AN INSPIRATION TO US ALL
We’ve followed brave Sophie’s progress all the way
Trapped under a burning car that had crashed through the gate at her preschool, two-year-old Sophie Delezio wasn’t expected to live. That was December 15, 2003. Since that horrific day, Sophie, who suffered burns to 85 per cent of her tiny body, has not only survived, but thrived, and Woman’s Day has been with her every step of the way.
She was in Sydney’s Westmead Hospital Burns Unit for five months when the Delezio family chose to exclusively share their story with our readers. Sophie’s parents Ron and Carolyn, along with her four-year-old brother Mitchell, spent almost every second by the brave toddler’s side as she endured the amputation of both feet, her right leg below the knee, her right ear and the fingers on her right hand – and that was all by day two.
“By day five they asked us twice if we wanted to let her go,” an emotional Ron revealed.
But miraculously, almost seven months later, Sophie finally returned home to continue her recovery. And at 13, she opened her doors to us again to show off another medical miracle, the prosthetic ear custom-made for her in the US.
We last saw Sophie, now aged 17, in September when she invited us to take photos of her year 12 formal.
“In my mind I’m not ‘Sophie the girl with no legs’ but someone completely normal,” she said of her attitude to life, which will next, she hopes, see her attend university in the UK.
“I think of myself as Sophie the chatterbox, the socialite, the girl who loves a good hamburger and enjoys each day as much as she can,” Sophie said.