I suffered a migraine in ballet class – it turned out to be a spinal infection that’s left me paralyzed for life
- Sarah Todd Hammer, from North Carolina, had a spinal cord injury as a child
- She is now partially paralyzed in both arms and legs due to a rare condition
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A North Carolina student was left paralyzed from the neck down after suffering from migraines as a child.
Sarah Todd Hammer, now 22, was eight years old when she started feeling severe pain during dance class.
βI was in ballet class and started having a terrible headache and neck pain, and when I left class my arms and hands stopped working,β Ms. Hammer said in a TikTok video.
About 10 minutes later she could move her legs, but could no longer walk. The next morning she lost movement in her legs. βI was completely paralyzed from the neck down,β she said.
Ms Hammer was diagnosed with acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), usually caused by the body’s overreaction to a virus or infection.
Ms. Hammer has shared TikTok videos about her paralysis and her additional medical issues
Mrs Hammer was just eight years old when she suffered a spinal cord injury due to the rare condition acute flaccid myelitis (AFM). She is now involved in disability advocacy and spreads accessibility awareness on her TikTok account, which has 83,000 followers
It causes devastating inflammation around a part of the spinal cord called the gray matter, causing the muscles and reflexes in the body to become weak.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the condition most often affects young children, who often develop an infection from the enterovirus virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began monitoring the AFM in 2014. To date, there have been 736 confirmed cases in the US.
The CDC estimates that 90 percent of these cases occurred in young children.
Doing ballet didn’t cause Ms. Hammer’s AFM, she said. The timing was coincidental.
She spent two months in hospital, including twelve days in the intensive care unit (ICU).
While in the ICU, Ms. Hammer said People that she underwent plasmapheresis treatment, which replaces the blood’s plasma, an element made of electrolytes and proteins.
This allowed her to walk again.
She also underwent five weeks of clinical rebab. “I did a lot of physical therapy and occupational therapy there, and I was literally pushing my manual wheelchair with my legs,” she told People.
Mrs. Hammer is now partially paralyzed in both arms and hands.
‘I can’t move my left hand at all. I can’t move my shoulders. βI can move my right hand, but it is extremely weak,β she said. “I have very spotty paralysis.”
AFM has left her with several permanent conditions, including scoliosis β a sideways curvature of the spine β and reduced lung capacity. She also has difficulty regulating her body temperature, and her muscles also become tired and tight from overuse.
Ms Hammer is now involved in disability advocacy and spreads accessibility awareness on her TikTok account, which has 83,000 followers.
βIn addition to sharing my story, I have also started educating people about disability topics. I want to spread the message that I have a great life, and not despite my disability. My disability has allowed so many great things to happen for me,β she said.
‘It definitely took me a while to accept my disability because my whole life had changed, but children are just very resilient. I think my age helped a lot with that.’
‘My disability is an integral part of me, and I wouldn’t want to change it because my life wouldn’t be the same anymore.’