people
By Carole Lander
orthapaedic surgeon and specialist
in spinal surgery for short-statured
people, performed a laminectomy on
Meredith’s thoracic spine, removing
the back part of vertebrae one to
six to relieve the pressure on her
spinal canal. This is also known as
decompression surgery because it
relieves pressure on the spinal cord.
Meredith recalls waking up from
the anaesthetic and being asked to
move her toes. She couldn’t do it. “It
makes me feel sick to my stomach to
Road to
recovery
Meredith Young crosses
a spacious office building
foyer, walking confidently
in my direction.
remember that,” she said, realising
that her days as an athlete were over.
Meredith needed strength and
willpower to keep on going after her
surgery. At first the morphine helped
with the pain but eventually she forced
herself to go off it and dig deep into
her naturally positive make-up and
learn to walk again.
First, there were months of
rehabilitation at a live-in centre. Then
she moved in with her parents for
U
extra support while she acclimatised
to life using a wheelchair, crutches and
ntil 2012, Meredith walked and she won gold and silver medals at confidently wherever she the 2009 (Belfast) and 2013 (Michigan) went. In the intervening years, Games. She was more restricted in to work part-time, Meredith was
though, she has experienced months Michigan, playing shooting guard in overjoyed. At last she could put her
of hospitalisation and convalescence basketball and pulling out of sprinting. mind into something other than
after undergoing spinal surgery.
Meredith has a form of dwarfism
When she felt able to return
herself and her recovery. She and
Meredith enjoyed a holiday in her fiancé Tom Carney moved into a
called Achondroplasia, one of the New York where walking through flat near her work and she continued
characteristics of which is spinal Central Park made her realise that physiotherapy and hydrotherapy as an
stenosis. In 2012, she began to treatment would be necessary out-patient for another 12 months.
experience symptoms of this – on her return home. Alarmingly, numbness and muscle weakness in another MRI revealed that the and Tom decided to marry, they
her legs caused by pressure on the condition had become myelopathy, discovered the next step in her
spinal cord due to narrow space in which can cause paraplegia. recovery. Visiting Coffs Harbour
the spine.
Still feeling fit and healthy,
Meredith continued her various
48
After the August 2013 Games,
a walker.
“I couldn’t lift my legs. They were
kind of dragging,” she said.
This forced her to use a four-wheel
Synchronistically, when Meredith
to look for potential wedding
venues, they were invited by friends
to view a documentary about
sporting activities. The World Dwarf walker to get around. When the Barney Miller, a quadriplegic as
Games were highlights of her career symptoms worsened, Mr Peter Turner, a result of a surfing accident.
people
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