Teenager woke up paralysed from the chest down and was told she may never walk again

A healthy teenager who was left paralysed overnight due to a rare condition was told she may never walk again.

Jessie-Lou Harvie, 14, from Blantyre, Lanarkshire, beganfeeling unwellon the morning of 10 February 2024. "I woke up and felt really weak in my legs," Jessie-Lou explained.

"I tried to stand and walk to the bathroom, but I was so weak and confused about what was happening. I went back to bed for half an hour, and that was when I became completely paralysed from the chest down. I just couldn't really move at all."

Her civil engineer dad, Tony, 50, carried her to the car, and her parents rushed her to A&E, where she was immediately transferred by ambulance to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. Her mum, Nicola, 46, an education officer, said doctors told her that her "healthy" daughter might never walk again.

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"We were in disbelief. How could my healthy girl suddenly be paralysed?" Nicola said. "It was the worst thing you can hear as a parent."

Jessie-Lou continued: "At first, I don't even think I really understood it. I thought everything would be fine, I just thought I'd just go back to normal after a few weeks."

Following weeks of examinations in Glasgow and a case conference with Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, Jessie-Lou was diagnosed with transverse myelitis – a rare neurological condition causing spinal cord inflammation – in March 2024.

The National Institutes of Health considers it exceptionally uncommon, affecting just one to eight individuals per million people. Nicola explained: "I just think we can't take for granted our children's health – no one plans for their children to be seriously ill, it's just unimaginable."

Nicola had already "suspected" that Jessie-Lou suffered from the condition through her own investigations and discovered support through specialist Facebook groups. Throughout 12 weeks, she revealed Jessie-Lou stayed confined to the Glasgow hospital room, venturing out solely for brief physio sessions and activities with Chelsea, the hospital's playworker.

At the conclusion of the 12 weeks in Glasgow, Jessie-Lou was predominantly relying on a wheelchair and, during physio, utilising a Zimmer frame for supported steps. However, after finding the isolation overwhelming, Nicola campaigned for a referral to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire in May 2024, which houses the National Spinal Injuries Centre.

"Transverse myelitis isn't just a neurological condition; it's also a spinal cord injury," Nicola said. "So I felt Stoke Mandeville was the right place for us to be."

At the specialist centre, Jessie-Lou and her mum encountered other youngsters with the same condition. Jessie-Lou got the chance to participate in group wheelchair sports, with up to four hours of activity in a day.

She also received physio sessions in an accessible gym, with a specially adapted treadmill to reduce weight-bearing, and was introduced to functional electronic stimulation. Music, photography, and art workshops were held in the centre's garden, and she attended school within the hospital alongside other pupils.

They even provided lessons on how to adapt to life with a spinal cord injury. "It was nice not to feel like I was the only one with it," Jessie-Lou said.

Having other parents around with children in similar situations was of tremendous comfort to Nicola, too. "Part of my job is being a trauma lead for education," Nicola said.

"I think that facing my own trauma was really hard, because normally I'm the person helping other people through, and I found it really difficult for the tables to be turned in the worst way, because it's your child."

The centre's dedicated outside space for people with spinal injuries, called Horatio's Garden, became a lifeline for both of them. "We played board games in the garden; it was part of our routine," said Jessie-Lou.

The teenager also performed in Horatio's garden, selecting empowering tracks like Whitney Houston's The Greatest Love of All and Miley Cyrus' The Climb – which she viewed as a metaphor for her recovery, "being low and then climbing up".

To others confronting their own recovery struggles, Jessie-Lou said: "Don't give up. Do your exercises, do your physio, because that's the thing that will help the most out of all of it."

Jessie-Lou was discharged from Stoke Mandeville in June 2024, which meant she was finally reunited with her father and St Bernadoodle dog, Milo. Nevertheless, she will continue to return to the hospital every year for a week until she is 19 for a week-long check-up and support appointment.

"I was really happy to be back with my family and back in my own house again and see my dog every day," said Jessie-Lou.

Jessie-Lou can now walk without assistance, though she still has a limp, right-side weakness, and struggles with foot drop, which makes it difficult to lift or move her foot and toes.

"I'd like to say a big thank you," said Jessie-Lou. "I'm very lucky to be walking again, and I'm just excited to see my recovery in the future, and I'm very hopeful and glad that I've had the recovery that I had."

Her mum, Nicola, added: "I just want to advocate that because the incidence of children with spinal cord injuries is so low, they should be given the opportunity to go to a specialist centre like Jessie-Lou has been.

"I'm grateful for the doctors in Glasgow who supported us in pushing for this."

Jessie-Lou returned to St John Ogilvie High School part-time in August 2024, where teachers and friends rallied around her, and she was back full-time from October 2024. "I do dancing with the drama club I go to," the teen said.

"School's been good – I keep up quite well, I'm quite good at my schoolwork, so that's not really been impacted."

Despite her diagnosis, Jessie-Lou, who had already performed in the 2021/22 UK tour of Les Misérables and A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Scottish Opera and as Charlie Bucket in the UK and Ireland tour of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, was determined to return to the stage.

She auditioned for the role of Winona in the world premiere of Wild Rose at the Lyceum Theatre in November 2024 and was "surprised" to land the part. "Singing and acting is really my main thing, so I thought, 'I'm going to do really well with that'," she revealed.

"But with the dancing, I thought, 'I'm going to try my best and do what I can'." Her mum Nicola, who couldn't be prouder of her daughter's stage comeback, confessed: "I think I was more nervous than Jessie-Lou!".

Nicola added: "Seeing her back on the stage professionally, it made me think, 'well, the industry still has room for her'.

"It took us six or seven years of IVF to have Jessie-Lou. To be told she wouldn't walk again was devastating, but I refused to let anyone limit my daughter."

The family has received partial funding from Spinal Injuries Scotland for a £6,000 Bioness L300 Go device, set to be fitted this month. This device wraps around the leg and uses functional electrical stimulation to assist those with mobility issues caused by nerve or spinal cord injury, stroke, or multiple sclerosis.

They are hopeful it will improve Jessie-Lou's mobility by helping with her foot drop. Whether she regains full mobility or not, Jessie-Lou hopes to defy expectations once more by one day playing Elphaba in Wicked.

Speaking about how much this would mean to her, especially with the second film soon to be released, she said: "I'm very excited for the second film coming out – I saw the musical in London and it was so good, it was amazing.

"I saw the first part of the film with my friend and listened to the soundtrack on repeat.

"I even sang For Good – with the lyrics 'because I knew you / I have been changed for good' – for the nurses from Stoke Mandeville with the music therapist Amanda before I left – and they were all crying."