Many of us may wonder from time to time what it would be like if we had a very serious illness. Fortunately, we may be able to get through life without having to go through such difficulties but that wasn’t the case for Victoria Arlen. She was part of the set of triplets and as a little girl, she loved playing sports and dancing. That all changed, however, by the time she turned 11.
When Victoria was 11 years old, she started to have symptoms that were similar to the flu. She contracted pneumonia and started fainting. Within two weeks she was paralyzed from the waist down and her body began to shut down, piece by piece. Inflammation of the brain and spinal cord had destroyed her life as she knew it. The family was helpless to do anything as Victoria continued to lose her abilities and eventually, she couldn’t eat, talk or move about freely.
As it turns out, that was only the beginning of her incredible story and within four years, she would be shocking both her family and the physicians.
Victoria was ‘trapped’ inside of her own body for about four years. Doctors said that she was in a vegetative state and she was being fed via a tube so that she could stay alive.
Her parents were told that it was unlikely that she would recover and her mother, Jacqueline, said: “we lost her.”
People had no idea, however, that Victoria was able to hear what they were saying from beside her hospital bed.
She suddenly woke up two years after she slipped into a coma. At that point, she was medically awake but she couldn’t move her body. She could hear the conversations and wanted to chime in but her body would not do so.
You might envision this as being somewhat of a nightmare. Victoria was not able to tell people what was happening to her.
Doctors were able to pinpoint an unusual disease that caused the inflammation in her brain and spinal cord.
She heard the doctors telling her family that she was brain dead. She would continue in a vegetative state for the rest of her life.
“But my parents believed in me. They set up a hospital room in our house in New Hampshire, and took care of me. My three brothers — I’m a triplet and we have an older brother — talked to me and kept me in the know about what was going on outside of my room. They empowered me to fight and get stronger. They didn’t know I could hear them, but I could,” Victoria said.
Victoria was able to fight her way out of the vegetative state in 2010. It actually began in 2009 when she started making eye contact with her mother. She then started her gradual climb out of her health issue. She could move a finger at first and then eventually, waved her hand. After a while, she could form words and then sentences.
At one point, she began eating pudding on her own and then started eating solid foods. She could hold a mobile phone and learned how to poke somebody on Facebook.
Even though she was seeing these improvements, there was one thing that she couldn’t do and that was to move her legs. She was told that the swelling in her brain and spinal cord caused permanent damage. She would have to deal with her paralysis from the waist down from that point forward.
Every specialist told her that she would have to sit in a wheelchair but Victoria has a lot of willpower. She continued her battle against all odds.
Doctors told her that she would never walk but she wouldn’t accept that fate. She wanted to do more than spend her life in a wheelchair.
When she went back to high school in the wheelchair, she ended up being bullied by some of her peers. She had wanted to go back to school but now she never wanted to go back again.
Victoria was crushed when she came home and was almost crying. Her parents decided that they would do anything they could to help their daughter regain her confidence.
They stuck to their promise and they didn’t lose hope. In fact, there was a quote that really showed how she felt during that time: “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
Finally, the turning point came in her life. She could swim from a very young age and she loved being in the water. She joined the swim team and took part in competitions when she was only 10 years old.
Victoria thought that she would never swim again because she couldn’t use her legs. Her brothers had other ideas. They threw her into the family pool in 2010. At first, she was terrified but it was exactly what she needed.
She ended up getting back the ‘jump’ to her life. When she was swimming, she was out of the chair and she continued to be a strong swimmer. The water provided more than freedom of movement, however, it gave her confidence.
When Victoria was 17 in 2012, she became part of the US team for the Paralympic Olympic Games. She ended up landing three silver medals and one gold in the 100 m freestyle. She also set a world record!
After returning home from London, she was known by people around the world. She was speaking on the lecture circuit and being recognized locally.
Television reporters wanted to hear her story and she was able to get in magazines and was an inspiration for many others.
There was still something that bothered her, however, the wheelchair.
Victoria moved to San Francisco so she could participate in the Project Walk program. It helps people who are paralyzed to stand on their own 2 feet.
“My mother and I temporarily relocated to San Diego and lived with family so I could train every day. We realized this was the place that could help me, but we didn’t want to live hundreds of miles away from my brothers and dad. So, keeping their promise, my family decided to open the first Project Walk franchise on the East Coast. This way, I could train every day and achieve my goal, while others in my hometown could regain the hope they needed,” Victoria says.
Even though that was the case, the specialists at the hospital were not sure she could walk. A doctor told her parents that he wouldn’t “mortgage his house on it.” In the end, they did mortgage the house so she could afford to open a project walk in Boston. She took her first steps on November 11, 2015.
The harness was holding her above the treadmill and two people were there to assist with moving her legs. It had been six years since she initially woke up out of her coma and her legs were declared dead by numerous doctors.
Although that was the case, she trained six hours per day to reach the goal.
She started regaining movements slowly and before she knew it, she was walking with crutches.
She got rid of the crutches on March 3, 2016, and began walking independently.
“That’s not to say every day is perfect. Walking is still challenging and I still have significant impairment. I wear leg braces, follow a training program for two-to-three hours per day and on the days when my legs feel more paralyzed, I have my chair or crutches on standby. But my struggle is now less visible,” she explains.
Her coach and close family members are the only ones who know how much damage she had. They also are the only ones who know the efforts he puts forth to make progress.
“But it’s all worth it. It’s been 10 years since I was able to look someone in the eye instead of staring at everyone’s butts all day.”
When Victoria got up out of her wheelchair she wasn’t sure what to think. She also didn’t know how people would react.
“But then I realized this is my journey and nobody else’s and maybe it can give hope to people who need it most.”
Victoria has gone through a lot in the past10 years but she has come out on top. She is a gold medalist in the Paralympic games, project leader for the ESPN sports channel and a woman with a strong will to survive.
She is often considered to be a walking, talking miracle and she has inspired many people. She is still cautious to point out something.
“I didn’t do this on my own, and I am grateful for everyone who has helped me to this point. Each day, I become more comfortable with my new reality. I thought taking those steps on March 3 would be my finish line. But really, they were only the beginning.”
