Lais Souza Tells How She Is Facing 'The Biggest Test' of Her Life

04/28/2014 - 11h37

After falling while skiing in the U.S. on January 27, Lais Souza, 25, injured her spine and was paralyzed from her neck down.

Now a patient at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, she is off artificial respiration and can move her right arm a little and stood with the help of a special chair last week.

Souza represented Brazil in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics competing in gymnastics and was practicing to compete for the first time in freestyle skiing in the Winter Olympics.

	Bill Paparazzi/Folhapress
	Lais Souza in her room at the Jackson Memorial Hospital

STATEMENT

When I woke up after the surgery and noticed that I was in the intensive care unit, I first thought: "I didn't die. But, just imagine it's not possible that I can't move." I just realized what was happening after some time.

I was always less afraid of an accident while skiing than when I practiced gymnastics. As a gymnast, when you jump, there is the risk of falling on your head or breaking an arm or a foot. It is a constant concern.

Skiing makes you go higher, but I wasn't afraid of falling on my neck. I was afraid of injuring my knee again - but a normal injury.

On the day of the accident, I was feeling well - I didn't feel the usual pain in my knee. It was close to lunch time and we were doing a speed practice on a mountain in Park City, Utah, where I had never skied before.

I was following my coach and Josi Santos, a Brazilian athlete, was further behind. At a certain point, I told her to come down sideways, braking, because we were very fast. After that, I remember nothing.

I only have flashes of memory after the accident: I remember asking my coach for help and a pain I can't explain. I remember getting on the helicopter, lying, and later, in the intensive care unit, awake after the surgery. It was great to realize that I was alive.

I had to take it lightly at the beginning, because I was already feeling very bad. I couldn't breathe without help, eat or speak.

I spent a long time in the intensive care unit with pneumonia. I had a fever of 40 degrees Celsius. That was the worst part, when my life was at risk.

I feel much better today, and the strong pain in my back and neck is much lighter.

I commemorate every little improvement. I feel when my bladder is full and some points of my little and ring fingers of my left hand. I can also feel the lower part of my right index finger.
Also when I do my stationary bike exercises, I can feel a tingling sensation on my foot.

Pain has a new meaning in my body now. As it is rare today, it is good when it happens.

The doctors always work prudently when something new appears, and, as I still have a post-surgery edema in the place of the operation, there is still much to happen. But, for me, every spot that I feel is like a light at the end of the tunnel.

One day I was lying and I left my right arm hanging - I managed to move my forearm sideways a little.

I wasn't scared but it surprised me. I was a little moved because it isn't much, but it is something, isn't it? In terms of movement, it has been my greatest accomplishment so far.

Breathing without artificial respiration was another great improvement. The doctors had told my family that I might never breathe by myself again. When they told it to me, I pretended that I wasn't listening.

I still do exercises to dilate my lungs, and I can't scream yet, for example. I also have some difficulty to sing.

I hope to move my whole body one day. If it depends just on me, that's what will happen. But as there is a lot going on right now - the injury, the surgery-, I have to wait for it all to settle so that I have a final opinion on the accident.

I especially want to move my arms. I can't tidy my hair, eat or scratch my nose. It is very hard for me to ask people to do things for me, because I had always been very independent.
Today, when I want to feel something, like the fabric of a new blouse, I put it against my face or my mouth.

I am living in a new world, but in many ways it is similar to what I experienced when I practiced and trained.

In each physiotherapy exercise I do, I have to fight to move some muscle fiber that is left in my body. And it requires a lot of strength to try, as if I were really in practice.

The fact that I am an athlete surely has helped - like the necessary discipline and the way of thinking. For example, I was already used to making an extra effort to try to go beyond my limits. But this has been the biggest test of my life.

I have two physiotherapy sessions, one of them occupational, in the morning and two in the afternoon. I have enjoyed occupational therapy more because the therapists think about patients' adaptation to daily activities.

I'm also having English classes and learning specific terms so that I can speak correctly to the nurses and therapists.

When I have some free time, I usually watch series or a movie. I have recently watched "Orange is The New Black", but there is only one season. I was sad when it ended. But listening to music is what I really love. I like all kinds of music, but I don't listen to samba and pagode very much.

On Sundays I relax and go out. My mother, my physiotherapist and I take the subway and go to the mall. I haven't been to the beach yet, but it's a plan.

I can't think about my future yet because there is a lot at stake. I know that, in the near future, I want to help people with the same injury.

There are many people who suffer accidents and don't know where to start. I have had a lot of luck. Many good things are happening to me.