Self-advocating in health care: Amputee and adoptive mom to speak at Sheboygan's Uptown Social

SHEBOYGAN — Two years after Chris Prange-Morgan adopted her son, she was rock climbing to try to relieve the stress of worrying about caring for him through his special needs and abandonment trauma when she fell 30 feet, breaking multiple bones in her body.

In her overwhelmed state, Prange-Morgan had forgotten to clip into her safety gear, a mistake that resulted in amputating the lower portion of her right leg in the coming years.

Now, the Sheboygan native is coming to Uptown Social to speak about her book “Broken, Brave and Bittersweet: Forging Fiercely Through Disability, Parenthood, and Other Misadventures.” She will be speaking at 1 p.m. Nov. 29 about parenting adopted children with special needs and advocating for yourself in health care.

“One of the things I write about in my book is how I realized through the loss of my limb and the idea of like phantom limb pain — where you think (it’s) there but it's really not — that kind of was like what it had felt like for my children,” Prange-Morgan said. “They've been taken from their families of origin.”

In 2007 and 2009, Prange-Morgan and her husband adopted their daughter and son from China. Both children had cleft lip and palette, but her son also struggled with severe trauma and abandonment issues.

When he was only a toddler, he almost died in his orphanage, and from across the globe, Prange-Morgan could see he was malnourished and suffering from neglect and began the fight of advocating for him, she said. When she was able to bring him home and adopt him, it was an uphill battle to work on his attachment to her as his adoptive mother.

He would push Prange-Morgan away, perhaps because she represented a maternal figure who had abandoned him in the past.

“We’re never quite the same after going through some kind of trauma,” Prange-Morgan said. “And we just are always healing.”

After almost three years of trying to find the help he needed to grow and thrive, and learning how to work with a child who didn’t know how to trust or relate to the family, the stress overwhelmed Prange-Morgan, causing her to fall Nov. 30, 2011.

Healing as a family

Prange-Morgan had her son in the gym when she fell, planning on taking him to another appointment later in the day. Instead, she found herself in the hospital with a pelvis fracture, back lumbar fractures, a broken rib and decimated ankle.

What followed was months in and out of the hospital and turning her couch into a hospital bed for her to heal. What she didn’t expect was her son missing her when she was in the hospital and bonding with her in her vulnerable state.

“It's really interesting, in retrospect, to look at how a family can grow through circumstances that you wouldn't have wished for or asked for,” she said. “But here we are. And I'm actually really grateful for some of those challenges and the overcoming that we all kind of had to do.”

After two years, 11 surgeries and coming to terms with her need to be active in the way she loved, Prange-Morgan received a below-the-knee amputation in January 2014. The surgery allowed her to continuing climbing and other activities she wouldn’t have been able to do with her injuries.

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Prange-Morgan’s daughter is now a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying health care, a field she connected with while she helped the nurses take care of Prange-Morgan in the hospital.

Her son, a junior at Wauwatosa East High School, has excelled beyond what Prange-Morgan and her husband ever expected, she said. Through hard work and a supportive community, her son is doing well and loves visual arts like lighting and design work as well as the culinary arts. Prange-Morgan said he may even go into a tech-related field.

Prange-Morgan said she’s learned a lot through the process of growing as a family and understanding the trauma her children have experienced from leaving their homeland and families of origin.

“I've learned a lot, in retrospect, about loss and the concept of loss and grief,” she said. “And (realizing) that sometimes that's always part of us, and my children will always have that missing piece within them.”

Writing 'Broken, Brave and Bittersweet'

Prange-Morgan said she has always used writing as a form of therapy and even wrote books as a kid of made-up people and their stories. Her book, published in May, specifically came from a desire to leave her mark in a physical way, she said.

The book tells Prange-Morgan and her family’s story from her meeting her husband to nearly present day. The story followed the family through the adoptions, healing as a unit and learning how decades-old trauma never truly goes away.

Although originally focused primarily on parenting, Prange-Morgan reworked the book before publishing to include more of her story and how to advocate for yourself through the medical world. She said her children are growing up now, but she is always going to be an amputee who lives with chronic pain, as well as a mom.

On Nov. 29, Prange-Morgan will speak at Uptown Social about self-advocacy in health care.

Jane Brill, Uptown Social engagement coordinator, said it’s cool that Prange-Morgan can come and speak as someone so accomplished from the area and with parents known to the Sheboygan community.

“Her story is so unique and the fact that she's from the area,” she said. “And just that she's known nationwide for her story. So, I think it's great that we've been able to get her and that she's doing this for us.”

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Prange-Morgan said she is also working on potentially finalizing plans to have some groups for parents with special-needs children at WordHaven BookHouse as well as an author’s event.

Through her journey, Prange-Morgan said balance is one of the biggest things she’s learned. She said there needs to be better resources for adoptive families and parents, so people won’t have to suffer injuries like she did because of overwhelming stress.

Now, years after the accident and early stages of growing as a family, Prange-Morgan said she and her husband are able to “marvel at what our kids have proven through their own little resilient spirits.”

Have a story tip or public interest concern? Contact Sam Bailey at sgbailey@gannett.com or 573-256-9937. To stay up to date on her stories and other news, follow her on X (Twitter) @SamarahBailey.

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Amputee and adoptive mom to speak at Uptown Social in Sheboygan