Former Olympic swimmer Amy Van Dyken-Rouen walks again
Former Olympic champion Amy Van Dyken-Rouen is used to overcoming enormous challenges, but walking her first steps since being partially paralysed in an ATV accident ranks as her biggest triumph.
Van Dyken-Rouen, who won six swimming gold medals between the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, severed her spinal cord at the T11 vertebra in a severe accident on an ATV in June and was left paralysed from the waist down.
But the 41-year-old, who had to overcome serious asthma in her career, vowed on national television that she would walk again.
She has done just that. With a walking aid and a device assisting her legs, Van Dyken-Rouen posted remarkable photo and video on her Instagram account of her walking with husband Tom.
"Standing up for the first time on my own in 2 1/2 months," she wrote on Instagram video.
"Here it is...I'm WALKING!!! #onestepatatime #itcouldhappen.
"Standing with my hubby.Who's excited to be walking with an exoskeleton? This chick! #dreamscometrue #happygirl."
