It was January this year when 6-year-old Sophie Madrid and the rest of her family were on their way back to Midland from Dallas.
The family had been celebrating their dad’s birthday and were driving along I-20 in their gray Chrysler when disaster suddenly struck.
About five miles outside of Eastland, a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the highway, collided head-on with the family car.
Young Sophie would go on to suffer a life-changing injury from the wreck in the form of a complete spinal cord injury.
As a result, Sophie is now paralyzed from the waist down.
For nine months, she has been undergoing physical therapy at the Permian Basin Rehab Center over on 620 N. Alleghaney Avenue.
Sophie, who is now dependant on a wheelchair for mobility, has been working with physical therapist Paula Diffie at the Permian Basin Rehab Center and has been making progress since her first visit in April.
Sophie was chosen as this year’s Permian Basin Rehab Center’s patient representative.
Every year, a different patient is selected to be the face of the Permian Basin Rehab Center and is given the honor of lighting the Community Christmas Tree at Optimist Park in December as well as being featured at the annual Telethon, which will take place in April.
“My department spearheads (the process of choosing a representative) and we work with different therapists in the building,” Director of Development at the Permian Basin Rehab Center Shannon Adams said. “When we pick a patient representative, we want to pick an uplifting story (and) a good story about what we do here and why giving to the center is so important. I had worked with Sophie a little bit in the summer. She’s such a doll and her story is an emotional one. … One day, you have a happy, healthy six year-old that has no disabilities and no issues and then one day, it can turn on a dime and change the landscape of your life forever. … This year because of a life changing accident, she’s now a patient here.”
Earlier this week, Sophie had the honor of lighting the Community Christmas Tree at Optimist Park which took place on Monday.
When she learned about being this year’s representative, she was excited.
“She loved it,” Madrid’s mother Clarissa Madrid-Montoya said. “She was really excited about lighting the tree. I left the decision up to her because at the end of the day, she’s going to be in the spotlight, not us. I talked to her about it and what was going to happen and she was like ‘yes! I want to do it!’ and there was no hesitation.”
Sophie, who is now 7, is currently in the second grade and goes to school at Parkland Elementary in Midland.
Her mother says it was a tough transition for Sophie after the wreck.
“It was hard because she was used to walking her whole life and then she couldn’t feel her legs,” Madrid-Montoya said. “She would freak out. She would wake up in the middle of the night because she couldn’t feel the whole bottom half of her body. It was rough for probably the first month and then after the first month, she calmed down and got it in her head that this was the situation and that she needed to move forward from here. I talked to her and helped her and told her as much as I could, appropriately because she is so young. She got it into her head that this is what’s going to happen.”
Twice a week, for one hour each, she comes over to the Permian Basin Rehab Center where she is taught how to move again.
Working with Diffie, she undergoes a couple of activities to help her upper body.
“Usually what we’ve been working on lately is getting her to move her entire body from one location to another,” Diffie said. “Like working on getting herself out of her chair and into bed or out of her chair to sit on the couch or out of her chair to sit in the car and learn how to completely move herself even though she only has her upper torso and upper extremities to help her. Pretty much anything below her belly button doesn’t work anymore. It doesn’t respond to her brain because it was severed in her injury from her spinal cord.”
Sophie and her family are hopeful that through therapy and time, she’ll regain the function to move as much as she can.
It’s likely that she’ll have to use a wheelchair for a long time.
“It’s pretty confident that she’ll have to utilize a wheelchair for the rest of her life for her primary needs of mobility,” Diffie said.
Her mother knows that anything can happen.
“I don’t feel it but as a mom, I want to believe the best,” Madrid-Montoya said when asked if Sophie will walk again. “I don’t feel like she will be stuck in a wheelchair. But her body is young, she is still young (and) we don’t know how her body is going to heal. As of now, there hasn’t been a definite ‘no, she’s never going to walk again.’”
Diffie says that the progress Madrid has made from her first visit in April to now has been incredible.
“From the first time to now, she has made a lot of progress and is willing to do new things and get to higher surfaces to lower surfaces,” Diffie said. “Our goal is to think of all the things that she would do herself, day-to-day and how we can make her do those things independently. She’s going to have to utilize her wheelchair because she will need it but things like how can she get into a car by herself, she can go into her house and do what she needs to do in the house and kitchen. Hopefully as she becomes a young adult, she can become as independent as possible in her day to day life.”
At her first appointment back in April, Diffie said that Sophie was very timid and afraid to move.
“She didn’t know what she could move or couldn’t move,” Diffie said. “She required a lot of assistance to sit in her wheelchair. She was very fearful and timid because it was all new. She didn’t know what she could do or what she couldn’t. We’ve been working on building her confidence and helping her learn how to move again and realize that she can move and find new ways to move. Safety is still a concern and we make sure she is aware of where her body is because she doesn’t feel it. She has no sensation from the waist down. She has to utilize her eyes and know when she is not in the best position when it doesn’t look right.”
Throughout the whole situation, Sophie’s mother says that her daughter has been very upbeat about it.
“She has a really positive attitude,” Madrid-Montoya said. “She hasn’t gone into any depression. There are days where she does get frustrated and sees her sister running around but she’ll get into a little phase but then realizes that it’s not forever. In her mindset, this is only temporary. She knows that she has to do everything she can right now to get out of this chair. She has a strong mindset. She keeps me up too. I’ll feel down but seeing her progress picks me up too.”
Sophie and other patients will be honored at the Permian Basin Rehab Center’s Telethon which is their big spring fundraiser and will take place April 23 and 24.
The telethon will be broadcast on NewsWest 9 and will take place at Stonegate Odessa.
“It’s an opportunity to thank our donors throughout the year,” Adams said. “There will be stories and interviews with her and her family. We pick four other patients that we spotlight their stories and why it’s important to donate. There will be live entertainment. It’s a fun event.”
For more information on how to donate to the Permian Basin Rehab Center, go to tinyurl.com/36pzyy49.
