‘I forgot how tall I am’: Windsor amputee walking again less than 10 months after serious car crash

A local amputee has a new prosthetic leg, allowing her to walk 10 months after a serious collision. CTV Windsor’s Michelle Maluske has more.

A Windsor amputee is once again walking, less than 10 months after a serious car crash.

Kim Labonte, 49, lost her right leg in a two-vehicle crash in Chatham-Kent, which she said was caused by an inattentive driver.

Labonte was fitted for a prosthetic leg three weeks ago.

“Everyone’s telling me to slow down but I just can’t,” Labonte told CTV News.

“I didn’t think I’d be strong enough to walk again.”

Labonte’s SUV was struck head-on by another vehicle on Talbot Road on Oct. 13, 2024. The driver of the other vehicle died.

Labonte was airlifted to London, where she was in a medically induced coma with dozens of broken bones and internal bleeding; not to mention a right leg amputated from the knee down.

“I didn’t think there was going to be a future. I didn’t think I’d get this far, this fast.” Labonte said.

Labonte admitted she has a ‘love hate’ relationship with her new right leg.

“I love that I can stand up and walk. Stand up to put my clothes away…” Labonte paused.

“Just stand. And walk.”

It means, however, the phantom pains are back.

“My leg hasn’t had any weight on it for eight, nine months?” Labonte said.

“When I put it on in the morning, even though my toes are silicone, I feel my toes move. It’s weird.”

And it is painful. Walking three blocks in her South Windsor neighbourhood wears her out.

Every day, however, Labonte puts her leg back on, vowing to wear it longer, walk further, and push to get better while keeping a sense of humour about the whole thing.

“When we are out and about, I’m in my chair, I’m at everybody’s butt level. And when I finally get to stand up, it’s like, ‘oh my God, that’s what it looks like up here’,” Labonte laughed.

“I forgot how tall I am.”

Labonte has already taught herself how to drive with her left foot and she got her drivers’ licence back.

All she is waiting on now is for her insurance company to deem her injuries ‘catastrophic’ so her claim can be closed, and a new vehicle purchased.

Even though her injuries were caused from being a driver, Labonte can’t wait to get back behind the wheel.

The first place she plans to drive is back to Talbot Trail, where she was hurt.

She wants to visit the homeowners she said came to her rescue that day.

Labonte asks any of those people to email CTV News at [e-mail] so she can be reconnected with them, to say thank you, while she waits for a new vehicle.

“They are the ones I owe the biggest amount of gratitude to,” Labonte emotionally explained.

“They saved my life.”