In the wake of a life-changing illness or injury, some people accept what their doctors tell them and come to terms with their new reality. Other people, however, become determined to prove the doctors and their prognoses wrong.
After a perfectly healthy young woman experienced an incredibly rare and random health emergency, doctors told her there were a number of things that she would never be able to do. Instead of accepting her fate, however, she willed herself to prove the doctors wrong. Recently, she experienced another miracle that doctors told her was impossible.
Impossible to Forget
Most people struggle to remember what they ate for breakfast a few days ago. However, for one young woman from Grand Rapids, Michigan, the events that occurred on a typical morning during May of 2015 will forever be seared in her memory.
May 19, 2015
“It was May 19th of 2015,” Heather Ondersma told WXMI. According to Heather Ondersma, the Tuesday morning started out like any other morning. She woke up and did her normal morning routine. At that point, she felt completely normal and healthy like she always did.
A Strange Sensation
Sadly, that feeling wouldn’t last for much longer. Sometime that morning, Heather’s friend stopped by to say hello. While they were talking, Heather couldn’t help but notice her legs felt somewhat numb. “My legs started to feel weird like it was falling asleep,” she explained.
A Sharp Pain
The sensation was odd, but Heather tried to ignore it. She figured it was nothing and thought it would go away within a few minutes. However, several minutes later, Heather got the feeling that something serious was happening. She didn’t know what exactly was wrong, but there was a sharp pain in her back.
A Dangerous Assumption
“I had a pain in the middle of my back. It went straight through my body, into my diaphragm and I didn’t know what was going on,” Heather said about the bizarre experience. While the pain was intense, she was only 26 years old at the time. At such a young age, she assumed she could just sleep it off.
Red Flags
So Heather lied down and tried to take a quick nap. When she woke up, she was covered in sweat despite not being hot or having a temperature. According to Heather, she got up out of bed to walk her friend out to the car, but she collapsed as soon as she tried to stand.
20 Minutes Later
Within just 20 minutes, Heather was paralyzed and had no control of her legs whatsoever. She immediately called for help and was rushed to the hospital. However, once she arrived at the hospital, doctors couldn’t tell her why she was suddenly paralyzed.
A Spinal Cord Injury
Normally, when someone becomes paralyzed, the spinal cord has either been damaged or completely severed during an accident. As a result, the brain can’t communicate with the spinal cord normally and the person can no longer control their body passed the point of the injury.
An Unusual Case
However, Heather hadn’t been in an accident and there was no obvious damage to the spinal cord. The doctors then examined Heather and performed countless tests. They needed to check if she was suffering from any other disease or trauma that can lead to paralysis.
Losing Hope
Strangely, all the tests came back normal. Doctors couldn’t figure out how a perfectly healthy 26-year-old suddenly became paralyzed without experiencing some kind of trauma or disease. However, when Heather failed to regain any feeling or control in her legs, doctors started losing hope that she would ever recover.
Breaking The News
Heather was still hopeful that it was only a temporary situation. Yet a few days after becoming paralyzed, doctors broke the news that she would never walk again. The 26-year-old couldn’t comprehend what they were saying and refused to accept their prognosis.
Finding A Diagnosis
Over the next few weeks, Heather remained in the hospital as doctors continued to examine her and perform tests. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Heather was paralyzed, the doctors couldn’t give her any answers. Without a diagnosis, there was no treatment plan.
A Spinal Stroke
But finally, after a few weeks in the hospital, doctors finally figured out what had happened to cause Heather’s paralysis. Heather had suffered a stroke in her spine. According to her doctors, the rare condition is particularly hard to diagnose because there are no symptoms or warning signs.
Different Kind of Stroke
Normally, when a stroke happens, the brain is cut off from the body’s blood supply. Without blood, the brain can’t get the oxygen or the important nutrients the brain cells need to stay alive. This can happen when an artery becomes blocked or bursts. That kind of stroke is fairly common and much easier to diagnose because of the warning signs and symptoms. However, with a spinal stroke, the spinal cord gets cut off from the blood supply. Like the brain, the spinal cord needs blood for oxygen and nutrients.
Rare And Misunderstood
When the blood supply is cut off, the spinal cord can become damaged and won’t be able to send nerve impulses to the rest of the body. According to Doctor Daniel Fechtner, Heather’s doctor at Mary Free Bed, spinal strokes are particularly hard to diagnose because they not only have few symptoms, but they aren’t well understood.
A Uncommon Diagnosis
In the United States, Fechtner explained there are only a few thousand cases each year. “That is because there aren’t so many of them. We know a bit less of who’s at risk. When they do happen, it’s typically when they have major surgery, like surgery on the aorta on the circulatory system,” Fechtner told WXMI.
Struck By Lightning
In Heather’s case, she hadn’t undergone any major surgery, which made it harder to figure out what happened. “It can be very frustrating for the physicians and very difficult for the patients because there is no warning and they’re at no particular risk,” Fechtner, a physician of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, said.”It just happens like a bolt of lightning.”
The Prognosis
Doctors had hoped that if they figure out what caused the freak paralysis, they could help her recover. However, the diagnosis only solidified their prognosis that she would never walk again. Yet Heather refused to listen. She became determined to walk and dedicated all her time and strength to her recovery.
An Incomplete Recovery
Miraculously, Heather was able to walk a week before she left the hospital. “Mary Free Bed is a miracle. If it wasn’t for them, I probably wouldn’t be walking today.” While Heather can now walk on her own, she hasn’t made a complete recovery. “I thought I was invincible and this happened,” Heather said. “I limp, I have sporadic muscle tremors I can’t control.”
A True Miracle
For Heather, the most difficult aspect since regaining the ability to walk had been coming to terms with the fact that she could never have children, which was another side effect of the spinal stroke. Recently, however, Heather experienced a second miracle when she became pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby girl. “That’s the biggest miracle coming out of all of this.”
Michigan Woman Experiences Stroke of Luck After Rare Illness Leaves Her Paralyzed is an article from: LifeDaily