Palm Beach Health Network/Amber Roth
Amber Roth is learning to live again after a devastatingcar accidentshattered her face weeks after graduating college.
“The right side of my face was completely deflated,” Roth, now 26, tells PEOPLE.
But thanks to a Florida surgeon whorebuilt her faceusing bones from her shoulder blade, Roth is rebuilding her life. And she wants to encourage others not to give up during hard times.
“If something bad happens, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel,” Roth says. “I want to serve as an inspiration for people who have been through similar accidents, or who have been through a hardship. There’s still many years ahead. You shouldn’t give up.”
Her positive attitude has been a few years in the making.
Amber Roth before her 2021 accident.Palm Beach Health Network/Amber Roth
In 2021, three weeks after graduating from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Roth was meeting family for a weekend getaway in Helen, Georgia. They planned to visit vineyards and go tubing on the Chattahoochee River. On June 26, while waiting for other family members to join her from Orlando, Roth decided to drive to a waterfall.
She was at a stop sign about to merge onto the highway when two vehicles in front of her collided. A truck’s tailgate crashed through the windshield of her car. It shattered her cheekbone, deflated her lungs and caused a traumatic brain injury and hearing loss.
Surgeons rebuilt her face using what remained of her bones, as well as titanium plates and screws.
After spending two months in a brain trauma unit in Atlanta, Roth moved in with her mother in Jupiter, Fla. She worked odd jobs to pay her bills. Then, something was wrong with her scar. “One day, I woke up, and I saw puss coming from my scar,” she says.
“After we removed all of the bone that was crushed up, there was nothing left,” the doctor says. “It was essentially gone. She had zero structure left in her cheek. So you just had this pushed-in look, this cave where your cheekbone is supposed to be.”
Amber Roth’s shoulder was used to help reconstruct her face in 2023.Palm Beach Health Network/Amber Roth
Because of extensive scarring, Roth needed new skin. But since it would be on her face, the surgeon didn’t want to use skin from Roth’s arm or the back of her leg — it wouldn’t look right. “She’s so young and I felt that she just deserved to look as close to what she used to see in the mirror before the accident.”
Now, more than a month after surgery, Amber feels good. She’s regaining her energy and her confidence. When she looks in the mirror, she sees herself again.
“I’ve had several family members come visit me and they look at me and they say, ‘Oh my gosh, Amber’s back,'” she says. “It’s a wonderful feeling.”
In the meantime, she is driving again. While she has spent the past two years having extensive surgeries, she aged out of her mother’s health insurance. AGoFundMehas been established to help with expenses.
source: people.com
