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No stopping her

Barbara Guerra embraces life despite lack of arms

by Steve Wilson
Republic Columnist

The mantel in Barbara and Mark Guerra's living room in Mesa is attractively decorated with bouquets, pictures and knickknacks. She arranged everything, including the flowers.

"How'd you do that?" I asked.

"I had a stepladder," she said, dodging the question.

"But how'd you do it?" I repeated.

"Very carefully," she smiled.

Barb is a vibrant 22-year-old wife and mother who teaches aerobics and does just about everything most of us do. Only she does it without arms, which were amputated two decades ago.

"Everyone's got limitations, not just me," she said. "I probably have fewer than most people. I've learned that if there's something I want to do, I'll find a way."

Barb's feet are also her hands. She plays the piano, drives to work with an unrestricted license, types on a computer keyboard, dresses herself and Jordan (her 2½-year-old son), puts on makeup, peels potatoes, prepares meals and writes elegantly with a pen between her toes.

Her husband, Mark, said she inspires him daily.

"Barb doesn't let anything stop her," he said. "What gets me the most is how she can shave her legs and never cut herself. It's amazing."

She was a typical toddler in 1979, eager to explore everything around her home in suburban Houston. One summer day, she wandered out of her yard and down the sidewalk to an electrical substation where a friend was playing.

He had climbed up a transformer. She started up and came in contact with live power lines.

"There was this huge boom, and she was blown across the sidewalk," said her mother, Pat Steinsholt. "Her eyes were rolling and her arms were badly burned. When we reached the hospital, the doctors said virtually every organ in her body was damaged and she might not live. If she did live, we were told she would probably be a vegetable."

Doctors also said her arms absorbed so much of the 7,000-volt shock they would have to be amputated.

"I remember feeling totally devastated," her mother said. "Then, I made up my mind. I said, 'God, this child is going to recover and be somebody.'

Growing up wasn't easy.

"I didn't like being different, didn't think it was fair," Barb said. "Other kids could be pretty mean. They'd whisper, stare and point. They did stuff like pushing me down at a drinking - fountain to see how I'd get up. I would sometimes cry or hours. I didn't have a lot of self-confidence."

Still she persevered and was a good student, due partly to her mother's insistence that she take charge of her life.

"A lot of parents would feel sorry for their child and do everything for them. My mom wouldn't.

By the time she was 12, Barb played the piano well enough with her feet to give a recital at church for 300 people. When she finished Chariots of Fire, the audience was standing and tears were flowing.

Taking care of Jordan is now her biggest challenge, but he has made the job easier. When he was 5 months old he somehow sensed the need to put his arm around her neck so she could pick him up. How he knew to do that is a wonderful mystery.

She changes his diapers with more speed and dexterity than most of us can manage with our hands.

Although she has tried different prostheses, none has felt comfortable or enabled her to do things she couldn't do with her feet. So, she prefers not to use them.

Barb drives with one foot on the wheel, the other on the accelerator and "gets a lot of funny looks." The fact that her instructor said she drove better than anyone in the class with arms says something about her. The fact that she seldom parks in handicapped spaces says more.

"I don't think I'm any more handicapped than other drivers," she said. "I can walk just fine."

She also has a good sense of humor. When people ask whether they can give, her a hand she sometimes answers, "Yes, how about two?"

Mark has his own dry humor. When they come out of a store and he has bags in his hands, he will walk by other shoppers and sometimes mutter to his wife, "How come I have to carry everything?"

When they first met, Mark asked whether she wanted to go horseback riding, then realized that might be impossible and said he would understand if she didn't want to go.

She said not to worry. They went riding, and she held the horse's reins in her mouth.

Losing her arms has contributed heavily to her spiritual faith.

"When I was younger, I was mad at God for letting this happen to me," she says. Now, I see he had a plan. So many people have told me I've inspired them. They say things like, 'Seeing you makes my day.' Or, 'If you can do that, then I can do this.'

The doctors couldn't explain how Barb was able to recover from the accident that nearly took her life, but I have an idea. As severely as she was injured, one vital part of her body escaped serious harm. It grew stronger and stronger, more dominant, more than compensating for her handicap.

She's got some kind of heart.

Text source: The Arizona Republic
Printed: June 1st, 1999