Corvallis, OR : From car crash victim to city councilor on Monday, January 30th 2017

Hyatt Walberg of Corvallis was involved in a horrific crash on Highway 99W.

Walberg, who was on her way to her job managing a Starbuck’s in Salem, had to be cut out of her Mazda MX6. She suffered serious injuries to her left arm, right wrist, left hip and right leg.

The lumber truck she collided with ruptured a fuel tank and burned to the ground. Walberg vividly remembers how good it felt that a stranger held her hand while she waited to be freed.

Lengthy hospitalization, numerous surgeries and physical therapy and rehabilitation prevented Hyatt Lytle — she married later in 2014 — from returning to her Starbuck’s position or finishing her work on a master’s in mental health counseling.

Instead, the wreck ultimately put her on a course that led to her being elected Nov. 8, 2016, as a city councilor in Ward 3 in South Corvallis.

“I always worked full-time and went to school full-time. I was always a go-go person,” Lytle said in an interview at a South Corvallis coffee shop. “The accident slowed me down a bit.”

Lytle had to deal with 15 fractures. She shows the scars on her left elbow and notes that glass shards still work their way to the skin’s surface three years later. She almost lost her leg and spleen.

“It was touch and go,” she said, but she added: “I was going to be me again. I never had a doubt.”

Lytle got a key boost when she received a wheelchair. She literally didn’t go outside until three months after the crash, but “the wheelchair gave me independence. I didn’t have to rely on people lifting me.”

Now, Lytle wears a carbon fiber brace on her right leg and also uses a cane. The combined injuries to her right leg and left hip made walking a challenge.

“I compensated so much that it made me unbalanced,” she said. “I went through lot of physical therapy. I defaulted to putting most of my weight on that side. It was a hard, dark time. I was not sure I would be able to walk again. I struggled with depression.

“Now, I love the brace. This brace is my life.”

The crash also made Lytle rethink her future.

“I had to come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to go back to school or to work full-time,” she said.

Source :
From car crash victim to city councilor