Like many kids his age, Mark Heuser loves playing sports. He takes judo classes and likes to ride his bike, along with his skateboard and four-wheeler.
He plans to play basketball this winter and play soccer and baseball next spring.
But the 9-year-old had to clear a major hurdle before being able to do all those things again.
He lost his right foot and ankle in an accident on his family’s property this past spring. Afterward, he was submitted to a series of surgeries, underwent rehabilitation and was fitted with a prosthetic piece.
Now, nearly six months later, Mark Heuser is standing strong.
“He can do about everything,” said his father, Greg Heuser.
“Except back flips. I can’t do those,” Mark playfully added, later pointing out that he couldn’t do back flips before the accident, either.
To see Mark at present day— running around with ease and not missing a beat in sport and recreation— is astonishing considering what he has endured.
Six months ago
Friday, May 19, began as a pleasant spring day in Northern Kentucky, with temperatures hovering near 70 degrees.
Greg and Mark Heuser took off on a tractor to mow the lawn at the family’s Eagle View Lane home.
The two went to the bottom of a hill at the back of the property and, sometime after, Mark decided to hop off.
The decision came with tragic consequence.
His shirt became stuck on a lever. The machinery dragged him underneath and severed his foot.
His dad pulled him out from the tractor, took a bandana that Mark had been wearing and tied it around the badly injured leg to stem the bleeding.
He then carried Mark up toward the house.
Michele, Mark’s mother, was just returning home when her husband and son came up the hill.
“Greg was screaming, ‘Get the truck ready,’” she said. They then rushed to New Horizons Medical Center.
Soon after, Mark was flown by helicopter to the University of Kentucky Medical Center where he underwent the first of a series of surgeries.
Doctors worked to clean Mark’s wound and keep it from becoming infected.
In a later surgery, Mark’s heel bone was removed and attached to the bottom of his leg bone with a pin.
Mark’s recovery
Six weeks would pass from the time doctors inserted the pin into Mark’s heel bone and when he received his prosthetic foot and ankle on Aug. 21.
“Once they put it on him,” Michele said – “I took off,” Mark interjected.
But, even before then, Mark was determined to keep doing the things he had loved to do before the accident.
Though he missed soccer season, he showed up on the baseball diamond in June and went to bat in a wheelchair.
He also spent much of the summer swimming.
“I think the pool really helped the healing process,” Greg said.
At present day, Mark’s rehabilitation process appears virtually complete.
As he and his parents discuss the accident, Mark, less than six moths removed from a stint in a wheelchair and on crutches, runs around the house.
He grabs a couple of gifts he received while in the hospital and shows them off— a stuffed bear from the UK Children’s Hospital and a blanket given to him by members of the Shriners Club.
In addition to bouncing back strongly, Mark has had a sense of humor about the ordeal.
Once, when Michele wanted to take him shoe shopping, he tried to get out of the trip by pulling off the prosthetic foot and asking her to take it along and size up his new kicks with it.
But, despite the advantage of having a pseudo-foot that could go to the store in his place, Mark’s plot didn’t work. His mom told him he still had to go shopping.
Mark will have yearly appointments where doctors will evaluate his progress and see if he needs a new prosthetic piece as he hits growth spurts.
Until then, Mark will continue playing sports and perhaps work on learning to do back flips.
But, reflecting on the accident, his parents said they couldn’t have been more grateful of the outpouring of humanity from fellow Owen Countians.
Mark got so much candy while at the medical center that members of the hospital staff would come in and get a piece or two from him from time to time, the Heusers said.
“Everybody at school was very supportive,” Michele said.
“We appreciate everybody’s help,” Greg added, “The whole county was great — lots of support, a lot of visitors at the hospital.”

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