Two Waynesburg University students were well enough to take part in their own graduation ceremonies in May. Their attendance would not be as startling if they had not fallen 40 feet from a highway overpass in Greene County just 10 weeks before.

They two young ladies were severely injured after stopping to help a victim, whose vehicle rolled over in yet another car accident in Pennsylvania. As they observed an overturned SUV on Interstate 79, they stopped to help the 21-year old driver, trapped in the vehicle with his feet sticking out of the windshield. Their Good Samaritan actions were not rewarded.

After the nursing students helped pull the driver from the SUV, they saw a speeding tractor-trailer steaming toward them. The students and the victim had no choice but to leap over the guardrail. While all of the jumpers survived, one of the young ladies became paralyzed, while the other now has two steel rods supporting her spine.

Landing among wild thorn bushes, one young lady remembered everything, while the other blacked out when falling. The paralyzed student is already feeling some sensation in her hips and re-learning to walk with leg braces and a walker. Her goal is to walk down the aisle as an important bridesmaid at your brother's wedding in July.

Her friend, while not paralyzed, walks with steel rods from the base of her shoulders to her hips. She's preparing for another surgery that should shorten these rods. Until her surgery, however, standing on her feet for long periods is difficult and painful.

Although they were able to attend graduation ceremonies and the university president presented them with medallions, recognizing their courage, good works and commitment, both students must finish their course work over the summer. Although the young women have spoken to the rolled-over SUV victim, they have yet to chat with the truck driver, whose actions generated their injurious leap to safety.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Injured nursing students make a comeback," Molly Born, June 7, 2012