Terps' Perry Overcomes Sister's Injury

After the accident, Jade Perry watched as her sister strained to get around the house on one leg, hopping until she became too weak to move. Then Jade would quietly scoop up Jasmine and carry her wherever she wanted to go. Jasmine had always looked out for Jade the way big sisters do. But at that moment, when they both needed Jade to be strong, she instead felt helpless.

"That's a sad thing right there," said Jade, her gentle Kentucky drawl quivering slightly at the memory. "Just thinking about my sister not being able to walk, her being so weak she couldn't even walk, it hurt me."

Today, Jasmine will be in Durham, N.C., to watch her sister and the top-ranked Maryland women's basketball team take on No. 3 Duke in a rematch of last season's national championship game. When others watch Jade Perry stubbornly muscle Blue Devils out of her way underneath the basket, the words "sensitive" and "emotional" won't jump to mind. But thoughts of Jasmine and the struggle she endured after injuring her legs training with the Army are never far from Jade's mind.

Born just a year apart, Jade, 21, and Jasmine, 22, were each other's best friend and biggest antagonist growing up. They fought over everything, saving their fiercest battles for the basketball court. Their feuds became so heated that their mother eventually refused to allow them to play against each other.

Jasmine "was the real tough one. I was the tattletale, the crybaby," said Jade, a junior forward-center. "I'd always go running in the house, telling on her. I was one of those kind of kids. I was a brat."

The sisters ended up teammates on the Muhlenberg North High School girls' basketball team, leading the Stars to a region title. After high school, Jasmine, a three-sport athlete, went to a junior college for two years before joining the Army. Jade went to Maryland, earning a Division I basketball scholarship.

"I didn't really want to always be in the Army, but both my parents were in the Army," Jasmine said. "It was just something to do. I got tired, burned out on school. School's not really for me."

Following basic training in South Carolina, Jasmine was sent to her first duty station in Colorado. The accident occurred in May 2005, just four months after she enlisted. Told to secure a Humvee door that wouldn't stay closed, Jasmine took a strap, hooked it in the door then wrapped it around her legs. At some point, the strap became wrapped around the axel, and when the vehicle turned, it cleaved her thighs, breaking both her femurs.

No one dared tell Jade about Jasmine's injury until she returned home for a scheduled visit. Her mother informed her what happened, but she didn't realize the extent of the injuries until she visited her sister in the Colorado hospital. Jasmine lay in the bed, barely coherent from the pain medication, wires and tubes sticking out of her. Her legs were a mangled mess.

"I was shocked because she was all drugged up," Jade said. "She asked me what took me so long to get there. I just turned and started crying."

Jasmine would have 10 surgeries over the next three months to repair her legs. During that time, she would lose close to 30 pounds. After Colorado, she went to the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center, then to Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital in Lexington, Ky. When she finally returned home, Jasmine had limited mobility. She relied on Jade to carry her where she wanted to go.

"It was a little embarrassing at first, but she loves me," Jasmine said. "She was just trying to look out for me."

Initially, Jade told none of her teammates about her sister's accident. But keeping her worries and anxiety to herself only made her more miserable, and eventually she confided in Crystal Langhorne.

"I would always go crying to Lang," Jade said. "I just needed someone to talk to. . . . Lang's a tremendous friend. She's always been there for me."

Sensible and calm, Langhorne was exactly the type of friend Jade needed during this trying time.

"Jade is really into her family," Langhorne said. "When [the accident] happened, she was kind of down. I was her roommate that year. I would talk to her about how everything was going to be okay. . . . For her not to quit, not to go back home, her staying here just shows you how strong of a person she is."

After a year of recovery and rehabilitation, Jasmine still had not regained any feeling in the lower part of her left leg. The nerve damage was too great. The doctors in Colorado had recommended amputation, but Jasmine chose to wait. Then in June, frustrated by her lack of mobility, she decided to have the leg amputated below the knee. She was fitted with a prosthesis on a Thursday and was out playing basketball that Saturday.

"She wanted to move on with her life," Jade said. "She just wanted to be able to be active again and run, go back into the military."

It is hard for Jade to understand, particularly given all that Jasmine has been through, why her sister wants to continue her Army career. Jasmine is stationed at Fort Campbell, located on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, and is trying to earn a promotion to sergeant.

"I get angry every time I think about that," Jade said. "She said [the Army] was her niche, and that she really loved it."

Jade and Jasmine talk or instant message nearly every day. Jade got a tattoo of praying hands with the word "Blessed" on her left leg in her sister's honor. She writes reminders about Jasmine on her basketball shoes.

The events of the last two years have had a profound effect on Jade and Jasmine.

"I look at my life differently," Jade said. "I think about my family's life differently now."

She pauses, then says quietly, "It's still hard."