Quadruple amputee Julie Dombo feels ‘very lucky in life’ meeting Taylor Swift

Most people in the greater Wichita area already know Julie Dombo as a determined woman.

She didn’t give up when shot during a robbery at a Derby AT&T store in 2015, nor when she lost her hands and feet as a result, nor when she got breast cancer in 2017.

So when friends invited her to the Chiefs game Sunday, Dombo saw it as her opportunity to meet Taylor Swift as Swift rooted on her new beau, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Dombo is a self-described Swiftie.

“I’m going to get my picture with her,” she declared.

Even she didn’t necessarily quite believe it, though.

“I’m just laughing, thinking there’s no frickin’ way that’s going to happen.”

Dombo had a big assist from Wichitan Teri Monteferrante, who with her husband, Envision president and CEO Michael Monteferrante, invited Dombo and her husband, John.

Once Teri Monteferrante realized Dombo’s interest in seeing Swift, she went on a reconnaissance mission while the others watched the game.

“I was a regular snoop,” Monteferrante said.

Their suite was on the same level as the family of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, which happens to be next to Wichitan Gary Oborny’s suite.

Monteferrante figured Swift might be there with Mahomes’ wife, Brittany, and that she could snap a picture.

The first mission to Oborny’s suite was a bust because Swift wasn’t next door yet. The second time, Monteferrante could see only her back.

Monteferrante returned with a report: “Taylor’s in the sky box.”

On her next trip, as Monteferrante visited with a friend in the suite, she saw out of the corner of her eye that Swift was getting up, so she then stationed herself in the hallway.

Her husband and Dombo came out to see what was up.

Monteferrante explained that Swift was “going to be coming around this corner any minute,’ ” Dombo said.

At this point, she almost whispers as she tells the story, as if she’s still there and attempting to be sneaky.

“I said, ‘I’m going to cut up there behind the security guard and get a picture with her.’ ”

Brittany Mahomes walked out first, Dombo said, “And so I get ready to dart out there, and I have to shoulder my way through three or four people.”

Dombo said if her husband had been standing there, he would have had a grip on her for safety and never let her crowd her way in.

A serious and forceful guard threw up his arm to stop Dombo.

“He saw I was going right for her,” she said. “And I hold my limbs up, and I just look at him, so sad eye, and say, ‘I just want a picture, please.’ ”

Swift had stopped to have her photo with some little girls, and Dombo said she was making a beeline for her box when she saw Dombo and the guard.

“It’s OK,” Swift said.

“She could see immediately that I was a quad amputee,” Dombo said. She said she thinks that’s the reason Swift stopped. She said she thinks the guard let her through since she couldn’t hurt Swift.

“I couldn’t even grab her.”

They did have a nice, brief embrace, and Michael Monteferrante managed to capture a quick photo. A “one-shot deal,” as Dombo said.

“Teri was really the dog with the bone that helped me get that picture,” she said.

“I felt very lucky in life.”

Is it fair to ask, though, that after everything she’s been through maybe the universe owes her a little more? Like maybe dinner with Swift?

“No, I just feel lucky at what I have,” Dombo said.

She just passed the eight-year anniversary of the shooting, and since then she’s traveled, been on Viking cruises and walked her daughter down the aisle.

“Even though I miss my hands and feet, especially my hands . . . I’m just glad to still be here.”

If she’d died after the shooting, Dombo said, “I could have been just a blurb on the news.”

Instead, she’s gotten a lot of attention from other Swifties.

The popular Swifters 2.0 Facebook page shared the photo of Swift and Dombo. Except for a few of the usual haters, a lot of people wanted to know more about Dombo, and most gave props to both women.

As one commenter put it with a heart emoji: “Beautiful ladies.”