We can never fault our children for being playful; it’s part of their nature. As parents, we just need to keep an eye out for them to ensure that they’re being safe. But we learn early on that when it comes to children, it’s next to impossible to keep them from harm.
This is something 36-year-old mother Kylee Hoelscher now knows, after her daughter was left permanently disabled after doing gymnastic bridges in the living room of their California home.
When five-year-old Eden collapsed, she described her hips and legs as though they were sleeping.
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As result of her fall, she has lost her ability to walk.
“The damage, it's her entire spine and it doesn't make any sense at all. It's just a backbend and it's just devastating,” Kylee told ABC News.
“You go from watching your 100 percent independent kid who dressed herself, put her hair in a pony tail to not being able to get out of bed and it's almost impossible to bear.”
Meanwhile, Eden’s doctors were at a loss on how a simple backbend had caused her spine to be injured in such a manner.
"It's just one of those enigmas," Julie Hershberg, Eden's neurological physical therapist, said.
But the little girl isn’t letting her misfortune hinder her from living her life to the fullest. Two months after she was admitted to the ICU, she went back to school. She doesn’t care if she now has to use the wheelchair.
“She is a tough little girl full of fight and determination,” her therapist said. “Kids could be hard to keep on task and focused, but she is probably the hardest working child or adult I've ever worked with.”
Kylee said that her daughter did not changed throughout the entire ordeal. In physical therapy, Eden not once cried or got mad; she would just try as hard as she can.
"She's still her same laughing, giggly, silly self. She wins over the heart of everyone she knows. It's amazing that her spirit has completely gone unchanged. The doctor said that's one of the things that she has going for her.”
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