Courtney Carnahan

Hall of Fame
PTA 1010

Amy Van Dyken

A spinal cord injury is damage to any part of the spinal cord, the bundle of nerves that
runs from the brain down the vertebral column. Often causing permanent changes in strength,
sensation, and other body functions below the site of injury. To make it a little more
understandable Dr.Salvatore Insinga, a chief of neurosurgery at Southside Hospital Bay Shore,
New York says that it is "trauma to the spinal cord that interrupts the flow of electrical
information from the brain to wherever the nerves are going''. There is no cure for spinal cord
injuries, but treatment does help improve remaining nerve function.
Causes of spinal cord injuries can result from motor vehicle accidents (36.6%), falls
(28.5%), violence (14.3%), sports (9.2%) alcohol/disease and other unknown causes (11.4%).
There is a five percent chance of recovery with those who sustain a spinal cord injury. If
complete paralysis persists at seventy-two hours after injury recovery is essentially zero. If there
sensory function if preserved they have a fifty percent chance of walking. It is estimated that
273,000 people in the United States are living with a spinal cord injury. More males than
females sustain spinal cord injuries, and it is usually between the ages of sixteen to thirty.
Location and severity play a big role on how much limitation of your body you have. If it is a
high-level injury it will affect the arms, hands, trunk, legs, and pelvic organs, whereas if it is a
lower-level injury it will only affect the legs, pelvic organs, and trunk. Using precautions can
help prevent a spinal cord injury, but no one is ever going to anticipate having something
traumatic like this type of injury happen to them.
Symptoms that can be caused by a spinal cord injury include: muscle weakness,

coordination difficulties, stiff muscles, muscle spasms, urinary retention, numbness or pain,
paralysis, abnormal and painful sensation, shortness of breath, and sweating. All of these are
indications that you may have suffered a spinal cord injury.
Amy Van Dyken was born February 15, 1973 in Denver, Colorado. She is a former
American competitive swimmer, an Olympic champion, and holds world records. She has won
six Olympic gold medals in her career, four of them she won in the 1996 Summer Olympics and
two in 2000 Sydney Olympics. Winning these made her the first American women to accomplish
this and she was the most successful athlete at the 1996 Summer Olympics. She sustained a
shoulder injury which pushed her back, and caused her to be unable to train for over a year. She
made a comeback and made the Olympic team in 2000. She won her last two gold medals in the
4x100 medley and the 4x100 freestyle, which totaled her gold medals to six. She has several
world titles and has set many American world records.
On June 6, 2014 she was in a severe ATV accident after going to dinner with her
husband. She went over a six foot embankment on her ATV and was ejected off of it. When her
husband Tom found her she was face down, and not breathing. First responders came and she
was life lighted to the Scottsdale hospital, where the doctors discovered that she had a dislocated
T11 vertebrae, a subluxed T12 vertebrae, a severed spinal cord, and a spinal fluid leak. The
doctor told her because of the severity of her injury that she might not make it out of surgery. He
told her to say goodbye to her husband, and thats what she did. Her surgery was meant to
stabilize her and not restore function. She made it out of surgery with a long recovery ahead of
her.
After her surgery to stabilize her spine, she was transferred to Craig Rehabilitation

Hospital in Denver. They specialize in spinal cord and brain injuries. She was admitted on June
18, 2014, and discharged on August 14, 2014. Amy says changing the way I go about the
worldthat is what I have learned here. Greg Roskopf, an Englewood-based muscle function
specialist worked with Dyken in hopes to have her walk again. Looking at an MRI revealed that
her spinal cord was not completely severed as thought before. There was a partial connection that
meant that there was a chance she would be able to move her legs and even walk again. Roskopf
tried having Dyken visualize a contraction in hopes that it would make her muscles move. She
couldnt see or even feel it but as she performed this exercise her muscles responded. In less than
a year Roskopf has helped her be able to go from no movement from the waist down, to standing
upright and walking with an exoskeleton, as well as riding a recumbent bike. Shes learning to
stand on her own, and has gained back reflexes in her knees and ankles. Doctors told her she
would never be able to walk again, but with the help of Roskopf and the strength and power she
has within herself she has proved them wrong.
Amy Van Dyken is an inspiring women. She has gone through probably one of the
hardest thing anyone could go through. She didnt wake up on June 6, 2014 and think that she
would get into a severe accident and severe her spinal cord. She has shown the world how to be
positive in something that was so life altering for her. She could have chosen to be down about it
and live life miserably, but instead she is looking at this as a blessing. She is grateful for the
opportunity to be alive and choses to live her life to the fullest. In one video I watched she says
who are you to tell me what I can and cant do. She listened to these doctors tell her over and
over what she couldnt do. She proved them wrong and showed them what she can do.