The final night of a family vacation at Lake Powell on June 12 turned into a medical nightmare for 14-year-old Grey Clissold. A makeshift slip-and-slide set up near a neighboring houseboat reportedly ended in disaster when another girl came down behind her and landed on Grey’s leg at the bottom, shattering the bone near her knee and setting off a cascade of vascular and soft-tissue complications. Since that night, Grey has faced long hospital stays and a series of operations as doctors fight to save her leg and preserve as much function as possible.
Her father, James Clissold, told KSL NewsRadio that when he first saw Grey in the water in her life jacket, he assumed they were dealing with a straightforward fracture. X-rays in Page, Arizona, showed a break in the upper part of her tibia near the knee, and the family drove back to the Salt Lake City area so she could be seen at Primary Children’s Hospital. A nurse’s early concern about numbness in Grey’s leg led to additional vascular testing that ended up completely changing the treatment plan.
Emergency vascular surgery
According to the family’s GoFundMe, a contrast CT at University of Utah Hospital revealed that the artery behind Grey’s knee had been severed when the broken bone was pushed backward. Surgeons removed a vein from her left leg and used it to bypass the damaged artery in her right leg, a complex operation the family estimates lasted about eight and a half hours. The Clissolds say about 38 hours passed between the accident and the emergency vascular repair, a delay that makes Grey’s long-term outlook more uncertain.
Weeks in hospital and ongoing surgeries
Grey spent more than three weeks at University of Utah Hospital before she was transferred back to Primary Children’s Hospital, and her father told KSL NewsRadio that she has now undergone 11 surgeries tied to the original injury. Surgeons have operated to relieve pressure in the leg and to close large wounds, and the family says Grey was briefly discharged, only to be readmitted after issues with a wound vacuum and bleeding from an incision. Her father said she currently has little to no movement or sensation from her ankle into her foot while clinicians wait to see how much function, if any, may return.
Why timing matters in limb injuries
Fractures around the knee can injure nearby blood vessels and cause dangerous swelling that squeezes circulation; when that happens, minutes and hours start to matter. As outlined by MedlinePlus, delayed diagnosis or treatment of compartment syndrome and vascular injury can result in permanent nerve and muscle damage, and surgeries such as fasciotomies are sometimes required to relieve pressure. The Clissolds say it was a nurse’s vigilance about Grey’s numbness that prompted the vascular evaluation they believe was crucial in saving her leg from immediate loss.
How to help and what’s next
The family has launched a fundraiser to help cover medical care, rehabilitation, and long-term needs; their GoFundMe shows nearly $30,000 raised toward a $100,000 goal. For updates on Grey’s progress and to support the family, visit the GoFundMe page. The Clissolds are urging other parents to insist on vascular checks when an injured limb is numb, unusually swollen, or painful beyond what seems typical for a broken bone.
