PROVO — A little girl felled by an 80-foot tree in Provo in June is in a wheelchair two months later, paralyzed from the waist down.
Four-year-old Emma Sorensen was sitting at a picnic table with her grandmother and cousin June 6 at a family reunion in Provo Canyon when a huge cottonwood unexpectedly toppled, killing Mollie Rose Hobaugh-Sorensen, 56, of Napa Valley, Calif., and her namesake granddaughter, 6-year-old Mollie Rose Sorensen of Orem.
Emma Sorensen was pulled from beneath the tree, bruised and bleeding, her left arm broken and her pelvis and skull fractured.
"She was covered with leaves and branches," said her mother, Ingrid, while watching her daughter play with her big sisters, Amanda and Shannon. "My husband's brother pulled her out. She wasn't unconscious, and she wasn't pinned. But she was crying, a very weak cry and in a kind of shock."
Ingrid Sorensen was standing behind her daughter keeping an eye on each of her five youngsters when she heard the crack that signaled imminent disaster for Emma, her grandmother and her cousin.
"I didn't see it. I wish I had. I know she was at or on the picnic bench," said her mother. "If I'd seen it, maybe we'd know what happened to her spine."
Emma Sorensen's injuries put her in the critical care unit at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City for 10 days and kept her in the hospital for another two weeks. But the injuries don't explain her ongoing paralysis.
"Right at the beginning, it was very scary," said Ingrid Sorensen. "We didn't know if she'd live, but that first night, the spinal cord looked fine on the tests they did. Then the swelling started."
Now she's at home, waiting for her broken bones to mend and sitting in a wheelchair, a blond dynamo taken out of action.
She hasn't had any feeling below the waist since the accident.
"In a way, it's been a blessing of sorts because she hasn't felt any pain from her pelvic injuries, and she would have had to be restrained and immobile while they healed," said her mother. "But the doctors have said, 'Don't expect her to walk again.' "
For the active little girl who has seldom held still since she was born, that's a tragic future.
"She's always been really active. She'd eat all day long just to keep up with the calories she'd burn off pretending to be a puppy or a deer or a dog. She was so active."
Emma heads back to the hospital next week for evaluations and physical therapy. Along the way, doctors are hoping to find a clue that will help them understand what is preventing her from moving her legs and feet.
Her family will be by her side as much as possible and rooting for her complete recovery.
A tiny pillow with the words "Believe In Miracles" embroidered on it hangs from the handlebars on Emma's wheelchair. The pillow came from her grandmother's house.
Prayers and faith have kept the family going so far and will continue to get them through this, Ingrid Sorensen said. "We have had a ton of support from the community and from friends and family. It's been phenomenal. I swear, the prayers are what gets us through."
The Provo Fire Department paramedics built a ramp to the house for Emma.
A friend has organized a massive collection effort in the area with 750 donation jars in stores, gas stations and businesses.
Members of the Brigham Young University LDS 164th Ward, who were in the canyon the afternoon of the accident, take the other four Sorensen children for a special outing every Wednesday night and baby-sit and cook. They helped distribute the collection jars and count the money being donated.
The Sorensens have no way to gauge what their expenses are going to be, largely because they don't know what is causing Emma's condition.
"It's a big wait-and-see. We know they'll be huge," said Ingrid Sorensen. Her husband, Norman, is a general contractor, and they have good insurance coverage, but parents of other quadriplegic children have warned the Sorensens that it will be nearly impossible to imagine expenses headed their way.
"We could be looking at lifetime of care in a wheelchair for her," Ingrid Sorensen said.
E-MAIL: haddoc@desnews.com