Inside Pediatrics Winter 2018

INDEPENDENT STREAK

With the opening of Children’s at Lakeshore, Children’s of Alabama and the Lakeshore Foundation further solidify a partnership with a common goal of encouraging independence and healthy competition among disabled youth.

E rica Wilson was unable to attend the grand opening ceremony for Children’s at Lakeshore this past September, but her absence from the festivities captures the mission of the new partnership between Children’s of Alabama and the Lakeshore Foundation. Wilson, 20, is a college junior studying kinesiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she earned a scholarship to play point guard and shooting guard for the Fighting Illini women’s wheelchair basketball team. She lives independently in an apartment that is about 600 miles away from her hometown of Childersburg, Alabama. She drives her own car. She lives a life she couldn’t have imagined eight years ago. On February 23, 2010, Wilson was a 12-year-old in love with dance. She had spent the last eight years honing her tap,

jazz and ballet skills, and she was set to take up pointe ballet. She was playing basketball in her middle school physical education class when she felt an intense pain in her lower right calf. “It felt like somebody was squeezing my muscles from the inside out,” Wilson said. The pain spread from Wilson’s right calf to her left leg and up to her waist. When she arrived at the door of Children’s Emergency Department, she couldn’t get out of the car. She couldn’t feel her legs. Wilson was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder caused by inflammation of the spinal cord. She has since regained some sensation and movement in her legs. The news stunned Wilson and her family, but thanks to the quick diagnosis by pediatric neurologist Jayne Ness, M.D., Wilson received immediate treatment.

After evaluation by the physicians in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Division of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine, Wilson started intensive inpatient rehabilitation physical and occupational therapy. She spent six weeks in inpatient therapy adjusting to her new normal, learning how to use a wheelchair and modifying daily life activities. She admits she wasn’t always the most pleasant patient. “I was 12, hormonal and upset. I’m sure I was a handful.” Wilson said. “But my experience at Children’s was the best it could have been. They helped me realize that because this quote-unquote bad thing happened to me, my life wasn’t over. There are ways to adapt.” During her time at Children’s, Wilson’s occupational therapist mentioned the Lakeshore Foundation, a Birmingham-

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