A teenage basketball player, who suffered a rare spinal cord stroke while stretching before a game, has made a miraculous recovery from the condition, despite doctors initially stating she might never walk again.
Four weeks ago, Harriet Caldwell was performing her stretching routine focusing on the lower back when she heard a pop, which made her go numb from the waist down.
“She was just doing her stretches and so forth, stretching her lower back and she felt a pop,” her father, Tim Cadwell, recounted to ABC.net.au. “She was screaming, just in shock, and she couldn’t get up off the ground.”
The teen was then rushed to Bendigo Hospital in Victoria, and then to the Royal Children’s Hospital, where she spent a week filled with challenging and invasive medical procedures.
“I had it in my head that we’d be back home the next morning … hoping that everything would be OK,” Tim said. “There were MRIs, lumbar punctures … it was a full-on week and pretty uncomfortable for a 13-year-old kid.”
What is a spinal cord stroke, and who is at risk?
Spinal cord stroke, also known as spinal cord ischemia, is a relatively rare condition, at the event of which the blood supply to the spinal cord is disrupted, which renders it dysfunctional.
The risk factors for this condition include age, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, heart disease, and a family history of heart disease.
Spinal cord stroke is extremely rare in children, with cases primarily attributed to congenital conditions affecting blood vessels or clotting disorders, as well as spinal cord injuries, according to Healthline.
Harriet’s father said her case was also one of the rarest ones, which took even the doctors by surprise.
“Seasoned doctors and specialists said they knew of only about three cases over the past 20 years,” Caldwell said.
He said doctors were trying to take some cues from cases abroad.
“They’re trying to gather information from America and…
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