After several months of recovery since her accident, English teacher Sharron Mittelstet is now undergoing physical therapy and will resume teaching in August.

On Friday, March 18, Mittelstet was walking down an aisle in her classroom when she tripped over the strap of a student’s backpack, causing an accident that injured her left shoulder and broke a part of her left femur.

She was quickly admitted to the emergency room at El Camino Hospital and successfully endured surgery where two three-inch wood screws were inserted into her left leg. According to her husband, Mittelstet was released from the hospital by Saturday afternoon, but “her left shoulder is more complicated,” he said.

X-rays revealed that there were fractures in four small bones at the conjunction of her humerus and shoulder. At first, an orthopedic surgeon recovered the “big chip” back into her humerus through a procedure that prevented movement in the left arm.

Since Mittelstet couldn’t hold a book properly for a long period of time, she had depended on media heavily for entertainment. “Hands down, the biggest challenge has been keeping still—that and sleeping at night,” she said in an email interview with The Winged Post. “Thank goodness for NPR and cable TV!”

However, these early surgeries did not fully heal Mittelstet’s shoulder, and she later had to endure a second operation, this time to insert two screws into where her humerus had been broken. After the second procedure was completed, movement of the inserted pins forced her to remain immobile for three weeks, followed by a period of four weeks when she depended on a wheelchair.

During these past months, Mittelstet has been in close contact with her department colleagues; including Marc Hufnagl, Dr. Pauline Paskali, Jason Berry, and her long-term substitute, Tia Barth.

“My department colleagues have figured very prominently in supporting me, but for a couple of weeks, there was a steady stream of flowers, home-cooked meals, cards, calls, and emails from the ever-generous Harker community,” she said. “I have particularly loved the little notes and flowers that have come from my students.”
Mittelstet now uses a cane mainly for balance and looks forward to her return the following academic year. During her time away, however, she has missed interacting with her students the most.

“I miss my kids,” Mittelstet said. “Whoa, do I miss my students. It’s kind of like withdrawal without my students.”