Malori Maddox, 20, was a young adult like any other.
On November 10th, she had just finished a volleyball game at Lubbock Christian University in Texas. She left the game early, complaining of a severe headache and blurred vision.
She then suddenly collapsed in the locker room, and was rushed to the hospital.
Luckily, a surgeon at the small hospital she was sent to in Wichita Falls had seen a case like hers before. He knew immediately that she was suffering from a brain hemorrhage, and performed surgery right away.
She had suffered from an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in her brain—a bunch of abnormal blood vessels that connect arteries to the brain and cause bleeding. This condition only occurs in one percent of people.
While this is all incredible already, perhaps the most incredible thing is how quickly she’s been recovering.
She went into surgery on November 10, and by November 19, she took her first bites of food on her own.
That’s just the first step, of course.
Due to the brain surgery, Malori has lost quite a bit of her mental capacity. Right now, she’s trying to re-learn basic skills.
She’s going through physical therapy to regain basic motor skills, with the hope of eventually being able to walk again.
Her mother says that she’s improving every day, especially in her speech and memory. However, she still has trouble with her name, colors, and shapes. She practices coloring and reading to try and regain these skills.
Malori is incredibly lucky, as she would have died if the doctor hadn’t known exactly what to do. Malori will undergo two more surgeries, on January 5th and 6th, to remove the AVM that caused her hemorrhage.
But in the meantime, doctors at the hospital have nicknamed her “Miracle Malori” due to all the strides she’s making. And it’s no wonder. Throughout it all, she’s all smiles.
