Tasha Schuh

Tasha with her parents, Duane and Kathy Schuh. "I remember when everyone was so excited when I could itch my own nose. Now ... I'm driving an hour and a half home to see my family!"

During Tasha Schuh's junior year in high school, she was in the school's production of The Wizard of Oz. One night at rehearsal, while working on a scene change, she backed up and fell through an open trap door. She fell 10 feet to a cement floor, breaking her neck.

After the fall, Tasha couldn't move anything but her right arm. "I remember pulling my arm back — and I thought if I were paralyzed, nothing would move. I thought that I was ok." But Tasha, who was rushed to a local hospital, soon discovered that she was paralyzed. The local hospital quickly airlifted her to Mayo Clinic.

Tasha's family was told she was not likely to live. In addition to a severe neck injury, a blood clot had traveled from her leg into her lungs (pulmonary embolism) and she developed septic shock.

"A Miracle I'm Alive"

"It's totally a miracle that I'm alive," says Tasha. "I can't say enough about the doctors at Mayo Clinic. I think that's a huge reason why I'm alive today. One doctor stayed with me for 15 hours in Intensive Care. I felt like they weren't just doing their job, but they really cared."

As Tasha's body began to heal, she was given the option of staying at Mayo Clinic for rehabilitation or going elsewhere. She and her family decided to remain at Mayo Clinic, where she would have access to other specialists. "I'm glad I stayed. I had so many complications. I was sick quite a bit."

In the Spinal Cord Rehabilitation Unit, Tasha spent the next five months stretching and strengthening her body, and learning how to adapt to life in a wheelchair. "They taught me how to function again," she said. "How to eat, to put on make up. I had wonderful, wonderful therapists. They not only helped me with the physical problems, but also with the emotional side.

"One of my physical therapists had 30 years experience working with spinal cord injury patients. He knew so much, and could answer my questions. It was important to me because no one else in my life knew how to handle these things."

Tasha also spent time in a support group and visited with a psychologist. A social worker helped Tasha and her family find caregivers and in applying for assistance from Medicaid.

Transitioning to a New Life

Daily recreational therapy also helped Tasha transition into her new life. She painted pottery, a way to strengthen her arms while expressing her creativity. Later, day trips outside the hospital, such as to the mall and to a movie, gave her the opportunity to practice the skills she had learned in the hospital.

"When you're in the hospital, you're sheltered," says Tasha. "You never have to worry about how to do things. Everyone looks at you like you're normal. Outside, you had to think, 'How am I going to push that door open? How am I going to get into that vehicle?' And it was winter. That was part of being back in the real world — a huge reality check!"

As the time drew near for her to leave the hospital, Tasha and her therapists traveled to her hometown to identify challenges and determine what adjustments would need to be made at home and at school. The biggest change came in a family decision to build a new, handicapped accessible home, where Tasha would not have to rely so much on the assistance of others.

More than anything, says Tasha, Mayo Clinic taught her the importance of advocating for herself. During her last weeks as an inpatient, only "float" nurses — unfamiliar with Tasha's routine — cared for her. This forced Tasha to get used to directing her own care. "You get used to having people do things for you and you don't pay attention. They taught me well, so when I got out, I was ready."

When Tasha left the hospital, she stayed with her mother at the Ronald McDonald house for a month, waiting for the family's new home to be completed. During this time she attended daily therapy sessions at Mayo. Once she moved home, she returned once a week for about a year.

Graduating on Time

Despite her life-changing accident, Tasha still graduated on time with her high school class and went on to graduate from Winona State University (above).

Despite all of the school Tasha had missed, good grades and extra credit accumulated before the accident allowed her to graduate on time with her high school class. Tasha went on to graduate from Winona State University, where she majored in communications and minored in music. She plans to continue her education, majoring in theology. Tasha also spends time speaking publicly about her accident at her high school, on campus and at churches.

Though Tasha has no feeling from the chest down, she has movement in her biceps and her wrists. She lives alone and has a caregiver who stops by a couple times a day to help with some daily tasks. However, Tasha can drive, write, and eat by herself.

Laughing, she recalls, "I remember when everyone was so excited when I could itch my own nose. I was so weak I could only do it twice a day. Now I look at how far I've come. I'm driving an hour and a half home to see my family!"

"Rehabilitation was hard, often exhausting." Tasha recounts. "As soon as you'd get comfortable, things would change. There would be new hard work. But I remember my physical therapist saying that I wouldn't improve if I stayed in the same place forever."

This is a lesson Tasha applies to her own life. "I hope that my story inspires people. It's been a journey. It's so easy to look at what happened as a tragedy." She recalls telling a friend just days before her accident that paralysis would be the worst thing that could ever happen to a person. Today she says, "Attitude is everything. I found out so much about myself and about other people."