Dancing With the Stars Walking Again

Story highlights

• ESPN host Victoria Arlen was fighting for her life at age 11
• Subsequently existence paralyzed for 10 years, she learned to walk and trip the light fantastic toe again

(CNN)On the surface, Victoria Arlen seems to have it all.

The vibrant 23-year-quondam is ane of the youngest Telly hosts at ESPN. She'southward a gold-medal swimmer. And she reached her dream of competing on "Dancing With The Stars" this past fall.

But backside her bright smile is a tragic journey: At 11 years old, Arlen was in a vegetative state, fighting for her life.

"I was the kid that never got ill," she said. "The likelihood of me beingness the 1 to become through all that I went through was not even on anyone'south radar."

It started with severe pain on her correct side. Doctors removed her appendix. Within two weeks of surgery, Arlen lost a significant amount of weight, and the pain didn't go away.

Then, her legs began to requite out, along with her cognitive role and fine motor skills. "How I depict information technology is similar a circuit breaker: Apace, all the switches are being shut off."

Doctors didn't know how to help her. It would have 7 years to become a diagnosis: transverse myelitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, two rare autoimmune disorders that caused swelling in her brain and spinal cord.

Locked in

"I was kind of like a ghost living in this crush of a human being existence," she said. "The lights go out Baronial of 2006 for me, equally far as memory goes. So information technology was January of 2009, when suddenly, I'm aware."

Just Arlen was locked in. She woke upwards within a body that could non motility.

"I'm thinking I'g having a full-on conversation, realizing I tin can't move my optics, and I can't motion my head. And no one's responding to me."

She heard frightening conversations between the doctors and her family.

"The doctors were pretty much like, this was it. I wasn't going to get in. And if I did brand information technology, I'd probably exist a vegetable the rest of my life," she said.

Her parents ready a infirmary room for her in their habitation in New Hampshire. Arlen never gave up hope.

"I was constantly fighting this pull to just surrender," she said. "But I had so much I wanted to live for."

To proceed her mind occupied, she wrote screenplays in her head, practiced her times tables and listened to "Good Morning time America."

"I paid attending considering I was convinced that when I came dorsum, I didn't want to exist left out. ... I was going from xi to 15 relatively overnight."

She was having seizures up to 22 hours a twenty-four hours. Ane of the doctors prescribed her a sleeping pill. It didn't brand her sleep, but information technology calmed her trunk plenty for her to transport a bespeak.

"I had this moment where I realized I could blink, and I had eye contact," she said.

Her mom walked into the room and noticed something was different.

"She's like, 'If yous can hear me, can y'all glimmer? Can yous blink twice?' And I was like this crazy blinker. And she was similar, 'Oh, my gosh! She's in there!' And my family realized I'd been in there the whole fourth dimension."

Fighting her manner back

Arlen began her long, arduous journey to recovery. She started working with voice communication therapists, occupational therapists and physical therapists.

"I went into fight way," she said. "Slowly, I could say a few words and some more than words. And I only kept going from at that place."

Everything started to come back, except for her legs. "I was told that I would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life."

Subsequently missing five years of school, Arlen went dorsum as a freshman in 2010. After all she had been through, she was bullied by her peers for being in a wheelchair.

But that only fueled her passion to make upwardly for all that she had lost.

"I but dove into my studies and worked my butt off to be able to graduate on time," she said.

Going for gold

Arlen also got back in the swimming pool for the first time since she was sick.

"I grew up a swimmer. I didn't call up I could swim without the use of my legs. My triplet brothers ... they grabbed my artillery, grabbed my legs, strapped on a life jacket and jumped in the pool with me."

She learned how to swim again, plant a double-decker and ready her sights on the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

"Ii years later, I was in London," she said. "I won three argent medals. And so winning that gold medal (in the 100-meter freestyle) on the final dark of competition was kind of the first fourth dimension that nosotros all cried happy tears."

Bringing domicile the aureate and sharing her story thrust her into the spotlight.

"I started traveling and speaking and doing appearances then eventually landing at the doors of ESPN and finding a new calling," she said.

At 21 years onetime, she became one of ESPN's youngest regular reporters. Now, she works as a host and a reporter for programs and events like SportsCenter and the 10 Games.

One small step

Despite her successes, Arlen struggled with the thought that she would never walk again -- until 2013, when she discovered a paralysis recovery center chosen Project Walk.

"It was the first identify that people were similar, 'We don't know what you're capable of. But we're going to try.' ... I just went at it four to v hours a solar day with a trainer and just kept pushing," she said.

After thousands of hours of intense therapy, she finally got a flicker, a small movement in her correct leg, and took her starting time step. Past April 2016, she was walking again despite having no feeling in her legs.

"I had spent almost a decade in a wheelchair, and now I was on my feet."

Jump of organized religion

When "Dancing With the Stars" producers cast Arlen in season 25 final fall, it was a dream come true.

Arlen told her mom when she was footling that she wanted to exist on the show one day. But she had some other hurdle to overcome: learning how to dance.

"I cannot feel my legs at all," she said. "Val (Chmerkovskiy, her pro trip the light fantastic partner) and I, nosotros created a organisation. Whether he was borer me or saying key words and just repetition, to the point that I could practice information technology in my slumber."

She made it all the way to the semifinals, living a life she once dreamed of in her hospital bed.

"I learned early on that extraordinary challenges pb to boggling victories. Every time we stepped in the studio, information technology was like we were just standing to redefine what was possible."

Now, Arlen has prepare her sights fifty-fifty higher.

She has a book coming out in August titled "Locked In." She as well only launched Victoria's Victory Foundation to assistance other people overcome obstacles through grants and scholarships.

"I never in a 1000000 years imagined whatsoever of this," she said. "The large thing for me is just continuing to exist a buoy of hope. And showing people that cipher is impossible."

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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/09/health/turning-points-victoria-arlen-espn-paralympian-dwts/index.html

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