Watch the teenager with paralyzed arms who has become a ballet dancer
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A 17-year-old girl with paralyzed arms, from Atlanta, has become a ballet dancer despite her disability.
Sarah Todd Hammer developed acute flaccid myelitis when she was eight years old that left her with paralyzed arms.
Sarah experienced a severe headache during her ballet class and was rushed to the hospital.
She was left paralyzed from the neck down even before going to the emergency room.
Sarah Todd told Barcroft TV: “They flew me by helicopter to the nearest hospital and I remained in the emergency room for six hours with no treatment.
I was told that if I wasn’t better in the morning to just bring me back, and I woke up the next morning unable to move my legs and feet.”
“I remained in the hospital for two months where I was in the ICU for 12 days.”
Eventually, she regained control of her legs through physical therapy and plasma exchange. However, she is unable to move her arms and hands.
Sarah finds it hard doing daily tasks, including getting dressed and showering.
She said: “I am unable to do buttons and zippers on clothes so getting dressed is almost impossible. Until I was 15 I never really actually got to take a shower by myself.”
Despite her disability, she decided to follow her passion and continued dancing. She also published her first autobiographical book ‘5k, Ballet and a Spinal Cord Injury’ when she was just 11.
She dances, choreographs and is living her life like any other teenager.
She said: “I still have a really good life, I always tell people that I am still a normal teenager just with a few other challenges.
I always just told myself that I would be able to dance again and then when I stood up on my tip-toes in therapy I knew that I’d be able to start doing it again.”
“I still have a disability but I still continue to dance just like I would if I didn’t have a disability, I just do it in my own way. I think in my opinion dancing is what you want it to be.”