College student with cerebral palsy returns to clinic that transformed her life : NPR
A 21-year-old student with cerebral palsy experienced a full-circle moment when she had the chance to work with researchers at a clinic that helped change her life as a child.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We have a story this morning of one family’s response to cerebral palsy. It is a brain disorder that affects body movements and muscle coordination. If you picked 1,000 kids at random, you know, in a good sized school full of kids, two or three kids would have that. A student and her family were able to do something. Minnesota Public Radio’s Dan Kraker tells his story.
DAN KRAKER, BYLINE: When she was about two months old, Arden Grim says her mother noticed something was wrong.
ARDEN GRIM: My right arm was more tense than the left side. It was still in a fist. My right arm was constantly against my body.
KRAKER: Grim, who is 21 now, suffered a stroke two months before he was born that weakened the right side of his body.
A GRIM: This neurologist told my parents that I might never walk, talk, or function properly in my life.
KRAKER: This is his father, Mark.
MARK GRIM: We looked at each other and decided in that moment that this was not the way we were going to let this play out and that we were going to, you know, do everything in our power to make sure our child had his best life.
KRAKER: They discovered a research clinic that offered intensive therapy to children to improve their motor skills. When Grim was just 2 years old, his family packed up their three young children and drove 1,000 miles from Minnesota to the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Grim had a cast placed on his dominant left arm. Then, 6 hours a day for an entire month, she worked with therapists to improve the functioning of her weaker right side.
BRENDA GRIM: I would call her fierce.
KRAKER: Brenda Grim says they took their daughter there four times before she was 7.
B GRIM: She wasn’t going to give up. And I really think the Alabama team hammered home that point. Like, you don’t stop.
A GRIM: I would not be who I am today, I would not have the functioning I have today if I had not followed this therapy. It has been incredibly life-changing for me.
KRAKER: More than a dozen years later, Grim is studying neuroscience at Smith College and she sees a flyer for an internship program at the same clinic where she received therapy, now housed at Virginia Tech. She applied, and this summer she worked alongside some of the same therapists who treated her when she was little.
MARY REBEKAH TRUCKS: Seeing her come in as an adult to be an intern at the clinic, and not to receive treatment, was really a coming-full-circle moment.
KRAKER: Mary Rebekah Trucks is now associate director at the Neuromotor Research Clinic. While Grim was there doing research, Truck says she did much more.
TRUCKS: She had times where she could interact with kids who, I mean, she could imagine herself there years ago. And being able to tell them, hey, I learned how to do this. I know it’s really hard now, but it’s something you can do.
KRAKER: For example, Grim says she helped the kids learn to zip up their jackets.
A GRIM: So a lot of it is difficult because it’s a two-handed task.
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A GRIM: Being able to assemble the zipper is a very difficult fine motor skill. It was really cool to be able to contribute in that way and make that connection with the kids so they didn’t feel so alone.
KRAKER: Once Grim graduates, she plans to apply to medical school. She wants to become a pediatric neurologist to treat children with illnesses like hers.
A GRIM: There aren’t many people in the medical professions, especially doctors, who are disabled. And I think that perspective is very unique.
KRAKER: And would give families the insight and support she says they deserve.
For NPR News, I’m Dan Kraker in Duluth, Minnesota.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUILTY GHOSTS’ “THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE”)
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