Chelsea Perserveres

I watched as my 13-month-old granddaughter, Chelsea, squatted beside a bucket full of toys. Tossing things out one at a time, she flashed me a huge grin that showed off her new front tooth to its best advantage. Finally, she chose a stacking toy from the bunch, sat down on the floor, and the game began.

Clutching a colorful plastic ring in each hand, she reached her right arm out and dropped the first piece onto the pedestal. Then, slowly, deliberately, she inched her left arm forward.

My heart ached as I watched her try unsuccessfully to make her stiff arm and hand cooperate. Finally, she solved the problem by taking the ring in her right hand and depositing it on the center stand. She turned her bright face up to mine, her eyes shining with happiness.

"Good job!" I cheered, clapping enthusiastically. She clasped her hands together and swung them back and forth, cheering with me. Then she removed the rings and started all over. It hurt to watch her struggle, but she persevered and conquered the game each time.

Perseverance is something she needs a lot of. Chelsea has Erb palsy.

Erb palsy results from injury to a baby's brachial plexus nerve network during birth. Babies with these injuries suffer varying degrees of difficulty. Some infants recover spontaneously and never require physical therapy or other treatment. Others are faced with multiple surgeries and reduced, or in some cases, no use of the affected limbs. Unfortunately, Chelsea wasn't one of those lucky enough to experience spontaneous recovery.

For weeks after her birth, the affected arm lay completely still, with no muscle tone at all. Flexing the fingers on her left hand was the only appreciable movement. She wore a tiny sling to keep the injured arm from moving and causing her pain, and she was fitted with a tiny brace to help keep her hand from turning out.

Months later, she began lifting her arm a bit and rotating her wrist. Slowly she gained strength and motion, and began to show hopeful signs of recovery.

Then, a rapid growth spurt caused her to grow several inches in a short period of time, and the nerves and tendons failed to grow at the same rate. Her left arm drew up and bent, and then became stiff and unmovable.

The specialist wasn't encouraging. He mentioned the possibility that Chelsea might never even be able to turn her head from side to side, and warned that the tight muscles could pull so severely that her shoulder would become dislocated. But tough-as-nails Chelsea fought, and was soon turning her head freely toward any interesting sight or sound. She wasn't about to miss a thing!

Over the following months, Chelsea endured uncomfortable braces (and figured ways to escape each one), numerous visits to specialists, and physical therapy sessions that she hated. But she continually surprised everyone with her resilience. Though she couldn't crawl, she figured out how to propel herself along on her tummy by tucking her left arm safely out of the way and pulling with her right. Nothing slowed her down, as she compensated for the injured arm in creative, workable ways.

Now three years old, Chelsea faces years of physical therapy, numerous surgeries, and enough challenges to daunt anybody. But she meets every day with confidence, enthusiasm, and good humor. Sure, her arm might cause her a bit of inconvenience, but she works around it. Not once has she complained, or tried to use it as an excuse. She has too much to do. Now that's perseverance!

Discuss This Article

Have something you'd like to say? Tell us what you think! Read and post comments for this article.

Find a Job

Choose your career:

MedHunters is the world's biggest healthcare job board. Our job directory has 16,585 jobs with 2,365 hospitals and other direct employers.

We want you to find your next job on MedHunters. Need Help? Call us at 1-888-884-8242, email us at info@medhunters.com or sign up now.