Teen has one foot reattached after ride injury

updated 7:10 p.m. ET July 3, 2007

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Doctors reattached the right foot of a 13-year-old girl involved in a gruesome amusement park accident, but her left foot was too severely damaged to repair, her family and doctor said in a statement Tuesday.

Kaitlyn Lasitter of Louisville remained in stable condition at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., Dr. Douglas Weikert, a surgeon and assistant professor at Vanderbilt, said in the statement.

"Things are progressing as expected over this first 10 days," he said.

Lasitter's feet were severed just above the ankles as she rode the Superman Tower of Power thrill ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom on June 21.

Investigators with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture said they have taken a cable they believe broke and severed Lasitter's feet, Wilbur Frye, executive director of the department's Office of Consumer and Environmental Protection, has said. The investigation will continue for several more weeks, Frye said.

Lasitter's mother, Monique Lasitter, thanked the doctors, nurses and hospital staff for their work.

"We would not want her to be at any other hospital during this difficult time," the statement said.

Similar rides shut down
The state has been trying to determine what caused the cable to break. Investigators were taking written statements from witnesses, reviewing statements and analyzing physical evidence and photographs of the scene, Frye said.

The ride was last inspected April 5 and found to be operating normally, Frye said. The ride passed inspection in each of the last four years, according to records.

The ride lifts passengers 177 feet straight up, then drops them nearly the same distance at speeds reaching 54 miles per hour.

Six Flags had shut down similar rides for safety inspections at parks in St. Louis; Gurnee, Ill.; and near Washington as a safety precaution, said Wendy Goldberg, a spokeswoman for Six Flags.

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