INDIANAPOLIS - A 30-year-old woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury in August's deadly Indiana State Fair stage collapse is making what her doctor calls an amazing recovery with her growing ability to walk.
Andrea Vellinga, a Pendleton resident who is married with a young daughter, was in a coma and needed machines to breathe for weeks after her skull was crushed by stage rigging in the Aug. 13 collapse that killed seven people, WISH-TV reported.
Eight months later, her recovery is delighting her family and her doctor, Dr. Michael Turner, a neurosurgeon at Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine. Vellinga showed off her progress during a follow-up visit Tuesday with her doctor at IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
"Let me see you walk," Turner asked, prompting Vellinga to put on the helmet that protects her skull, slide off the exam table and start walking.
When Turner asked her if she could walk on her "tip toes" Vellinga performed gracefully like a ballerina.
She's even planning to walk in five-kilometer event in Pendleton on May 19 - her 31st birthday. It's just one of the special activities the town is planning to celebrate the day.
Vellinga's progress could be linked to her participation in a cutting-edge experiment trial that her family enrolled her in just hours after she was injured.
"My family decided to do it, and they knew I wanted to do it," Vellinga said.
The trial, called SyNAPSe, uses the pregnancy hormone progesterone, which has shown to help reduce swelling and improve the memory of those who suffer a traumatic brain injury. But doctors won't know for at least two years whether Vellinga got the actual drug or just a placebo.
Vellinga isn't just showing improvements in her ability to walk. She's also returned to her talkative self and is showing her sense of humor. She recounted Tuesday that she pulled an April Fools' Day prank on her mother.
"I called my mom and told her I was pregnant," Vellinga said, smiling. "She didn't think it was funny either."
Turner sees humor as another sign of progress.
"She is quite the talker. She has a personality, and from her April Fools' jokes, she has her sense of humor back," he said after her checkup.
Vellinga, who visited Indianapolis on Tuesday for special appointments with her doctors, is undergoing rehabilitation at a facility in Michigan. But she's expected to return home for good in May.
She said her daughter, Lydia, is very protective of her as she continues her rehabilitation.
"She holds my hand when we walk. She says, 'Mommy, I don't want you to fall and hit your head again," Vellinga said. "She always says, 'Mommy, no more concerts, indoors or outdoors.'"
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