When emergency personnel responded to a reported car accident July 14, 2004, they found the victim, 17-year-old Hilary Armstrong, unconscious and her body badly broken. Doctors were uncertain of her chances for survival and prepared her family for the reality that if she did survive, Armstrong might never be able to walk again. On Saturday, May 10, her parents will watch as their daughter, one of Saint Joseph's University's finest student athletes, walks across the stage at her graduation. "The doctors said I couldn't go back to the way I was," Armstrong says of her original prognosis. "But there was no question in my mind. I just did what I had to do." Her story is proof that a broken body can mend with the help of a resilient spirit.
The two best things in Hilary Armstrong's life four years ago were rowing and preparing for college at Saint Joseph's University. After graduating from New York's Friends Academy in June of 2004, Armstrong was planning for a summer creating memories with friends and training for the U.S. Rowing Nationals the following month with her teammates. A champion equestrian show trainer, she was also looking forward to squeezing in time riding and jumping horses at the North Shore Equestrian Center.
Early Wednesday morning that July 14, Armstrong was heading to crew practice with her summer crew team - the Sagamore Rowing Association. The roads on the interstate were slick from a violent storm the night before, and Armstrong released the gas pedal of her mother's Audi station wagon to accommodate the dangerous conditions.
Seconds later, her car hydroplaned and slammed into a telephone poll at 60 miles per hour. The impact sent the station wagon rolling onto a boulder on the edge of the road, which subsequently propelled the car into a tree. Unconscious, Armstrong laid there for 30 minutes before her mother's mangled car was discovered by emergency personnel.
In the weeks, months and years of recovery that followed, Armstrong proved her resiliency and became the first patient with her injuries to ever return to a competitive sport.
"The accident shattered three of my vertebrae and collapsed my left lung," Armstrong says of her initial injuries. And after spending three weeks in intensive care on breathing and feeding tubes, she endured additional complications including pneumonia and a dangerous blood clot. When she was strong enough, doctors performed 17-hours of surgery on Armstrong to repair her spine.
"I have a titanium cage to replace each of the shattered vertebrae and four titanium rods to support my spine," she says of the surgery. "I feel like the bionic woman."
It's clear to see why Armstrong feels like she has superpowers. Just two weeks after the surgery, she walked for the first time. "My mom burst into tears," she recalls. Soon afterwards, she was discharged from the hospital with specific instructions to "basically do nothing physical," she says. Before leaving, Armstrong asked her doctor, Michael Lefkowitz, M.D., of the Long Island Neurosurgical Association, when she would be able to row again. She says she was heartbroken when he told her to give up on that dream. "You're lucky to even be alive," he told her.
But a headstrong Armstrong wouldn't hear it. Only a semester later than her classmates, she enrolled at Saint Joseph's in January 2005. Weeks later, she was back in her doctor's office begging to row. "Can't you just play bridge?" Dr. Lefkowitz pleaded. However, he agreed to let her participate on SJU's crew team as a coxswain. The team won the Atlantic 10 championships later that year.
While she was grateful for the opportunity to still be a part of the crew team, Armstrong says she felt teased by competitive racing and was still desperate to row. Dr. Lefkowitz explained to her again that no one has ever returned to a competitive sport after the injuries she suffered. "I'm going to row," she persisted. "My body and I are going to work this out." Recognizing her resolve, he agreed to let her try.
July 14, 2005, a year after her accident, Armstrong's high school coach filmed her rowing on the Schuylkill River for the first time. She has since become an integral part of the University's women's crew team, achieving recognition at the Dad Vail Regatta finals on the Junior Varsity Eight and heading for a return to the Dad Vails next month as part of the Varsity Four. "My teammates are such a big part of my recovery," Armstrong emphasizes. "Without them, I'd still be in a wheelchair."
Inspired by her determination and unprecedented achievements, Dr. Lefkowitz shares Armstrong's film regularly with his colleagues and patients with serious injuries. "I was really happy to have my story help someone else recognize their potential," she says.
Armstrong's athletic achievements are matched by her academic success. A marketing major, she is an honor student, a member of the business honor society Beta Gamma Sigma and recipient of the University's Marketing Research Association Scholarship. She says her parents are really proud of her and look forward to watching her graduate with her classmates on time. "My mom and dad are the most supportive parents in the world. I owe all of my success to them," Armstrong applauds.
Of the accident, she says: "What happened to me was a gift. I've learned a lot about myself and nothing is ever going to hold me back. I've experienced the best four years of my life at Saint Joseph's. And I'm confident that wherever I go from here, I'll go to the top."
Contact: Carolyn Steigleman, Office of University Communications, 610-660-1355, csteigle@sju.edu.