'Everyone is amazed': Decatur Township woman goes from paralyzed to walking
Posted 11:42 PM, November 27, 2019, by Mike Sullivan
DECATUR TOWNSHIP, Ind. — In July, FOX59 told you about a young Decatur Township woman who became paralyzed following an accident on a school trip. Despite doctors' impossible odds, she's on her feet again.
"They said she had a 0% chance of walking," said Paige Docherty's mother Kim, "She had a feeding tube in her nose. She had pneumonia."
Paige Docherty was born with microcephaly, which impairs her cognitive ability. In May, she fell off a bouncy castle slide on a school trip. Doctors told her family her vertebrae were severely damaged, and that she was partially paralyzed.
"I didn't see what happened, and I got hurt on my head and my neck," Paige said.
"It basically went like this, and then over here," said Kim motioning with her hands as though they were Paige's vertebrae, "Kinked her spinal cord."
Even after two surgeries, doctors believed she would never walk again. Paige began wiggling a toe and soon started rehabbing.
"Just like a little movement of a toe, and we would video it," Kim said, "They work with her trying to feed herself with different instruments."
Eventually, Paige came home, and that's when her mother says the recovery process began speeding up quickly. She can now walk with some assistance around her house and use her arms to brace herself on a walker.
The family believes she may not need her wheelchair in the near future. Her story became an inspiration for her community. The Docherty's have seen a flood of donations and fundraisers since the accident. Contractors donated time and supplies to modify their home to fit her needs.
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