CHS student progressing after rare medical emergency

Monday, August 15, started as any other summer day for Alaina Goodwin. The 17-year-old was enjoying the last weeks of summer before returning to Canton High School to start her senior year with her twin sister, Darria. On that day, the family planned to go to the beach and everyone was getting ready when Alaina called out to her mother from her bedroom that she felt terrible pain in her chest and upper back and asked her mother to call the doctor.

Alaina Goodwin (David Uzvalok Photography)

“I got scared,” Elaine Goodwin recalled. The staff at the doctor’s office listened to Elaine describe her daughter’s symptoms and told her to dial 911. Canton EMTs transported Alaina by ambulance to Norwood Hospital, where an emergency room doctor examined her and thought that she had pulled a muscle.

After the doctor left the examination room, Alaina told her mother that she couldn’t move her toes. The doctor told Alaina that her adrenaline was probably high and having an effect on her muscles and that taking ibuprofen might help. Then Alaina realized that she could not move her legs.

“She reached down and pulled up one of her legs with her hands,” Elaine said. “It flopped over.”

This time the doctor did reflex checks on both of Alaina’s legs, getting no response from either one. “I could see the panic in his face,” Elaine said.

Alaina was subsequently brought to Boston Children’s Hospital, where doctors found that she had no movement from her toes up to her stomach. They told Elaine and her husband, Brian, that it looked as though their daughter had had a stroke. Forty-eight hours later, test results confirmed the shocking diagnosis: a stroke at the T4 vertebra in her spine.

“It’s very rare,” Elaine said. “It’s very rare for a healthy 17 year old to have a stroke.”

Doctors told the family that Alaina’s prognosis was a life in a wheelchair and transferred her to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

“The whole game changed once we got here,” Elaine said, speaking from the spinal cord injury floor, where Alaina receives daily treatment. “She is progressing very well.”

Alaina now has a little bit of muscle movement from her hip flexors down to her toes in both legs and feet.

She awakens every morning between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. An aide helps her to get clean and dressed for the day, and then it’s on to occupational therapy, where she works for 90 minutes on arm strength and balance.

In physical therapy sessions, she works on strengthening and stimulating the muscles in her legs. Her therapists use a Lokomat, supporting her shoulders in a harness and holding her knees as she supports herself on parallel bars and walks on a treadmill. She also has acupuncture treatments and massages, and physical therapists stretch her muscles. Alaina took part in adaptive sports by going kayaking on the Charles River with her father and a staff member.

“Life is very different,” she said by telephone from Spaulding. “I miss all my friends. I miss my teachers. I miss my classmates. I miss going outside. I try to stay positive. It could have been much worse.”

She sees victories and success in her progress, even being able to move a toe. “I appreciate the little things more,” she said.

She is also focused on her future and works with a tutor in hopes of graduating on time with the rest of the CHS Class of 2017. “I’m doing great,” she said.

“She is just amazing,” Elaine said. “They work her hard and she works hard. They’re pretty confident that she will hopefully walk again. She’s getting some movement. It’s a slow movement, but it’s there. The people here at Spaulding are incredible, so dedicated and hardworking.”

Elaine is also very grateful to Alaina’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, for his help.

Elaine cut back on her hours at Salon Monique Day Spa and her husband took a leave of absence from his job at the post office after Alaina became ill. They take turns spending half a week at home with Darria and half a week at Spaulding with Alaina so that each of their daughters has a parent with her.

They are appreciative of all the support they have received from people in Canton. Elaine said that two or three times a week, the family receives meals and that CHS Principal Derek Folan has been very accommodating of Alaina’s situation. “Everyone’s been so great,” she said.

Elaine’s sister-in-law Annie Goodwin has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to help with expenses for Alaina’s care and recovery. The fund has a goal of $50,000 and has raised $15,470 to date. To donate to the Alaina Goodwin Support Fund, visit her page at www.gofundme.com.

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Posted by Mary Ann Price on Sep 30 2016. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.