Victoria Allen was born healthy as part of a triplet, and as a little girl she liked to dance and show her talent in sports.
But at the age of 11, Victoria began to feel flu symptoms. She fainted several times and contracted pneumonia.
Two weeks later, she was paralyzed from the waist down. Her body went out piece by piece. A severe brain and spinal infection destroyed her life.
Her family could only watch from the sidelines while Victoria lost the ability to walk, eat and move.
But her amazing story had just begun. What happened four years later shocked her family and the entire world of medicine.
Victoria has been “imprisoned” in her body for nearly four years.
The doctors explained to her family that she was in a vegetative state. Only feeding through the cannula left her alive.
Her parents were aware that the chances of her recovery were not high.
“We lost her”, her mother Jacqueline said.
But what no one knew was that Victoria could hear everyone talking near her.
Two years after going into a coma, she “woke up” mentally again, but still could not move her body. She could hear conversations around her and wanted to make contact and interact, but her body did not respond to commands.
In a situation that seemed to have been taken from a nightmare, Victoria had no way of telling people what was happening with her.
Diagnosis of doctors
By this time, doctors had discovered the unusual disease that caused inflammation in Victoria’s brain and spine.
She heard the doctors tell her family that she was in fact suffering from brain death. And that she would remain a vegetable all her life.
“But my parents believed in me, they built a hospital room in our house and treated me .. My three brothers – I am part of a triplet and we have a big brother – talked to me and informed me about what is happening outside my room, and they gave me the strength to fight and become stronger. They didn’t know that I can hear them, but I could”, Victoria said.
In 2010, Victoria got out of the vegetative state.
It all began in December 2009, when she managed to make eye contact with her mother. From there she slowly began to return to life. She managed to move a finger, and in time to move the whole hand. In the end she managed to say words, and the words became sentences.
She began to eat liquid food on her own and slowly moved to solid food. Then she managed to hold a cell phone, and even learned how to do ‘poke’ to someone on Facebook.
But despite the tremendous improvement, there was still something she could not do: move her legs.
Victoria was told that the swelling in the brain and spine caused permanent damage. She would be paralyzed from the waist down all her life.
Every expert told her the same thing: “You have to get used to living in a wheelchair”.
Became a victim of bullying because of the wheelchair
But Victoria has a willpower that very few have. She continued her battle against all odds.
When doctors told her she could never walk again, she refused to accept it. Her destiny was not to live in a wheelchair.
When she returned to school in her wheelchair, she became a victim of bullying.
She expected to return to school, but after the first day she didn’t want to come back again.
Victoria returned home completely broken, on the verge of tears. That day, her parents promised they would do anything to return the confidence to their daughter.
They kept the promise, and didn’t lose hope.
And hope was all Victoria had.
One quote characterizes her struggle at the same time: “Optimism is the fate that leads to achievement, nothing can be done without hope and self-confidence”.
In the end, the turning point appeared in Victoria’s life.
Growing up near a lake and learning to swim at an early age, Victoria was no stranger to water. She joined the swimming team and took part in competitions as early as the age of 10.
As she recovered from her illness, Victoria did not think she could swim again. She thought it was impossible without using her legs.
But her brothers thought otherwise. In 2010, they threw her into the family’s pool. She was afraid at first, but that was the push she needed.
She said she got the “jump” back to life. While she was swimming, Victoria was free from the wheelchair, and to her surprise she remained a strong swimmer.
Moreover, the water gave her not only freedom, but also self-confidence.
In the summer of 2012, at the age of 17, Victoria was part of the US team at the Paralympic Games. She won 3 silver medals, and one gold medal in the 100 meters freestyle. It also set a world record in swimming for 100 meters free.