Giving thanks
Last Thanksgiving, Carol had much to be grateful for. Her seven-year-old daughter Selena survived a near-fatal stroke.
“She had a 40% chance of survival and should have had major brain damage and she had none of that,” says Selena’s mother.
Without warning, Selena suffered a stroke on October 6th, 2007 at a family Thanksgiving dinner. She arrived at Bloorview Kids Rehab on November 20th and stayed as an inpatient until April 25th, 2008. When she arrived at Bloorview, she couldn’t walk. She received most of the available services including: physiotherapy, occupational and speech therapy.
Adopted from China at nine months of age, Selena’s mom says they were a perfect match. “Selena is a special little kid. She has been given a gift—she has a way of talking where people listen to her. It’s rare that an adult overlooks her, she has a big personality.”
To think that she could not talk for almost a month, but soon after receiving speech therapy she uttered her first words: “Hi, I love you mommy!”
“I couldn’t have made a better child,” Carol says, “I’m happy it was me—she was chosen for me, she was right for me, she’s my child. It was my gift to be given her.”
A testament to her mother’s positive attitude and the excellent treatment she received at Bloorview, today Selena is doing very well. She still goes to physiotherapy five days a week close to home to work on her gate and wears a brace on her right leg. Although she still has some weakness on her right side, she takes piano lessons and hopes to return to dance in the fall. She’s back at her singing classes too and hopes to return to competitive singing one day soon.
Carol talks about the importance of maintaining a positive attitude and knowing from the beginning that her daughter would come through. She even made up a song to encourage her daily.
“That’s what it takes for these kids to get further ahead,” Carol says, “Now Selena can walk, and talk, sing and dance, she can and will do anything at 110%, very soon.”
When asked what she hopes to be when she grows up, Selena says she wants to be a surgeon.
