From A Wheelchair To Dancing: The Incredible Story Of Victoria Arlen
Aug 01, 2019 by apost team
As an 11-year-old, Victoria Arlen was just like any other kid however that quickly changed when she contracted two rare auto-immune disorders. Slowly she began to lose control of her body and fell into a vegetative state. However, Victoria was still there the whole time, trapped inside her own body.
Victoria sat down to tell her story to Modern Hero, the young girl at first woke up with extreme pain on the right side of her body. Shortly after she began to lose the ability to walk, talk or function. From there, the eleven-year-old sank into a vegetative state throughout three and a half years. Victoria could hear and see everything but couldn't communicate.
"I literally was a prisoner and wherever my eyes were I could see but I couldn't control them," Victoria said.
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Victoria also suffered from countless seizures throughout her condition. She remembers a doctor walking in the room and telling her mom to accept the fact that her daughter is going to die and if she doesn't she will be a vegetable for the rest of her life. Miraculously, things finally started to look up when Victoria was given a sedative that made her seizures stop.
"She just turned and she smiled and we just latched and I knew she was in there," Victoria's mom said to Modern Hero.
From there, Victoria was able to slowly regain functioning and learned how to eat, talk, and move. After a year Victoria regained control of her upper body but was still paralyzed from the waist down. But that didn't stop her from playing sports, public speaking and graduating from High school. Victoria went on to compete in the Paralympics for swimming where she won a gold medal.
After eight years of being in a wheelchair, Victoria still had a personal goal that she always wanted to achieve. To be able to walk again. With the help of an organization called Project Walk, Victoria trained seven days a week sometimes six hours a day to pursue her chance at walking. After two years of trying to activate her central nervous system, Victoria's body finally responded, her right leg had a flicker.
"When you see that spark you've got to fan the flame," Victoria said.
She was able to train her leg muscles to move despite still being paralyzed from the waist down. After training and working hard Victoria was finally able to walk on her own and say goodbye to her wheelchair.
"At the end of the day she's more than just one miracle she's like six miracles," Victoria's mother said.
As if this story couldn't get any better, the hardworking twenty-year-old was offered a position as an on-air reporter for ESPN. She travels all over the world to be a correspondent at games and tournaments. Victoria had only said goodbye to her wheelchair for a year and a half when she was given the opportunity to perform on "Dancing With The Stars," a childhood dream of hers.
Through all of her achievements, Victoria told her parents thank-you for not giving up on her and for believing in her when it seemed no one else did.
"At the end of the day she's more than just one miracle she's like six miracles," Victoria's mother said.
You won’t believe this story until you hear it for yourself:
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