Heath Miller remembers hearing the strange-sounding siren as he lay in the back of the French ambulance with his dad holding his hand.
Heath Miller, a senior at Omaha Westside High School, broke his back while on a trip to France in April and now is recovering at home.
He also remembers wondering: Will I ever walk again?
Heath, a senior at Westside High School, had just fallen 2½ stories from a wall surrounding a medieval French village.
What had started as a long-awaited trip to France became an ordeal for Heath and his parents, Gary and June Miller, who had accompanied him on the journey.
"It was a nightmare," his mother said.
Heath Miller's X-ray following surgery in France shows the four pins and two rods inserted to repair his broken back.
Language barriers created confusion for the Millers as they tried to sort out the best treatment for Heath's broken back. Doctors in Omaha, including a neighbor who is an orthopedic surgeon, examined X-rays sent by e-mail and consulted the family by phone.
The trip, planned for more than a year, started out perfectly.
More than two dozen Westside students, several teachers and four parents left Omaha on April 11 for the trip, which District 66 said was not sponsored by the high school. They traveled to Nice in southern France.
Two days later, the group boarded a bus for the 30-minute ride to Saint Paul de Vence. A stone fortress wall more than 25 feet high surrounds the village.
Heath said he and several classmates went up a tower next to the wall to see the Alps and the Mediterranean Sea.
From the tower, he and his friends noticed a walkway 3 to 4 feet below the top of the wall. Centuries ago, soldiers stood on the walkway as they defended the village.
Heath, an active teen who loves playing basketball and baseball, said he and two other students decided they would try to get on the walkway.
Standing on the tower's platform, the students were on the same level as the walkway. But an iron barrier with spikes on top blocked the entry to the walkway. A sign in French warned,
"Passage dangereux."Heath said he and his friends decided they would climb from the tower to the top of the wall, then climb down to the walkway on the other side of the gate.
The 18-year-old said it was "one of the dumbest things I've ever done."
Two students made the climb and dropped onto the walkway, Heath said.
Heath made it on top of the wall, but when he was climbing down onto the walkway, his foot got caught. He tumbled head first toward the cobblestone street 25 feet below.
On his way down, he caught part of the walkway with his fingertips and swung his body so that he hit the ground feet first.
His friends heard a thud. His parents were about three blocks away when a Westside teacher, his face ashen, ran up to them to deliver the news.
His mother's legs buckled when she saw her son lying motionless on his back, his face pale.
Paramedics took Heath to a small hospital nearby. Doctors knew he needed a specialist, so within an hour he was transferred to a hospital in Nice.
Nurses there didn't speak English. They began lifting Heath from a stretcher, unaware of his back injuries, June Miller said.
Heath's parents told them to stop, but the nurses kept trying to move him. His mother started shouting and making a breaking motion with her hands to signify her son's broken back.
Finally, a medical intern who spoke English arrived to translate.
A surgeon at the hospital gave two options for fixing Heath's back: a full body cast that he would wear for three months, or surgery involving inserting pins and a rod in his back.
The Millers contacted a neighbor, Dr. Steven Hagan, an orthopedic surgeon. He contacted a colleague,
Dr. Jonathan Fuller, a spine specialist. Both examined the e-mailed X-rays and agreed that surgery was the best option, Gary Miller said.
Hagan said the impact from the fall split a vertebra in Heath's spine. Heath was fortunate. A crushed vertebra could have led to nerve damage, Hagan said.
Heath, who also broke his right foot, spent 12 days in the Nice hospital. Even though the surgery was in France, the family's insurance will provide coverage, Gary Miller said.
Heath returned to Omaha a week ago with his parents. He wears a back brace, and for three months he cannot bend his back while it heals. He probably won't return to class this spring.
But he can walk and is expected to make a full recovery. He plans to start college at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln next fall.
After the surgery, his parents returned to the village to seek closure.
His mother walked near the wall and said a prayer: "Thank you, Lord, for sparing him."
