“I don’t know any other hand teams,” she laughs, “but I’m sure of it!” While Ella continues to improve, her healing journey isn’t complete. She still does not like to look at her arm—especially after she has surgery. She has undergone trauma therapy at the Chadwick Center for Children & Families at Rady Children’s. After 13 surgeries—10 of which were at Rady Children’s—she will still need to undergo procedures with Dr. Hinchcliff to improve the skin’s appearance. But, according to her grateful parents, her hand function is back and, best of all, so is her quality of life. “We didn’t know what her quality of life would be, but we’re back to her being a normal kid again. The growth is ongoing, but the heavy, horrible, lifesaving, life-changing stuff is behind us now,” Lindsey says. “Now we’re taking it one day at a time and one step at a time,” Sam adds. “If you were to ask Ella if she’d go back and change it and not have been through the accident, it’s not like an immediate yes. She thinks about it for a bit—like, ‘Look, I am who I am, and I’ve gone through it.’ She has a story and an arm that no other kid has. She earned that arm. We tell her, ‘This is your tough arm—let’s keep fighting for it.’ She’s a tough kid and she has a lot of tough things to say that are beyond her years. We’re lucky to have her as our fighter.”
DANCING DOWN THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
Ella, who is a dancer, is now back to practicing four days a week—a feat that her mother says was unexpected. Lindsey credits Denise’s hard work and passion, and the powerful one- two punch she provided after Dr. Hinchcliff’s surgical work. “We are so beyond blessed that we’re from San Diego and that we got to stay in San Diego throughout all of this,” Lindsey says. “I truly believe that if we were somewhere else, we wouldn’t have gotten this result. Denise
Hoover deserves a lot of credit for the function Ella got back. If Denise hadn’t been her occupational therapist, I don’t know if we would have the recovery we had. The doctor can only do so much.” Lindsey describes Denise and Dr. Hinchcliff as “probably the best hand team in America.”
THE GROWTH IS ONGOING, BUT THE HEAVY, HORRIBLE, LIFESAVING, LIFE-CHANGING STUFF IS BEHIND US NOW.
WINTER 2023 HEALTHY KIDS MAGAZINE 23
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator