CARMEL, Maine — In the days after a 3-year-old girl named Natalia was injured by a gunshot at her parents’ residence in Bangor, doctors told her loved ones that she was paralyzed from the neck down.
The injury occurred when she grabbed a loaded gun that was left within reach while she was home with her father and siblings on Oct. 30, 2013, and it went off, the bullet striking the left side of her neck, her grandparents say. No charges were ever filed.
The little girl with blond hair and bright blue eyes has since surprised the medical experts with her progress. Within six months she was moving her right arm enough to feed herself and was talking, just a little, in whispers. A year later, Talia, as she is nicknamed, had started to move her legs.
As any proud grandmother would do, Joline Scovil posted a video of Talia kicking a ball in May 2015 on her Facebook page.
“It was certainly a miracle,” Scovil said last week, standing in her kitchen cooking a chicken pot pie from Dysart’s, with her husband, Wayne, beside her. “They told us she would be paralyzed from the neck down.”
The little girl, who is now 5 and a kindergarten student, was seated in her grandfather’s lap when she kicked her right leg out pretty confidently last week, giving a demonstration, and she was able to lift and bend her left leg, but it was clearly more of a struggle.
“It gave us hope” she would walk again, said Wayne Scovil, who gave up his job to be a stay-at-home dad for his granddaughter. “She’s quite a miracle. She’s doing very well in school. She tries to do a lot of stuff herself. She’s very determined and strong-willed.
“And she’s always happy.”
Typical of most 5-year-olds, Talia likes macaroni and cheese and ice cream.
“She eats whatever she wants,” Wayne Scovil said.
While she has been recovering from her injury, the Scovils have been going through the arduous process of adopting Talia and her two older siblings, Peyton, 8, and Jayden, 7. During the two-year process, the Scovils were not allowed to talk publicly about the children or give updates about Talia’s progress.
“We want people to know how well she’s doing,” Joline Scovil said, now that the process is complete.
Talia still requires daily medications and has a tracheostomy tube so she can be attached to a ventilation machine that helps her breathe at night. She’s doing so well that the trach tube, which is located at the base of her neck and has to be cleared occasionally, may be removed sometime soon, the Scovils said.
She gets around in three wheelchairs — one with a tray for eating and doing art, another that can be folded to go into a vehicle, and a specialized motorized pink one that supports her back, neck and head that “she drives right up on the school bus, which is handicap accessible,” Wayne Scovil said proudly.
Talia has home nursing care to ensure someone is with her around the clock, and the Carmel couple are researching a handicap accessible van, so that she doesn’t have to get out of her wheelchair when going for rides. They are also considering sending her to an intense rehabilitation hospital in Massachusetts to help strengthen her arms and legs.
“They tell us that someone older wouldn’t be where she is today,” Joline Scovil said, referring to Talia’s medical team. “They tell us not to expect much more than what you see, but I think she amazes them every time she sees them.”
Minutes after the couple officially adopted their three grandchildren on Nov. 10, Joline Scovil posted on her Facebook page: “It’s official they are SCOVILS.”
Even though their parental rights have been severed, the children’s parents, Danielle and Brandon Ogden, will be allowed to remain part of the children’s lives, according to the Scovils. They visited Christmas morning and were a part of the Scovils’ annual holiday gathering with their four children and eight grandchildren, Joline Scovil said, adding that Danielle is her daughter.
“Even though we adopted them, they still call us Mimi and Pappa,” Wayne Scovil said.
The adoption is the start of a new chapter in the Scovils’ lives, and the foundation is love.
Just before dinner, Talia, who is now quite the talker, although in low tones, decided to break into song, singing “Jingle Bells” and joined by her Mimi and nurse.
“This is just the beginning,” Joline Scovil said. “Sometimes bad things turn into something good.”