Heidi Ernst took up the sport 13 years ago. After 523 dives, disaster struck. But a prosthetic leg – and a sense of humor – has kept her swimming
Shark tattoos adorn each of Heidi Ernst’s calves. You can see them now as she sits at an Iowa clinic, gazing out the window. Around her neck are two silver necklaces: one clasps two dolphins, the other a shark. Her blue eyes twinkle like the ocean. The lines on her face reflect not her 74 years, but the fears she has faced.
“I’m so excited I can hardly talk,” she says to her neighbor, who drove her to this critical medical appointment in mid-September.
