Natalie Taylor SURVIVED a hemorrhagic stroke before she was born. Knowing exactly when it happened (24-26 weeks in-utero), however did not provide her family the explanation of what had happened until she was almost 4 years old.
Cathy Taylor was pregnant with her twin daughters in 2001 when an ultrasound revealed an abnormality in Natalie’s brain at about 26 weeks in-utero. Follow-up ultrasounds and an MRI determined that Natalie had suffered an Intra-Ventricular Hemorrhage or IVH (Grade IV IVH). Cathy looked up IVH on the Internet to discover all references involved accidents – most often motorcycles.
Cathy’s imagination ran wild with the grim possibilities. Natalie and her sister, Lydia, were born pre-maturely at 32 weeks. During their stay in the Infant Special Care Unit, a developmental specialist met with Natalie’s parents encouraging them to get her into physical therapy. They didn’t act on this right away because the need just wasn’t clear to them. The parents had no experience or knowledge regarding therapy for infants. It didn't seem possible to start PT on such a small baby - Natalie was about 3lbs when she was brought home!
Everything seemed perfectly normal until around 4 months when Natalie started holding her left hand in a fist most of the time. At the 6-month follow-up appointment with the Developmental Clinic, the Doctors again brought up the subject of physical therapy. Now her parents understood better that it would help her learn all the things her twin sister was starting to figure out on her own like rolling over and sitting up. So, at 8 months, Natalie started weekly physical and occupational therapy. .
Cathy continued to periodically search for children with Natalie’s diagnosis on the Internet. Over time she added Cerebral Palsy to her search because a Doctor caught her off guard by writing that on some documentation. One day when Natalie was almost 4 years old, Cathy saw an article in the Chicago Tribune about a local woman training to run in a marathon in honor of her toddler daughter who had survived a stroke. Cathy remembers reading it and shaking because she felt like she was reading about Natalie! The next day, Cathy contacted a group mentioned in that article (Childhood Stroke and Hemiplegia Connections of Illinois) and found a whole community of Pediatric Stroke survivors - it had a name – Pediatric Stroke. In retrospect, Cathy could remember a doctor during one of many conversations shortly after the original ultrasounds say, “it is as if she had a stroke.” It suddenly made so much sense. How much easier it would have been if, from the start, someone had simply said, “Your baby has had a stroke”.
Natalie has recently turned eight and is a bright, artistic girl who loves to read, swim, sing, and beat you on the Wii - she is very competitive! In fact this competitiveness, willfulness or just plain stubbornness has served her well in her therapy - all you have to do is challenge her to do 10 jumps; she says she'll do 20 and won't stop until she does it! She has recently begun to play with Wii Fit - the balance board is an amazing tool to build awareness of balance and weight shifting. This summer Natalie told her family it was time to remove the training wheels from her bicycle and she was two-wheeling within 10 minutes! This past year she has traded in ballet and tap dancing for singing in a children's chorus. Natlie is a voracious reader - she especially likes mysteries and books about fairies. She is a Brownie scout and has played t-ball or softball for the last 3 summers. And she is this close to letting go of the side and the bottom of the pool and swimming - a goal she has been working toward every week for almost 4 years!
Natalie has a photo album that contains pictures of all of her favorite therapists, teachers and other special people that she has worked with. She is old enough now to explain her stroke to others when she needs to and is proud of her accomplishments.
But none of that measures up to the pride and amazement her family feels when they stop and think about it - seeing her riding that bicycle down the street.
We choose a Stroke Hero each month to honor their everyday heroics - where overcoming adversity is nothing more than a yearning to be a child, a person, an individual. To those of us who are parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, friends and strangers we stand in awe and see them for what they truly are - Heroes. For the "faceless numbers" who hear too often "Children have Strokes? I never heard of that" we will continue to celebrate the individuality of their stories, and commonality of being a SURVIVOR.
Natalie embodies all these traits and serves notice to all that Stroke SURVIVORS are not faceless numbers, but a force not to be lightly reconned with.
It is for these and so many more reasons that Natalie Taylor has been selected the November 2009 Stroke Hero of the Month!
