Oct. 5, 2005

Wall Defies Astronomical Odds

Sarah Wall

What is amazing is that Wall is playing at all.

In February, the three-time All-America forward was driving to her home in Columbus when she was involved in a one-car accident. Her vehicle hit the guardrail, flipped, and before it skidded to a halt, Wall's back was dragged along the road through the broken driver's window. All told, she had two fractured vertebrae, a brachial plexus (stretched nerve) in her shoulder and torn ligaments in her spine as well as the road rash on her back.

Wall underwent surgery to fuse her vertebrae and had rods inserted on either side of her spine, with hooks into the spine to help keep the bones and rods in place. The prognosis wasn't bright. "The surgeon said that he had never seen that injury before without paralysis (resulting)," Wall says.

But Wall's determination was something else that the surgeon had likely never seen.

"Even within a week of the surgery, when there was uncertainty as to if she could come back, her insistence and drive on being part of the team was amazing," says Ohio Wesleyan head coach Bob Barnes. "She said she was going to be a good captain whether or not she played."

The road back wasn't smooth by any means. Wall was able to begin driving three weeks after the operation and begin exercising six weeks afterward. Three months after the surgery, she was able to get rid of the back brace, then spent the summer trying to get back into shape.

"My day job here was summer research, but when I wasn't doing that I was trying to work out and get into some semblance of fitness," Wall says.

Wall was cleared to play two weeks before the start of the season, and to watch her play, one would never guess what she has gone through just to get there.

Always the focus of the other team's defense, Wall has filled more of a setup role this season. She leads the North Coast Athletic Conference with seven assists and recently broke the conference's career assists record.

"She's very special," Barnes says. "Her ability to raise the level of play of those around her and her ability to change roles on the team is remarkable."

"By now, I'm pretty close (to where I was before)," Wall says. "I may have lost a step or two, and fitness for playing a game is nothing like just going out and running. I still get some pain in my back muscles and spine, but if they hadn't operated it would have been three months in bed and six months in a brace."

A pre-med major and an Academic All-America honoree, Wall still plans to become an orthopedic surgeon, but the experience has changed her long-term outlook somewhat.

"(Orthopedic surgery) was my career plan – I interned with one during high school – but the accident, surgery and hospital stay gave me a whole new perspective on the doctor-patient relationship. Being able to see what the patient experiences coming out of surgery is good knowledge to have."

But Wall doesn't see herself doing the cutting-edge surgery that gave her the chance to take the field for Ohio Wesleyan this fall. "No, just knees and shoulders," she smiles.

- Mark Beckenbach