Victoria Arlen was born on September 26, 1994 to Larry and Jacqueline Arlen. In April 2006 at the age of 11, she began to experience unusual side pains and within two weeks she had become paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors scrambled for answers, but none came. She began to slowly lose the ability to speak, eat and move and was left in a completely semi comatose vegetative state. Her parents and family were told not to expect a recovery and to prepare for the possibility that Victoria would die.
In 2009, a diagnosis came. It was Transverse Myelitis and Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis , two extremely rare neurological conditions. There was little to no chance from the doctors that Victoria would survive let alone ever recover. What doctors did not realize was that Victoria was completely aware of what was going on. She was literally “locked” inside her own body with only the ability to control her mind. Feeling as if she was disconnected from her body. She was determined to live and defy the many odds put against her.
In December 2009, over three and a half years later, Victoria was finally able to give her family and the docots a sign that she was still in there -- she blinked. One blink for ‘yes’, two blinks for ‘no’. And this began Victoria’s impossible journey back. Now able to express herself for the first time in years, her spirits rose. The family was able to get her frequent seizures under control. After twenty shots of Botox in each hand, the severe spasms in her hands subsided and she regained some mobility in her fingers. She was able to point. Eventually raw sounds became words and she learned to speak again and to move her hands and arms. Having consumed no food for nearly five years, she learned to eat again. Inch by inch, she recovered after a virtual four year hiatus from life. Ultimately being taken from the outside world at the age of eleven only to return at nearly a fifteen years old. With the exception of movement in her legs due to the significant damage to her spine, the Victoria of old was back.
Victoria recalls her brothers urging her to get back to swimming, a sport in which she excelled as a child. In June 2010, she returned to the water for the very first time since her illness and so began an extraordinary journey of athletic accomplishment. She began to swim and to swim often, then to compete in abled bodied and Paralympic swim competitions. It wasn’t long before she began to win and little by little her talent and determination drew her closer and closer to world class times.
In the spring of 2012, she qualified to compete in the London Paralympic Games. There, in what was Victoria’s first-ever international swim meet she went from swimming in front of a crowd of twenty to a sold out crowd of twenty thousand. She won a gold medal in the 100m freestyle event in a new world record time, adding to the already impressive haul of three silver medals in the 50, 400 and the 4×100 Freestyle Relay.
She continues to defy the odds and make a difference in the world and the lives of others. She is an Actress, Model and Motivational Speaker. Despite all the obstacles and challenges that have been thrown her way Victoria has learned to tackle every challenge that comes her way with her motto: Face it, Embrace it, Defy it, and Conquer it!
Courtesy: Victoria Arlen
