By Maureen Inouye
Sophomore Emily Mues suffered major injuries when her car hit a pickup truck on Highway 20 during fall break.
A nursing major from Burns, Ore., Mues is now at the St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Ore. She broke most of the bones in her face and incurred brain swelling as a result of the collision.
Mues did not sustain any serious injuries from her neck down.
The hood of Mues' small car went underneath the bed of the pickup truck, and the bed shattered the windshield of Mues' car, thereby causing Mues' injuries.
Doctors opened her skull to relieve the swelling. Despite initial fears caused by the significant amount of swelling, there appears to be no severe brain damage.
On Tuesday, Mues underwent the last of a series of reconstructive surgeries to help correct damage to the bones in her face.
In approximately a week and a half, if the last surgery is successful, Mues will be moved to the rehabilitation center in the hospital.
She expects to be home by Thanksgiving and back at school by next semester, according to her roommate Emily Karp.
Friends since the first day of freshmen year, Karp and Mues live together in Mehling Hall.
Karp calls Mues one of her best friends and spoke about Mues' condition at the Mass for Mues and Nathan Haskell, another car accident victim, on Oct. 24.
"Emily loves sports, road trips, dancing, dressing up and her cat - that's an important one," Karp said.
Karp seems confident the accident will not affect Mues' spirit.
"Emily's really pro-active. She never falls behind in schoolwork or anything," Karp said.
In her current condition, Mues is unable to communicate verbally because of interference caused by a tracheotomy tube down her throat. Instead, she writes notes to her friends and family on a white board.
"She might have trouble doing some things at first, but there's no major brain damage," Karp said.
