Calif. Woman Gets Arm Reattached After It Was ‘Completely Taken Off’ by a Train, Recalls Thinking ‘There’s No Way This Is Real’

A 24-year-old California woman is recovering after undergoing a complex surgery to reattach her arm, which was severed when she was struck by a train earlier this month.

Elieah Boyd, a surf instructor from Ventura, was crossing train tracks near Seaward Avenue around 5:30 p.m. on Monday, July 7, with her 80-pound electric bike when she was hit by an oncoming train.

“I just remembered grabbing my arm and looking down, and it not being there,” Boyd told KTLA. “I just kept telling myself, ‘There’s no way this just happened. There’s no way this is real.’ ”

Boyd said she never heard a train horn before the impact. “It was just there. I had maybe three seconds from the moment I saw the train to when it hit,” she said. “My hand was still on the bike, and the train barely clipped it—just enough to completely take off my arm.”

A retired firefighter who happened to be walking with her witnessed the horrifying moment and immediately alerted first responders to locate her severed limb. Ventura police confirmed her arm was recovered nearby. She was stabilized at the scene and then airlifted to UC Irvine Medical Center.

There, Boyd underwent a 10-hour surgery to reattach her arm, followed by three additional procedures to restore function and circulation. “I’m starting to feel little jolts of energy,” she said. “It feels like something is coming back. I can feel that it’s healing inside.”

Despite the trauma, Boyd has remained optimistic. “Even though this is going to be a hard process — and it is — I’m doing my best to stay positive through it all.”

Her biggest motivation? Getting back on a surfboard. “As soon as I can touch the water, I want to be surfing again,” she said. “That’s my saving grace. It’s all I dream about here in the hospital — just being in the ocean.”

A GoFundMe campaign has raised nearly $49,000 of its $65,000 goal to help cover her growing medical expenses. Boyd continues her recovery in the hospital as she works toward her dream of returning to the waves.