INDIANAPOLIS -- Alex Brooks-Trimble had made the trip many times before. But this month, something went terribly wrong as she drove her boyfriend home along a Tipton County road.

The 19-year-old lost control of the vehicle, and it flipped over several times before coming to a stop. She was ejected from the car and landed several feet from the wreckage in a field.

"I don't remember coming to the hospital. I don't remember about the first week and a half of being in the hospital," she said.

It wasn't until the Tipton woman was out of intensive care that she learned her left arm had been severed in the crash and that Indianapolis doctors had reattached it.

The shock of learning

"Not being able to move it freaked me out," she said.

Dr. Tom Kaplan with the St. Vincent Orthopedic Center was on call that night. He got the call shortly before 11 p.m.

"It wasn't attached. They had it wrapped up with some gauze and packed it in a bucket of ice," Kaplan said.

Two hours later, he took Brooks-Trimble to surgery, where he spent eight hours reconnecting her arm.

"We got her here quick enough that we were able to fix the bone and reattach the two pieces. Then we got to her arteries right away," Kaplan said.

That was more than two weeks ago.

"I'm dealing with it, but it really sucks just to have this thing," Brooks-Trimble, a Ball State University history major, told 6News Staying Healthy Reporter Stacia Matthews.

Blood is now circulating in the arm, but she is unable to feel any sensation or move the arm on her own.

On Tuesday, Kaplan removed dozens of staples and sutures to allow the nerves in Brook-Trimble's arm to heal.

When asked about her prognosis, Kaplan replied: "Fair. Unfortunately, nerve recovery is our limiting piece here."

Kaplan said nerve regeneration will be the slowest part of the recovery. Nerves regenerate 1 inch a month. It could take two years for new nerve endings to reach Brook-Trimble's fingertips.

"It's what I'm hoping for and I will do everything I'm supposed to make sure that can happen," she said.

If the nerves don't fully regenerate, Brooks-Trimble said she still will be grateful.

"I didn't know you could reattach an arm, and I'm so glad I still have it. Even if I never get feeling back in it, I'd rather have this than nothing at all," she said.