Double amputee Keisha Green sat down with Essence and the Jay Morrison podcast recently to talk about her self-made business Legless Diva, an inclusive support group for amputees who may not already have a safe service space.
She described her accident where she lost both her legs and how she took the accident and created something beautiful out of it.
Green talked about the fateful night she lost her legs in 2013. “We were involved in a very serious accident,” Green said, “A guard rail came through the car and severed both my legs immediately,” Hauntingly, Green told interviewers that she was conscious for most of the accident.
“I was woke when I lost them…they were cut off immediately. I go to turn around to look in the backseat, and [one of my legs] was up on the dashboard.” She described the moment after first responders freed her from the wreckage, “when they lifted me up, I remembered feeling so light. When I woke up [in the hospital], I knew I didn’t have legs.”
She described that after the accident, as a mother of two and the owner of a beauty store, her limited mobility challenged her ability to continue her current business.
“I was adamant about not allowing the amputation to deter me from my goals,” Green explained. “My mindset has never made room for self-imposed limitations, but unfortunately, the world hadn’t caught up.”
The struggle led to her noticing a persistent and systemic problem with many places she had to visit for her business. She took action to make her own accessibility accommodations.
And then finally, she told Essence, “I launched my platform, Legless Divas, because I know there’s a large group of Black women that underwent amputations, and knew no one else like them,” Green said, “When I came from the hospital, I didn’t have a lot of the things that I needed to live my daily life. I didn’t have a shower bench. I didn’t have a bedside chair. I was unable to get through my bathroom doorway because of its construction. There were so many things that should have been done or looked at before returning home, which isn’t uncommon. These women needed advocates.”
So Green became the change that she wished to see. Legless Divas’ website describes services that span health care resources, woman empowerment resources, and business coaches, all for people who suffered amputations.
