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Paralysed girl with rare spinal injuries defies the odds

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PHOTO: CATERS/WWW.MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA
PHOTO: CATERS/WWW.MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA

This young girl whose parents were told that she was “paralysed from the skull down” is defying doctors’ diagnosis and getting out of her wheelchair to do physical activities.

Seattle Lenox, from British Columbia in Canada, lost her ability to walk after suffering Transverse Myelitis (TM) – an inflammation of both sides of one section of the spinal cord – after she picked up a cold at 15 months.

Specialists didn’t think Seattle (now 9) would survive the attack, which rarely occurs in young children, and believed the best-case scenario was paralysis from the skull down.

Miraculously, and thanks to years of therapy, she’s been able to get up from her wheelchair and now forces herself to try activities alongside her siblings.

“The doctors still stare in amazement every time they see her. They can’t believe it,” her mom, Lindsay, says.

“She sees her brother, sister and friends doing things and she’ll want to do it so badly that she’ll just push herself. She’s willing to try anything.”

The young girl can now swim, run, dance and rock-climb just like her able-bodied friends and family contemporaries.

Despite suffering from crippling fatigue and low muscle function, Seattle often pushes herself to a point where her legs collapse.

“She’s just so determined. That’s how she has been able to do all of this.

“Sometimes she even pushes herself so much that she’ll suddenly fall down.

“She’s the best swimmer in the family. We go swimming every day in the summer and she just swims for hours and hours.

“Running really gives her momentum. She usually doesn’t even have to stop,” her mom says.

Lindsay says her daughter also stays positive when undergoing medical treatments and often smiles during procedures.

“I’ll look at her when she’s going through an intense procedure and she’ll be smiling.

“Even though she needed to recover, she wanted to be back in school,” she says.

Lindsay has shared her daughter’s positive attitude online to inspire other TM patients around the world.

“I’ve had other families write to me and tell me that they’re thankful that our story is out there and that it inspires them,” she says.

 “We have Transverse Myelitis friends all over the world.”

Sources: Magazine Features

Pictures: CATERS/WWW.MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA

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