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Questions remain about park accident

06:21 PM EDT on Thursday, June 28, 2007

Oklahoma agency inspects similar ride
Friends thinking of Kaitlyn
Statements from family and Six Flags
Leave best wishes for Katie Lasitter
Identity of injured girl released
Latest on girl's condition
Slideshow
Officials inspect ride
Raw video: Inspection
Park statement
Girl's feet severed
Witnesses describe accident
Description of ride
Accident affects other local parks
Expanded coverage from ABC

What we do know is that hundreds of you have been asking us about the condition of Kaitlyn Lasitter, the 13-year-old Louisville girl whose feet were severed in the accident.

But you've been asking other questions as well...some of which we just can't answer.

The biggest question most of you are asking: have Kaitlyn Lasitter's feet been reattached? 

The simple answer is we don't know for sure.  Sources familiar with this case tell us one of her feet has been reattached, the other has not. But we can't get that confirmed, mainly because of a federal health privacy law, called HIPPA that prevents Vanderbilt Hospital from releasing health information.

Question two: how long will her recovery take? 

Spokesmen for two Louisville hospitals wouldn't speculate but it's clear Kaitlyn will go through several months of rehab.

And the next question: Why was she transferred to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville?

Vanderbilt has a specialized pediatric orthopedic unit that's capable of reattaching feet.  Here in Louisville, Kutz and Kleinert have done intricate hand surgery, even reattaching arms and fingers, but their web site doesn't mention anything about similar surgery on feet.  And a spokesman for Kosair Children's Hospital says he's unaware of his hospital doing any similar surgery on a child.

Lastly: Why did the ride malfunction?  

We still don't know.  Kentucky Department of Agriculture inspectors and investigators are still looking into that and won't talk about what preliminary information they have.

A Kentucky Department of Agriculture spokesman says ride investigators hope to have an incident report ready Friday, but that still won't tell us the cause of the malfunction. That report could be weeks away.

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