Larry King Live

June 29, 2005

Transcript of "Inspiring Stories"

         Featuring Interview with Theresa Sareo by Nancy Grace

 

 

 

HOST NANCY GRACE: Tonight: Stories that will inspire you. Here in the studio with me, Theresa Sareo. She is now a singer and songwriter. Take a look at this CD: "Theresa Sareo: Alive Again."   Hey, guys, you've got to roll some of that footage of her, what would you say, a music video?

THERESA SAREO, SINGER: It's a music video, right.

GRACE: Theresa, tell us your story.

SAREO: Well, I don't remember my accident, but I was delivering a press kit to a booking agent on Fifth Avenue and I was walking back home.  I was on the corner of 34th Street and Park Avenue when an impaired driver of an SUV attempted an illegal U-turn.  He didn't make it and a cab struck him, and he struck me on the corner and pinned me to a fire hydrant pole and severed my right leg at the top of my hip.

GRACE: How long were you in the hospital?

SAREO: About two months, initially.

GRACE: When you went to court during the driver's trial, did you ever look at him?

SAREO: No, I couldn't.

GRACE: Why?

SAREO: At that point in time, I wasn't ready to face him.

GRACE: Tell me about your rehab.

SAREO: Rehab started...

GRACE: We're showing it right now.

SAREO: Yes, that was me just getting on a prosthetic leg. They didn't know if I would be a candidate for a prosthesis because my amputation is very high up; unusually high. I don't have a limb.

GRACE: Did you lose your hip also?

SAREO: The front of my pelvis is gone and I have no hip socket, no femur bone.

GRACE: To attach the prosthetic to.

SAREO: Right, the prosthesis attaches around my waist like a corset.

GRACE: Got you.

SAREO: So, it took about a year-and-a-half to really get used to walking on it.

GRACE: Now your CD, "Alive Again," you started writing songs for it before the crash.

SAREO: Right. .

GRACE: I was looking at the back of it. "Alive Again, Wishing, Again, Amazing, Get Over Yourself, Blue Skies of Tennessee."   Tell me about it.

SAREO: Well, I started writing it before the accident and then, I finished it after .  So, some of the songs are about my emotional experience dealing with this.

GRACE: And you are also Theresa Sareo, I have her pamphlet, "Her Journey of Survival," a motivational speaker.

SAREO: Yes. I was trained by the Amputee coalition of America to be a peer counselor. And with that, I started a volunteer program at Belleview Hospital, which is the largest trauma hospital in the country.  I work with trauma patients who come in with amputations.  I also speak at colleges and corporations and with medical students and staff to heighten their awareness of what disability is and what trauma recovery is.

GRACE: You make me want to just crawl under the desk. I mean it. I'm looking at some of your lyrics. "Sometimes I think I'd give everything to change what has happened to me." "I wish I could walk a million miles or simply walk into your arms."

SAREO: (Nodding) Yes.

GRACE: It's beautiful.

SAREO: Yes. My story was very courageously told by my friend Gregg Williams for "New York Magazine." And you can read about it on my Web site.

GRACE: Theresa, if you could speak out to people tonight that are suffering, that have gone through trauma like you did, what would you tell them?

SAREO: I would tell them to reach out, reach out to your loved ones and to have hope, really. You have to focus on what your sense of purpose is in life and that will take you to places you didn't think you could go.

GRACE: And where did it take you?

SAREO: It's true.  It's taken me -- to the LARRY KING SHOW!,  meeting you, who I'm a big fan of, and most importantly, it's -- I have this chance to spread my message, which is so powerful and helps me to cope with this experience.

GRACE: Theresa, what was the hardest thing you overcame, when you were there in that hospital bed.

SAREO: Well, like I said, I don't remember the accident, so I woke up to it about a week later and I didn't know what life with one leg was going to look like.  I think that was the hardest part.  It wasn't until some amputees came in to visit me -- they were like my life raft.  I started having a more positive feeling about this. And so, that's why I'm doing this now for others.

GRACE: Everybody, again, Theresa Sareo. Her CD: "Alive Again," just the lyrics I'm reading on the back, incredible.

SAREO: Thank you, Nancy.

GRACE: What a pleasure to meet you, friend.

SAREO: You, too.

GRACE: Thank you.

Everybody, I want to thank you for being with us tonight and thanks to Larry for letting me sit in his chair tonight. He'll be back tomorrow night for another edition of LARRY KING LIVE.

And I'll be back on "HEADLINE PRIME," tomorrow night 8:00 Eastern.  Stay here, everyone, as the news continues here on CNN.  Good night, friends.

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