To the naked eye, Nancy Bergeron’s small steps may not look like much – but by walking, she’s defying the odds in a very big way.
In 2007, Bergeron suffered a stroke and developed “Locked in” syndrome, a condition in which a patient can’t move or speak, and may never recover.
She remained bedridden for two years.
“Doctors told us we should let her die,” said Bergeron’s mother Michelle. “All she could do was blink. They said it was hopeless.”
But Bergeron was determined to reclaim her life – and mobility.
She started doing extensive physiotherapy with the team at Neuro-Concept in Verdun to learn how to walk again.
“Proprioception is the ability to know what your body is doing, where it’s moving, and in her case, she doesn’t have that in one half of her body,” explained Antoine Deschamps-Laporte, clinical director at Neuro-Concept. “It’s teaching her to use the information she does receive in a more effective way.”
In simple terms, she’s learning to use different muscles to compensate for the ones that no longer respond.
It’s a difficult process, but Bergeron has proved time and time again that she’s a born fighter.
“She’s never stopped fighting, so she’s never stopped progressing,” Deschamps-Laporte added.
At one point, Bergeron even went on a diet and lost 100 pounds so she could work out harder.
In fact, she’s become an inspiration to other patients sharing the therapeutic space at Neuro-Concept, like Rana Youssef, who suffered a spinal injury following a car accident in Syria.
Youssef was told she’d never walk again, but she says Nancy’s story inspires her to push harder.
“They are fighting more than me,” she said. “I should fight more. I hope God will give me more energy to complete that.”
“It makes all the difference because we have hope that you can succeed and have a quality of life that you never dreamed of,” added Francine Deshaies, who has Multiple Sclerosis.
Bergeron hopes to continue to inspire others to persevere – she’s writing a book now, and she says by the time it’s out, she plans to buy the first copy and walk into the bookstore on her own.
