After spending years trapped inside her own body, Victoria Arlen fought to regain control of her life.
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Victoria, who was born and raised in Exeter, New Hampshire, was a triplet, the only girl sandwiched in between two strapping brothers. She always held her own around her brothers and was extremely active in sports and dance. But when she was eleven years old, she contracted two rare illnesses that changed her life forever.
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Victoria described her descent into darkness to ESPN:
“My back and side ached, so doctors took out my appendix. Then my legs began giving out. My foot dragged. Within two weeks, I lost all feeling and function in my legs. Next, my hands stopped working. I couldn’t control my arms, couldn’t swallow properly or find the right words when I wanted to speak. It was as if someone was slowly shutting down the switches on the circuit board that controlled my body and brain. I was slowly slipping away from my family.
Then everything went dark.”
Victoria had contracted transverse myelitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a condition that swiftly robbed her of movement before leaving her in a vegetative state. Doctors warned her family that recovery was extremely unlikely. They thought she’d remain in a coma, unable to move or communicate.
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What no one realized was that Victoria was far from brain dead. In fact, she could hear everything that was going on in her hospital room around her, she simply could not make her body respond.
Thankfully, Victoria’s family refused to give up on her.
“My parents believed in me. They set up a hospital room in our house in New Hampshire, and took care of me. My three brothers – I’m a triplet and we have an older brother – talked to me and kept me in the know about what was going on outside of my room. They empowered me to fight and get stronger. They didn’t know I could hear them, but I could,â€
In 2010, Victoria made eye contact with her mother, and that’s when her real recovery began. Almost four years since she’d lapsed into her vegetative state, Victor began making small movements with her body. Soon, she was re-learning how to talk, move, and eat.
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In spite of her progress, doctors warned that she’d never lead a “normal” life. Once again, Victoria and her family refused to accept this dire prognosis. Always an avid swimmer, Victoria’s brothers decided to take matters into their own hands one day.
“In 2010, I found the water again. It was not by choice. I was actually petrified of the water. It took my brothers, that one day came into my hospital room, unhooked my feeding tube, strapped on a life jacket, grabbed my arms, grabbed my legs, and jumped in with me. It was traumatizing.
But I didn’t drown. I jumped in, I jumped over that fear, and it changed my destiny. And with things scary in life, you must either figuratively or literally jump in, get over that barrier of fear, just go after it.”
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In the water, not only did Victoria find the freedom she’d been denied so long, she discovered a new purpose in life. She began spending every waking moment in the water, training for the Paralympic games.
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In 2012, when she was just seventeen, she achieved her goal of qualifying for the games. Still confined to a wheelchair, Victoria went to London, England with her family by her side, and when the games had ended she emerged from the water victorious.
The girl who’d spent four years locked inside her sleeping body took home a gold medal and three silver medals.
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Living by her own personal motto of “face it, embrace it, defy it, and conquer it,” Victoria turned her sights on the next obstacle. She was determined to get out of her wheelchair and walk again.
Victoria and her mother moved to San Diego, California, so that Victoria could participate in the Project Walk program, which helps paralyzed people regain their mobility.
“My mother and I temporarily relocated to San Diego and lived with family so I could train every day. We realized this was the place that could help me, but we didn’t want to live hundreds of miles away from my brothers and dad. So, keeping their promise, my family decided to open the first Project Walk franchise on the East Coast. This way, I could train every day and achieve my goal, while others in my hometown could regain the hope they needed.”
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In 2015, after months of hard work and the kind of dedication only seen in dedicated athletes, Victoria took her first tenuous steps in ten years. Within a few more months, she was walking completely unassisted. She credits her family and trainers for getting her back on her feet, and she couldn’t be more grateful.
“I didn’t do this on my own, and I am grateful for everyone who has helped me to this point. Each day, I become more comfortable with my new reality. I thought taking those steps would be my finish line. But really, they were only the beginning.â€
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As if Victoria’s recovery wasn’t incredible enough, she continues to inspire to this day. She became a sought-after public speaker, traveling the country to tell others her story, encouraging people to never, ever give up hope.
In 2017, Vitoria even competed as a celebrity contestant on the 25th season of “Dancing With The Stars” where she wowed audiences with her energetic dancing skills and winning personality.
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It’s hard to believe that someone who has been through so much, including spending a decade paralyzed from the waist down, could be the same person who’s whirling around on a stage, showing off her killer dancing skills! Victoria and her partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy were a crowd favorite, reaching the semi-finals. At the end of the show, they’d placed in fifth place… but Victoria will always be #1 to us.
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Victoria continues to succeed today, becoming one of the youngest on-air talent ever hired by ESPN!
We can all learn from Victoria’s winding path to success. No matter what life throws at us, we should all remember these words to live by: face it, embrace it, defy it, and conquer it.
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