5-year-old girl paralyzed from backbend vows to overcome injury

PALOS VERDES PENINSULA, Calif. -- An inspiring Rancho Palos Verdes girl is in the fight of her life after she was paralyzed from the waist down following a tragic accident.

Five-year-old Eden Hoelscher was doing a backbend the morning of December 23, 2015, when she collapsed and began crying.

About 30 minutes later, Eden stopped crying and told her mother Kylee Hoelscher it felt like her legs were asleep.

When her mother asked her to move her legs, Eden said she couldn't.

"I said, 'Move your leg, unbend your knee.' And she looks at it and says, "I can't.' So I was like 'Eden, unbend your knee.' And she said, 'I can't.' So I pick her up and just tried to sit her down on the floor and her legs just buckled," Kylee Hoelscher recalled.

Eden was rushed to the hospital where an MRI revealed a contusion on her spine.

While Eden was doing the backbend, doctors said she hyperextended her spine, causing the artery that feeds her spinal cord to stop pumping blood, causing a stroke in the spinal cord.

Doctors told Eden's parents she was paralyzed from the waist down.

"The most scariest was when she had all the tubes in her," Isabella Hoelscher, Eden's 9-year-old sister said. "It got me really scared."

Despite the grim diagnosis, Eden is determined to not only walk again, but to be a ballerina. Her family has vowed to do everything imaginable to make her dream come true.

"She is so determined and we are so determined to help her, when she lets us," Kylee Hoelscher joked.

Eden is going to physical therapy three days a week and she will head to Baltimore in April for two weeks of intense physical therapy and then to Louisville for three months of locomotor training.

It's unknown at this point if Eden will ever walk again, but her family said they're hopeful.

A friend of the Hoelscher family created a GoFundMe to raise money for Eden's medical bills. You can learn how to help Eden by clicking here.