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Jun 25

Jim Kenyon: A Fairlee Teen’s Journey Forward – Valley News

Exercise Programs Comments Off on Jim Kenyon: A Fairlee Teen’s Journey Forward – Valley News

A few weeks after a skiing accident in February left her paralyzed from the hips down, 16-year-old Sierra OLeary received a text from a concerned Rivendell Academy friend who asked if shed ever walk again.

I dont know, OLeary responded. Nobody knows.

But this much OLeary does know: Its way too early to give up.

After completing nine weeks of therapy at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, OLeary could have returned home to Fairlee and got on with life as a paraplegic.

But at the urging of her parents, Robert OLeary and Susan Gyorky, Sierra has stayed in Boston and continued to push herself so she might some day walk again. At Spaulding, the family heard about a nonprofit organization called Journey Forward that works with people who have suffered severe spinal cord injuries.

OLeary spends two days a week at Journey Forwards gym in Canton, Mass., going through the paces of an intense exercise program aimed at getting her back on her feet.

Its not inexpensive, however. The sessions cost $100 an hour and are not covered by insurance. Her most recent bill came to $1,600. Her parents put it on a credit card.

Last week, I sat with Robert and Susan on the back deck, which was recently outfitted with a wheelchair ramp. Theyve looked into looked into renovating an upstairs bathroom to make it wheelchair-friendly and installing an elevator to their daughters second-floor bedroom.

But theyre holding off.

Do we fix up the house so Sierra can move back home? Robert said is a question they wrestle with. Or do we spend money on Journey Forward so she might walk back into the house someday?

In my gut, I know shes going to be able to walk again.

Sierra tried downhill skiing for the first time during Rivendells school vacation week in February. Her older brother, Jeremy, an experienced skier, took her to the Dartmouth Skiway in Lyme.

Sierra seemed to get the hang of the sport quickly. By the last run of the day, she was ready to strike out on her own. Ill meet you at the bottom, she told her brother.

But shortly after they got off the chairlift, Sierra took a wrong turn onto a steep slope, where she quickly picked up speed. I hit an icy patch, she told me. Im not entirely sure what happened after that.

Apparently, she lost control and hurtled into the air, landing hard on her lower back. When the ski patrol reached her, she said her legs felt locked up.

Susan, a registered nurse in Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centers cardiac catheterization lab, was at work when her husband called. Robert, whos been a stay-at-home dad and has done odd jobs ranging from substitute teaching to waiting on tables, had just heard from Dartmouth Skiway that his daughter had suffered a back injury. An ambulance was taking her to DHMC.

Hospital tests showed that Sierra had suffered a traumatic spinal cord injury. The good news was that she still had feeling in her legs.

Sierra underwent a 12-hour surgery for a burst fracture of the first lumbar vertebra in her lower back. Afterward, she could still move her legs.

But 36 hours later, she took a sudden turn for the worse. She had lost feeling in her lower body and no longer could move her legs.

After two weeks at DHMC, Sierra was transferred to Spaulding, where doctors speculated that inflammation around the injured area was causing her paralysis. Spinal shock, they called it.

After the inflammation subsides, some patients have been known to regain their mobility, doctors told Sierra and her parents.

But it can take months, sometimes years.

Theres been a slow realization for Sierra that this wasnt something she could quickly bounce back from, her mother said.

Thats where Journey Forward comes in. It gives her something to be fighting for, Susan said.

The exercise regimen is meant to keep Sierra from losing muscle strength and bone density. That would increase her chances of regaining mobility, if the inflammation diminishes.

In one exercise, I pull myself up (on a bar) and someone holds my hips so I dont fall, Sierra told me over the phone last week. Standing up is kind of painful, mostly in my back.

I dont know if its going to work, but I might as well try.

Shes also joined a Boston-area YMCA that offers programs for the disabled and is undergoing outpatient therapy at Spaulding to learn how to navigate life from a wheelchair.

Shes living with her grandmother, who has a condo in a building equipped with an elevator, in Quincy, Mass. Her parents spend a lot of time driving back and forth to Boston, taking her to therapy sessions and bringing her home on weekends.

As news of the familys ordeal spread, offers to help poured in. Along with providing meals, people have volunteered to care for Sierras younger sister, Sofia, and watch the familys Siberian husky, Quincy.

Parish Players, a community theater group in Thetford that Robert has been involved with, donated the proceeds from its Fathers Day matinee. Fred Allard, a nurse who works with Susan at DHMC, organized a Sprint for Sierra fundraising event on Saturday at Rivendell.

A family friend started A GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign on Facebook to help with Sierras expenses, such as Journey Forward, that insurance doesnt cover.

Were lucky, compared to some people, her dad said. We live in a community that cares about us.

Jim Kenyon can be reached at jkenyon@vnews.com.

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Jim Kenyon: A Fairlee Teen's Journey Forward - Valley News

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