Triple-Amputee Shares Story Of Drug Use

When Bob Mortimer was 21, he was a passenger in a car that crashed into a power pole and skidded down an embankment.

Mortimer was on drugs. So was his brother, who was driving. Neither was hurt. When they got out of the car after the accident near Aberdeen, Wash., they laughed and joked about the good story they could tell that Monday.

Mortimer then climbed up the hill. His left arm hit a downed power line, and he fell to his knees as 12,000 volts of electricity shot through his arm and down his legs, blowing out his kneecaps.

“I crumbled and collapsed and fell over,” Mortimer told about 900 students Wednesday at an assembly at Central Valley High School. “I fell across the rest of the lines, and they continued to burn me. I don’t remember that Saturday night. But I remember that Sunday morning.”

Mortimer, now 40, lost his arm and both legs. He spread his anti-drug message last week around Valley schools, including Central Valley and East Valley high schools, and Bowdish, Evergreen and Horizon junior high schools.

At Central Valley, Mortimer sat in his wheelchair in the school auditorium and told his story. His left arm was amputated above the elbow the day after his accident.

“From my fingertips to my elbow, it was crisp, blackened and curled up,” Mortimer said. “I never wanted to see that again.”

Two weeks later, Mortimer’s right leg was amputated. He fought for a year to save his left leg but ended up losing it as well.

For the next four years, Mortimer still used any and all drugs. Before he quit, he was spending $1,000 a week on his habit.

Then he quit. On Wednesday, he challenged students at Central Valley to quit drugs and alcohol for 30 days.

“Leave it for 30 days,” Mortimer said. “Thirty days is all I’m asking. Of course, that means starting right now - February 8 to March 8.”

As Mortimer talked, students listened quietly. Many rested their chins in their hands and their elbows on their knees.

In the beginning of his speech, Mortimer used humor to put the students at ease. He told jokes, played the harmonica and donned a blue cap that said “Handy.”

“I know what you’re going to say when you go home today,” he told the students. “`There was a man at school today with a handicap, and he was really funny.’

“The only handicap I have - in fact the only handicap anyone has in this room - is the one they’ve put on themselves,” said Mortimer, pointing to the Handy-cap on his head.

Mortimer was also a big fan of amputee jokes.

“Bob is not my real name,” he said. “It’s just the nickname they gave me over at the swimming pool.”

Mortimer travels around the country with Steve Jamison Ministries, which held motivational services last week at Valley Assembly of God Church. Mortimer’s speech is non-religious.

Mortimer, who lives in Gig Harbor, Wash., will speak in Washington, D.C., next week.

After his speech Wednesday, several students came up to shake Mortimer’s hand.

“Hey, thanks for coming,” one student told him.