Paralympian, paralyzed from the hip down since age 13, regains use of legs after bike crash

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Paralympic silver-medalist Monique van der Vorst has been paralyzed from the hip down since she was 13 years old. During a routine surgical procedure on her ankle, Van Der Vorst suffered nerve damage which resulted in her paralysis, and ended her up-and-coming career in tennis and hockey. Keeping her athletic spirit alive, she turned to the sport of handcycling and within a few years was on her way to the 2008 Beijing Paralympics where she won two silver medals. While training for the 2012 London Paralympics, Van Der Vorst was struck by a bicycle and knocked from her chair. During her recovery, she miraculously began to regain feeling in her legs. She took her first steps in July 2010, saying she felt “like a child learning to walk again.” She has now taken up cycling and is training to compete in the next Olympics. Doctors still have no explanation as to how she regained the use of her legs.

http://thechive.com/2011/12/09/paralympian-un-paralyzed-by-crash-10-photos/

[Drale]

1. Thats Awesome!

It sounds like the plot for a TV show as well as being a true story.

[Jim_Shorts]

26. The Other Side of the Mountain, Part Three

Nice to get an uplifting story for a change.

[mod mom]

2. Great news!

[thereismore]

3. In related news, Newt Gingrich calls for the International Committe to strip her of her medals. nt

[gratuitous]

12. No, Newt wouldn't do that

But he would put this once-in-a-lifetime miracle event forward as proof that nobody needs access to health care. "All you paralytics, just get on over to the nearest highway and wait for your own cure!"

[Tsiyu]

14. that made me laugh n/t

[treestar]

16. Right wing will attribute this to God

[Lunacee2012]

17. We shouldn't let the RW have God all to themselves,

because some of us lefties believe in God/Goddess/Godde/Higher Power too. It really bothers me how they try to make God sound just as full of hate as they are. Who Would Jesus Hate, right? :eyes: :-( That being said, there has got to be a scientific explanation for this.

[meow2u3]

30. You don't have to be right wing to believe in God

although the fundies think so.

I'd attribute it to God, but first I have to see if there's a scientific explanation, e.g., the paralysis being caused by a bruised spinal cord that healed somehow. If the doctors are baffled, then I say God had a hand in her miraculous recovery.

[gadjitfreek]

34. I always find it interesting that people (long)

demand proof of scientific claims (which is what science is set up specifically to do), but are perfectly willing to suspend the rules when it comes to responding to their own religion. The old argument from ignorance..."I can't explain how it's done, science can't yet explain how it's done, so God must have done it." The God of the Gaps argument is kind of silly. The first assumption that a God exists is an unprovable foundation to a house of cards. Where was God when she lost the use of her legs to begin with? Where was God when countless thousands of others had the same life-altering experience yet have not regained their mobility? Attributing one seemingly random positive event to divine intervention when countless other similar cases go "unmiracled" seems kind of intellectually incurious to me. "God works in mysterious ways" is lazy reasoning and one heck of a cop-out. I could just as easily say that the magical pink dragon who lives in my septic tank reached out his purple-polka-dotted forelimb and effected a cure and I have exactly as much proof as the God claims.

If the assertion that so many people believe it so it must be true...it's not hard to attract a group of people to believe any wacky claim (otherwise marketing would not be so successful) and like the chunks of matter that coalesced through gravitational attraction to form the Earth, the natural social nature of the human animal would eventually draw a large population toward believing the religion. Doesn't make it true that a lot of people believe it. If it were, the Earth would indeed be flat and the stars would be fixed lights in a firmament above and the sun would revolve around the Earth (but if the Earth is a flat plane, what would it revolve around?) Thousands of years of trying to explain what peoples lacked the technology to explain gave birth to these superstitions and outdated models of cause and effect. That doesn't mean there isn't a God, but the burden of proof is squarely on the shoulders of those who assert the claim that there is one and that He intercedes in mundane affairs. Studies on the efficacy of intercessary prayers have shown that results are indistinguishable from random chance.

That being said, the fact that a shock trauma caused this doesn't surprise me. I hope that doctors can figure out what happened so that it might eventually lead to real rehabilitation for others who have lost the use of their legs. THAT would be a real miracle and entirely of our own making.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

39. +10000 for this...... **And** OP

very very well said. :thumbsup:

[treestar]

41. This is true. But the right wing has the extra add-in that

they don't believe anyone should have state run health care, but let God sort it out. So I could see Newt doing that, too.

[Kurmudgeon]

4. That's very cool!

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. Bizarre, but awesome. I hope for many more accidents such as hers

[Bosonic]

6. I hope she has an even number of accidents in her future.

[raouldukelives]

7. Amazing!

I could only imagine what it must feel like to be able to push the pedals again. A true miracle for her.

[sakabatou]

8. That's awesome

I'd like to know how this happened (medically).

[BoWanZi]

10. Me too!! Very fascinating and hopeful!

[malaise]

9. Fabulous

Wow!!

[Hotler]

11. k&r n/t

[opihimoimoi]

13. we need more stories of Happy endings...much more..thanks for post :o)

[Ikonoklast]

15. There is no such thing as a "routine surgical procedure".

If there was such a thing, no one would ever die, be disfigured, or paralyzed from such a procedure, which happens to some patients every day that a surgeon cuts people open.

"we couldn't have foreseen such an outcome!" the surgeon would say...because every procedure is different, that's why.

[indepat]

18. Bravo. Monique embodies the best of the glorious human spirit

:patriot:

[Fool Count]

19. There are two mutually cancelling impossibilities in this story.

Firstly, it is impossible to cause nerve damage resulting in paralysis "from hip down" while operating on an ankle.
Secondly, it is impossible to fix paralyzing nerve damage by traumatic fall. More likely there was never any
nerve damage and her condition was either psychosomatic or she was faking her paralysis all along. It is likely
that she got into a wheelchair following her ankle operation and then became so emotionally attached to it that
she (consciously or unconsciously) convinced herself of a permanent disability. Becoming an outstanding parathlete
would also reinforced her emotional investment into this condition.

[ananda]

20. Agree.

It was either psychosomatic or she was faking it.

Looking at her legs, I'd say faking... where's the muscle atrophy?

[Fool Count]

22. It wouldn't surprise me in the least.

With paralympic events gaining so much in profile and prestige lately and
with champion parathletes attracting government stipends, prize money and
commercial endorsements on par with able-bodied Olympic champions it may be
too alluring for some healthy individuals to try passing as disabled. To say
nothing of addictive allure and irrational competitiveness of any top-flight
sport which forces even healthy rational people to pollute their bodies with
toxic chemicals to get to the podium.

[tammywammy]

28. It's been 18 months since she started the process of walking again

Her legs could have overcome the muscle atrophy in that time with exercise.

[Cronus Protagonist]

21. good analysis

I'm convinced.

[kestrel91316]

23. So you know for a fact that she did NOT have epidural anesthesia for

her ankle surgery?? Or that she couldn't have suffered a thromboembolic event that affected her spinal cord?

Wow. Are you her surgeon?

[Fool Count]

24. Clearly, I am not her surgeon. I would not be commenting here if I were, obviously.

Who the hell does epidural for ankle surgery? Her miraculous recovery also pretty much
rules out any damage to her spinal cord.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

33. I had a epidural when I had my ankle TOTALLY replaced!

I was awake for the operation.

[tammywammy]

40. Lots of people

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sa=X&ei=IZbjTuaXCfOHsAK9rMWSBg&ved=0CFkQvwUoAQ&q=ankle+surgery,+epidural&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=75f51b895b2d7c87&biw=1366&bih=649

[Occulus]

25. This will go well for one of both of you.

Could you explain to Class of Himself why all this is medically possible?

(I like your takedowns. :D)

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Well if they used an epidural

And there was a clot putting pressure. (How that was not detected in an MRI or cat scan is another story). I could pissibly lead to paralysis. The fall, and time, got rid of it and suddenly feeling came back. This scenario implies a few problems in the medical delivery system. And yes some prefer to do epidurals for relatively simple procedures, and having issues after surgery is a rare side effect.

Of course this is my lay,an understanding on how this coud happen.

[lonestarnot]

29. Probably on Cain's book tour.

[MedicalAdmin]

38. In medicine, like in life, every possible outcome is possible.

To deny that is to deny statistics.

[OverBurn]

31. I'm Sorry But This Story Is A Load of Shit

The story is loaded with to many impossibility's. Someone is not telling the entire truth. On purpose for a "good" story? maybe...... or are they just mental.

[Faygo Kid]

35. - 1

[Jim_Shorts]

32. Time Magazine adds a couple of details

Originally she was just paralyzed in just one leg but 10 years later she was in a car accident that left her completely paralyzed from the waist down and she is not running yet but no one underestimates her.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/12/05/paralympic-cyclist-could-make-her-way-to-the-general-games/

Still a feel good story.

[Enthusiast]

36. Incredible story..............nt

[Capitalocracy]

37. To hell with what the doctors told me

I'm going to cure my concussion-induced amnesia by dropping another bowling ball on my head!