A jockey who was told she would never walk again after a horror jumping accident left her paralyzed from the waist down has miraculously returned to riding a horse.
Maija Vance, now 33, had been a jockey for seven years when the horse she was riding suddenly slipped and fell on top of her, crushing her under its weight.
Maija, from New Zealand, spent 10 days in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, after suffering a T8 spinal cord injury that left her unable to move her body below the waist.
Doctors told her she would probably need a wheelchair for the rest of her life, but in her first month of rehabilitation, Maija surprisingly started moving the big toe on her left foot.
And with each passing week, she is able to move another centimeter of her feet and legs and, after six grueling years of physiotherapy, Maija can now walk completely unassisted, even though she is still numb from the waist down.
In what has been almost a miracle, he has even been able to resume jumping and in recent years has won trophies for it, while the horse he fell on also continues to compete.
Content creator and former jockey Maija, from Cambridge, New Zealand, said: “The doctors told me I would never walk again – now I can walk unassisted, pretty much all day.”
‘I’ve also started competing again: I could ride a horse before I could walk.
Maija Vance, now 33, had been a jockey for seven years when the horse she was riding suddenly slipped and fell on top of her.
Maija, from New Zealand, spent 10 days in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, after suffering a T8 spinal cord injury that left her unable to move her body below the waist.
She was then sent to the ICU for 10 days to recover, and Maija now remembers some of the “worst pain she had ever experienced.” In the photo: Maija in the hospital in 2018.
‘I have pieces of equipment that help me, like magnetic stirrups to attach to my shoes and keep my feet in.
“It feels amazing when I’m competing and winning – we don’t have show jumping in New Zealand so I’m competing with able-bodied people.”
On September 16, 2018, Maija participated in a show jumping competition, based in Rotorua, New Zealand.
He was racing another jockey’s horse, Zedsational, in his fourth race of the day.
But the white thoroughbred took off too soon and one of his legs fell behind the jump.
He slipped and fell, dragging Maija beneath him, breaking his fall.
“They knocked me out immediately,” he said.
‘An ambulance follows the riders along the course, so in eight seconds it was with me.
In six years, Maija has managed to expand her work in the unit and can now move without assistance.
“I remember waking up to a bunch of people looking at me.”
The ambulance took Maija to a nearby hospital, where doctors had to drain the blood from her “drowned” lungs.
Two days later she was flown to Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, and underwent a procedure to place two rods and 14 screws into eight broken vertebrae in her spine.
She was then sent to the ICU for 10 days to recover, and Maija now remembers some of the “worst pain she had ever experienced.”
“My lungs kept draining blood the entire time I was there,” Maija explained.
‘I needed the drainage tube, a catheter, a feeding tube, a breathing tube, needles in my arm; It looked like in the movies.
“I had to lie on my broken back and then they turned me over to lie on my side, where my tubes were.
“It was the worst pain I had ever experienced.”
In what has been almost a miracle, he has even been able to resume jumping and in recent years has won trophies for it, while the horse he fell on also continues to compete.
Numb from the waist down, doctors told Maija she would probably never walk again.
She was then sent to a spinal rehabilitation unit for three months and has been in physical therapy ever since.
Maija says that at first she was in denial and was completely convinced that she had the ability to move and move her feet.
And he added: “It is very difficult when someone tells you that you have no movement.”
‘I kept telling them, “I’m moving my feet right now!”
‘They took the blanket off my feet, looked at them and said, “No, you’re not.”
“But in my head I was convinced.”
However, during her first month in the spinal unit, Maija regained movement in her left big toe.
From then on, each week he was able to move another centimeter of his left foot and leg, then his right foot and leg.
Maija with her childhood horse Panda
Soon, he was able to take a few steps with a walker.
“Everyone in the room gasped when I did the first toe move,” he said.
‘At the end of my three months, I was already taking steps with a walker.
“Not functional steps, I couldn’t exactly get up at night to go to the bathroom, but steps nonetheless.”
In six years, Maija has managed to expand her work in the unit and can now move without assistance.
He has trouble with balance and gets dizzy, but he can walk around the paddock and practice on a treadmill most days.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says that 80 percent of patients with incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) can learn to walk again, but mostly non-functionally.
Maija is one of the few who can walk without help.
The former jockey returns to competing in show jumping and, as a hobby, rides her childhood horse, Panda.
“My legs get more tired than a normal person’s, but I’m not complaining,” he said.
“I can’t feel much yet, but I’ve looked into it and I think I got lucky.”
“I think I have damaged the sensitive part of the spinal cord, but not the motor part.”
Maija also says she wants to address the concerns of Zedsational, who was unharmed in the accident.
“Everyone thought Zedsational was dead, but he was completely fine,” he added.
“There are no broken bones; he was unharmed.”