Months after a 13-year-old Rancho Cucamonga girl was left paralyzed from an injury sustained during a dance class, she's defying the odds and walking again.
Morgan Lopez was born to dance, but in May she suffered a severe injury during a dance class. She says that she was doing a headstand, which caused neck pain that quickly escalated into a hospital trip.
"I got a call that she stopped breathing and coded," said Morgan's mother, Jamie. "It was shocking, because honestly I had no idea that it was this bad."
Doctors said that Morgan suffered a spinal stroke, a rare injury that left her on a ventilator and paralyzed from the neck down.
"I was really upset that I couldn't do easy things that people just do without thinking," Morgan said.
After weeks in the hospital, her parents became determined to get their once active daughter moving again.
"To be told that she may never even move again was, I can't even put into words the heartache," Jamie Lopez said.
They enrolled her in intensive pediatric rehabilitation at Totally Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Loma Linda, and after three hours of rehab a day, doctors began to notice small improvements.
"She was barely starting to use her hand, and that was my first inkling that maybe there is some sort of recovery for her," said Dr. Anh Vu Le, a pediatrician at the rehab center.
A few weeks later, Morgan asked doctors if she could try walking, and that's when she took her first steps since May.
"I was so happy, " Morgan said.
"It gives you hope, because all you want for your child is to have the life of a kid," Jamie Lopez said.
Now, with Morgan back home and using a wheelchair to get around, she's keeping busy with LEGO sets and squishies, which she can squeeze on her own. She says she's determined to return to the stage next.
"I want to get back to dancing and just want to be able to do what I used to be able to do," Morgan said.
Her dance team, which visited her every week she was in the hospital, plans to have her on stage for their upcoming performance in January. Next month, Morgan's father is set to participate in the Long Beach Marathon, during which he will push her wheelchair.
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