Meghan Wilson's impossible dream to be doctor comes true

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Meghan Wilson's impossible dream to be doctor comes true.

Paralyzed 17 years ago, she gets her M.D. from Pitt Monday.

By David Templeton / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Regaining consciousness, Meghan Wilson found herself sliding across the ice on her stomach and feeling a buzzing pins-and-needles feeling, shoulders down, similar to a funny bone being bumped. The evaporating tingle was the last sensation she has felt below her shoulders since Dec. 26, 1996.

Along with brother Russ, the energized 17-year-old high school senior had taken the final run down a Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort slope in West Virginia, deciding near the bottom to ski over a mogul, which proved larger than expected. Her best guess is, the mogul caused the tip of a ski to fly back and strike her forehead, knocking her out long enough to prevent her from breaking her fall. Apparently she landed on her stomach, her body arcing, hyper-extending her neck. It broke her fifth vertebrae, crushing the spinal cord.

"I think I'm paralyzed," she told Russ, who had rushed to her side.
....

In the 17 years since the accident, Meghan has had her fill of struggles and frustrations in life. But Monday will bring joy -- the exhilaration of achieving a personal goal that few thought possible for someone with quadriplegia. ... Meghan, 33, will graduate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine with an M.D./Ph.D degree. Awarded her Ph.D. in 2011, she will receive an M.D. degree and complete the demanding Pitt medical scientist training program after nine years. "I'm so thankful," she said, "that Pitt gave me the opportunity to pursue my dream."