This time last year, Rayna DuBose was a freshman center who had shown much promise just a few months into her first basketball season at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She played in 13 games and scored in double figures four times for the Hokies.

In early April, just over a week after the Hokies completed the season, DuBose became ill and was airlifted to the University of Virginia Medical Center. She had contracted meningococcal meningitis, a bacterial infection that leads to inflammation in the tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.

It looked bad, recalled Virginia Tech head coach Bonnie Henrickson.

"I just remember being told they're airlifting her to Charlottesville and, 'We don't think she's going to make it,' " Henrickson said.

DuBose was in a coma for three weeks, and nearly all of her vital organs shut down or malfunctioned. She had a heart attack and her lungs collapsed. Her liver and kidneys were in failure. Then she woke up.

She turned to her parents, recognized them and asked, "What about my finals?"

In May, amputations of all four limbs were required because of sue damage caused by the infection. She had amputations at four inches below each elbow and six inches past each knee, requiring four prosthetics.

In spite of the amputations, DuBose is determined to walk, run and play basketball again. Doctors won't tell her she can't because she's already surprised them, first by living at all and then by regaining kidney and liver function. Her doctors have attributed her amazing recovery to her excellent physical condition when she became ill.

"My spirits are high," DuBose said in a news conference when she returned to Virginia Tech for a visit at homecoming in October.

"I really don't think my goals have changed. Everything is still the same about me. I want to come back to school and graduate and play basketball, hopefully."

DuBose returned to Virginia Tech to find that Henrickson and Associate Athletics Director Sharon McCloskey had started a fund to help with DuBose's medical expenses, which are expected to reach the millions as she continues rehabilitation.

After administrators checked NCAA rules and IRS regulations, the fund was approved by the Virginia Tech Monogram Club, the school's organization for former athletes.

For more information about the fund and how to make a contribution, see the Monogram Club's Web site at www.hokiesports.com/monogram.

And look for DuBose on the Hokies' bench, where Henrickson said she'll always be welcome .