When doctors told Kelly Thomas she probably would never walk again, she was crushed.
The young lady from Lecanto in Citrus County had always been very active. She rode horses in rodeos, fished and worked on the family’s farm.
That all changed in the summer of 2014.
A car crash left her paralyzed and in a wheelchair.
But miracles do happen.
Thomas is now a part of a study at the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center at the University of Louisville.
She is one of only a few patients who are now able to walk on their own. But, it hasn’t been easy, and it hasn’t taken place overnight.
“Being able to shut one side of my brain off to connect with one leg and turn the other side of my brain on to connect with the other leg it took a long time,” said Thomas. “It took months to figure out how to put everything in one little basket.”
Researchers explain the results are achieved by using electrical nerve stimulators in the spinal cord.
Dr. Susan Harkema is the associate scientific director at the center.
“What this means is that the spinal circuitry has the capacity to relearn how to walk,” said Harkema. “In certain conditions.”
What that means, is the procedure is not as successful with every study participant. But officials at the center believe it gives others with spinal cord injuries hope.
Thomas remembers the first time she took steps on her own after the accident that took away her ability to walk.
“One day we were walking and they were helping me as usual and then they stopped helping me and I took maybe three or four steps in sequence and I just stopped and my lips started quivering and my face got hot and I was like, ‘oh my God, that just happened.'”