On March 24, 2015, Sabina Noel lost her ability to walk. And to move her arms. And her legs. And to care for herself in any way.
She didn’t lose her determination, which ended up saving her life, doctors say.
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That day, the Hebron wife and mother of two had just completed her first radiation treatment to prepare for an upcoming bone marrow transplant. The life-saving procedure was scheduled in response to the acute lymphoblastic leukemia attacking her blood, but her already-frail body couldn’t handle all the treatments designed to make her well.
“I became a quadriplegic, dependent for all my care,” said Noel, a licensed practical nurse.
Her primary physician, Dr. Sunita Nathan, a hematologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, knew it didn’t look good for Noel while she was hospitalized off and on for several months.
“Her symptoms progressed negatively, and we feared a poor outcome,” Nathan said.
In medical jargon, a poor outcome means death. Noel and her family were told to make arrangements for hospice care. Noel insisted on palliative care. By Christmas that year, photos showed an elderly woman, yet she was only 44.
“She looked like she was on death’s doorstep,” said Tifani Williams, of Kouts, her best friend since nursing school. “She was broken, but not beaten. You could tell she still had the fight in her.”
That fight began soon after she suffered near total paralysis in the hospital. And after she later lost consciousness. And after her weight went from 160 to 114 pounds. She woke up one day and blurted out to doctors, “I will walk again!”
At the time, she didn’t know where that proclamation came from. She now believes it came from God.
“I took that as a promise to myself to not give up. It was a gift from God,” Noel said. “But, to be honest, I didn’t realize how bad of a shape I was in.”
Noel had always been a strong, healthy “farm girl” without any serious illnesses or medical problems. In January 2014, she began experiencing unexplainable fatigue and lightheadedness. Soon afterward, she felt her spleen sticking through her abdomen.
“I knew it was serious,” she said.
She went to St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point, where doctors referred her to Rush Medical Center in Chicago. There, she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer.
“At Sabina’s age, her unique condition is not very common and it didn’t respond positively to initial treatment,” Nathan said.
Noel lost the feeling in her feet, then her legs, forcing her to use a walker. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments before being placed on a bone marrow transplant list.
“For a while there, I was in complete despair,” Noel said.
Within two weeks, she had a donor. Coincidentally, or fatefully, her 27-year-old donor was born and raised in New Castle, in downstate Henry County, the same town where she was born and raised. She calls it a “God-wink,” a divine coincidence.
“The donor, who’s in the Navy, saved my life,” Noel said. “I hope to meet him soon.”
After the procedure and a bad experience at a nursing rehab center in Illinois, she came home in January 2016. She has had to relearn how to feed herself, comb her hair, use a phone, and every other basic function.
She is visited daily by a caregiver from a Valparaiso-based home health care agency who helps her bathe and with other necessities we take for granted. Close friends and church members have rallied around her.
“When she came home from the nursing home, it was hard to see her,” said Williams, who drives Noel to therapy appointments. “I want to be there to see the miracles happen.”
On Nov. 7, she took her first steps since March 24, 2015. Whether a miracle or modern medicine, she did it with assistance from a harnessed machine on a treadmill at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
Her first attempt lasted seven glorious minutes.
“I was ecstatic,” Noel said. “I was able to move my feet on my own.” (Watch a video of Noel taking her first steps at www.post-trib.com/opinion.)
“I cried when I saw the video of her taking her first steps,” Williams said.
Noel has since walked one more time, with plans to walk again next month with leg braces.
“I can’t wait,” said Noel, who greeted me at her front door in a wheelchair. “My doctors call me their miracle patient. I tell them I’m just stubborn.”
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Nathan last saw Noel a month ago.
“I was blown away by her progress,” he said, noting the upcoming three-year anniversary of her transplant. “It portends well for her prognosis.”
“Our medical team guided her, but she took on her disease and a lot of her success should be credited to her,” Nathan said. “She always had a smile on her face, no matter what circumstance.”
The muscle memory in Noel’s legs is slowly coming back. She can now stand on her own with little assistance, though not for long. Yet, long enough to give her more hope.
“I’m just as determined to walk on my own as I was when I was a quadriplegic in that hospital bed,” Noel said. Her goal is to do it by April 1, her 47th birthday.
Noel’s doctor won’t be at all surprised.
“She’s a remarkable example of resiliency and determination,” Nathan said. “Sabina has a tremendous story to share with others who may need to hear it.”
Twitter@jdavich