In August 1999, Vanessa Rogers was a 16-year-old athlete who had just been named the MVP of her high school basketball team. Then her life changed forever.
While driving home from a wedding with her sister, the car Rogers was in lost control and rolled. The roof crumpled, glass cut into her head and her neck “folded like an accordion.”
Rogers was immediately rushed to intensive care. Despite a successful operation, all tests showed a zero percent chance of ever walking again. The most optimistic prognosis she was given was a 50 percent chance of ever being able to feed herself again.
“When they told me I was a quadriplegic, my whole world collapsed,” Rogers said. “Everything was taken away from me. I’d gone from being this really athletic girl to having no control over my body.”
Rogers refused to be defeated. After two-and-a-half months, she was showing signs of progress and was determined to beat seemingly impossible odds.
At the advice of her mom, bodybuilder Delphene Balan, Rogers took up bodybuilding in 2012.
Rogers now works out twice a day and, instead of completely relying on others as doctors predicted, she depends only on her walking stick.
She has competed in five competitions, even finishing third in her first event. She also appeared at the 2015 Arnold Classic.
“After what I survived, I want to make the most of every day,” Rogers said. “I know that a disc could slip and I’m stuck as a vegetable again. Because of that, I make no excuses.”
Read the full story at the Daily Mail.
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