5-year-old paralysed after gymnastic move

Young girl had been playing in the living room of her California home when she performed a simple “backbend” and then complained with pain.

5-year-old Eden Hoelscher collapsed in pain after doing a backbend (where you push yourself up from the floor) just before Christmas last year. Her mother, Kylee Hoelscher, gathered her in her arms and tried rocking her to calm her down.

However, she was unaware of how serious her injury was.

eden

“Thirty minutes after she started crying, she stopped,” she wrote on the family’s Go Fund Me page.

“Her face changed—it kind of filled with wonder—and she told me, ‘Mum, I feel like my feet are sleeping.’”

“I looked at her body, which seemed to be posed awkwardly on the bed, and told her to move her leg. She stared at it, saying, ‘I can’t, Mum.’”

When Kylee rushed her to hospital, she was told Eden was paralysed.

The “backbend” Eden performed had hyper-extended her spine and caused the artery that feeds her spinal cord to stop pumping blood.

Eden is now in a wheelchair, having lost the ability to sit up on her own.

“Her bowels and bladder do not work. We have to wake up twice a night to move her so she won’t get pressure sores from sleeping in one position too long.”

“She also must remember to do pressure relief exercises every fifteen minutes she is in her wheelchair to protect her skin. She cannot regulate her temperature so we have to watch her for signs of her getting too hot or too cold.”

However, her spirit hasn’t been dampened by the accident.

“Anyone who encounters Eden, including doctors, nurses and therapists always have the same response: ‘If anyone can recover from this, it`s Eden.’”

We wish her all the best.

Share your comments below.

Main image via Gofundme

18 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 12 Aug 2021
    10:14 am
Oh wow….how shocking. What a beautiful little being she is though.

- - hopefullyheidi said
  - 05 Oct 2016
    10:07 pm
My son is wanting to start gymnastics and I’m so very apprehensive about it, as my husband did it as a boy and was very successful, but also had some very bad injuries even with his level of experience.

- - mom134803 said
  - 28 Sep 2016
    11:28 am
How awful ! But what a brave girl you are Eden !
Blessings to this girl & her family, keep fighting and believing !
- Ellen replied
  
  03 Mar 2018 , 4:02 am
  Wonder how Eden is now !?
- - ella12 said
  - 31 Aug 2016
    3:06 pm
All the best to the girl and her family. What an awful thing to have happen xo

- - mom107723 said
  - 19 Apr 2016
    6:14 am
As simple as a back bend changes a little life forever, good luck with the future you brave girl.

- - Threelos said
  - 07 Apr 2016
    5:37 pm
This is terrifying. Even though it was described as a very rare event, it makes me want to wrap my kids in cotton wool and not let them do anything!
Best wishes to the girl and her family.

- - BellaB said
  - 04 Apr 2016
    4:55 pm
There seems to be no end to the freaky ways kds can hurt themselves. Best wishes to her.

- - Jazbright said
  - 03 Apr 2016
    8:16 pm
Gee how awful, all little girls are cart wheeling and hand standing, what a worry!

- - mom101628 said
  - 22 Mar 2016
    12:12 am
How sad is your story. I do hope something can be done in the long term.

- - mom134803 said
  - 18 Mar 2016
    3:19 am
What a story !! Imagine getting paralysed just from some gymnastics ! At least it shows it isn’t something we should practice without professional supervision. Hope & pray Eden will recover totally !

- - rovermum said
  - 17 Mar 2016
    9:43 am
I’ve read this in a few places and it makes me cringe, but also breaks my heart. I see so many young kids performing gymnastics, cartwheels, handstands at home. As someone who was not very good at them, I always cringe and think “what if?” or “be careful, don’t hurt yourself”. I hope Eden has a speedy recovery and her family receives all the support they need.

- - mom71495 said
  - 17 Mar 2016
    12:22 am
I hope Eden recovers quickly.

- - curlytops said
  - 16 Mar 2016
    9:43 pm
i have never heard of this we used to do them all the time as kids. poor girl I really hope she makes a full recovery.

- - june11 said
  - 16 Mar 2016
    9:33 pm
Eden is obviously a very bright determined little lass. It would appear she is paralysed from the waist down. Sadly it is so easy to injure yourself doing what you love most. She has probably matured beyond her age. I hope she isn’t “treated differently” by her young friends(and their parents) and they still visit her as they would have prior to her accident. Life for Eden needs to have some degree of routine she had previously. All the best to Eden and her family.

- - mom90758 said
  - 16 Mar 2016
    4:31 pm
Uh! So sad! I hope she will recover!

- - Carolineb said
  - 16 Mar 2016
    3:05 pm
What a horrible accident. Sounds like she is a very determined little girl. Wish her and her family the best.

- - Sam said
  - 16 Mar 2016
    2:58 pm
Poor Bub – breaks my heart, and such a strong little girl