, came to rest on its side after the crash.
An account for the teenager has been established at BBVA Compass Bank.
Donations can be made at any Compass Bank branch.
