5-Year-Old Girl Becomes Paralyzed After Doing a Backbend

A 5-year-old girl in Rancho Palos Verdes , Calif. has become paralyzed from the waist down after performing a backbend in her home.

When Eden Hoelscher collapsed and started crying on the morning of Dec. 23, 2015, she said she could not move her legs, ABC News reports. She was taken to the hospital, where doctors saw that she had hyperextended her spine, causing a contusion that cut off blood flow in her spinal cord and subsequently caused a stroke in her spinal cord.

Eden is now paralyzed from the waist down, but she is going to physical therapy, and her family hopes that she will be able to walk again; doctors are not yet sure what may happen.

[ABC News]

Subscribe to TIME

Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now.

Please enter a valid email address.

* The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Please attempt to sign up again.

Sign Up Now

An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Please try again later.

Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME.

You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you!

For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Contact us at letters@time.com.