Paralyzed 15-Year-Old Stuns Doctors When She Starts Walking

Fifteen-year-old Lexi Bingham spent all her free time playing every sport from golf to basketball. However, that all changed in an instant while on a snowboarding trip.

Lexi had been out snowboarding with her cousin in Salt Lake City, Utah, when she landed badly and broke her arms, legs, and her neck.”I was just lying there and told my cousin, ‘Take my board off,’ and he was like, ‘It’s already off.’ I was like, ‘Move my legs around.’ He’s doing it, and I was like ‘I can’t feel anything!’” she said.

She was rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered that she had broken several vertebrae in her neck and said she may never walk again and since her injuries were as high up as her neck, it meant she could be a quadriplegic. “I would get so mad sometimes,” Lexi said. “I would just think, ‘Let me die. Just do this.’”

Lexi spent the next three months in the hospital recovering from her traumatic injuries, and each day, a physical therapist would visit and check if she had regained any movement. Most days, the answer was no, but one day, she miraculously moved her toe.

Within a few months, she could stand again. “I stood up for like 30 seconds, and that was like a huge deal. We were all cheering and everything,” Lexi said. Now, Lexi is walking and back to playing golf, and is working on running and getting full mobility to the right side of her body. “I can run – not up to speed, doesn’t look pretty – but I can run,” she said.