A month after a train severed her right arm, surf instructor Elieah Boyd was discharged from the UCI Medical Center in Orange, where her arm was reattached in a 10-hour surgery.
The 24-year-old Ventura resident was pushing her e-bike across railroad tracks on her way to meet her boyfriend when she saw an Amtrak train about 150 yards away. She thought she could make it, she said, but within seconds the train struck her bike, tearing off her arm.
Still standing, she grabbed her right shoulder — and as tightly as she could — afraid of bleeding out.
A retired firefighter, who was out on a walk and had helped her cross the tracks moments earlier, rushed to her side and later directed police to search for her arm.
Her arm packed with ice beside her, Boyd stayed conscious during the 45-minute helicopter flight to UCI Medical Center, watching the city lights down below through the windows.
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