West Union native pushes to remake life after severe spinal injury

West Union native pushes to remake life after severe spinal injury

As she's done many times over the past few years, Sarah Updegraff-Murray took a moment one evening to watch the construction of a new bridge over the Mississippi River outside her Lansing home. This time, however, she took an errant step in her yard, and that one simple move would change the course of her life forever.

But now, just a year and a half after an accident that took away her ability to walk, Updegraff-Murray - her sense of humor untouched - feels compelled to share her story of resilience and sadness, perseverance and hope, which she did for a packed room of community members and staff at Emplify Health by Gundersen West Union Area during Physical Therapy Month. The event was hosted by the hospital's Rehabilitation Department.

With outbursts of laughter and spontaneous tears, Updegraff-Murray talked about how a busy high school principal who attended nearly every event had to remake her life in a way she wasn't prepared to, but nonetheless, was forced to.

A fateful step

Updegraff-Murray, who grew up in West Union, and her husband Steve returned from dinner ("we're good daters") one night last spring, and she decided to take a look at the Black Hawk Bridge from her yard. Turning to head inside, she believes she stepped on a frosty patch of mulch, causing her to fall and tumble over the edge of a four-foot-high retaining wall.

"I landed on my face, which wasn't harmed, thank goodness," she said, eliciting a few chuckles.

But her spine was another story. Her body essentially flipped over itself, breaking her C5 and C6 vertebrae. She was rushed by helicopter to Emplify Health by Gundersen La Crosse Hospital, where her attending surgeon believed, upon seeing the damage, that she would never move any of her extremities below her shoulders again.

"Well, spoiler alert," Updegraff-Murray said, slowly moving her arms for the gathered crowd to see. "One of the things you need to know about me is that when somebody tells me I can't do something, hold my beer. Watch me."

The fight ahead

During her initial days in the hospital in La Crosse, Updegraff-Murray was terrified. She had no idea what was going to happen to her.

"We were in bad shape," she said. "I thought, 'I'm done.' I've had this incredibly active life. I worked 80-plus hours a week running the school stuff, at everything, living the life I really wanted to live. And here I am laying in a bed, and the surgeon had just told me I'd never move again.

"The life I had made was over. My body was broken, and that had been the strongest part of me."

But she had a nurse who was having none of it. She believed Updegraff-Murray would be able to do what was thought impossible at the time, and that hope stayed with her.

Following her six-week stay in La Crosse, Updegraff-Murray was transferred to Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, and there, she was surrounded by people fighting the same battle - both physical and emotional. Though she felt more comfortable in that environment, she doubted whether she could make meaningful progress.

"I thought, 'I can't do this. I cannot do this,'" she said. "I could understand completely how people spiral into depression."

But there, Updegraff-Murray's physical therapist pushed her relentlessly to put in the work. She refused to let her give up. Her goal for her was that one day, she'd drive a car again.

"Six months ago, I had surgery on my hand," she said. "I can move this hand, and eventually, I'll be able to drive. It'll happen."

Another roadblock

After returning home, Updegraff-Murray ran into another problem. An infection she had moved into her bone, and she was told the only way to eliminate it was to amputate her feet.

"I lost it," she said. "I was sobbing."

But - again - a nurse practitioner, who Updegraff-Murray called an angel, assured her that she didn't have to go through with the amputation - so that's just what she decided. Instead, Updegraff-Murray started a regiment of antibiotics and prayed that she'd be included in the 10 percent of patients for which the drugs worked.

Despite those long odds, she defied them once again.

The journey back

Now Updegraff-Murray is back home, working to regain the life she once knew. She goes to occupational therapy twice a week to work on her hand movements, and her once-a-week physical therapy focuses on upper body mobility and leg stretching.

There are still days that are hard - very hard - but Updegraff-Murray pushes forward for her family. They're her inspiration when motivation is hard to come by.

"It's my family and knowing that I need to be as close to what I was for them in order for our life to be fulfilling," she said, her voice cracking. "I feel like I won't be a good mom or a good wife if I mope."

Updegraff-Murray lists off the countless people who've touched her life throughout her journey. It's with that gratitude in her heart that she wants to give back to them and her community by sharing her story.

"We really have a world full of hurt, and people need to hear that it's going to be okay - that every step forward is a step toward getting better. It's a step toward hope," she said. "As you go on with you day to day, remember, no one gets to be the gatekeeper of your dreams, so if you've got something you want to do, you go and do it. Everything you do matters."