Girl recovers from rare illness to score 50th goal
Six months ago, 11-year-old could hardly walk
Eleven-year-old Riley Scorgie celebrated her 50th goal of the season Friday during the first game of the Edmonton Minor Hockey Week, but what spectators didn’t know is just a few months ago she could barely stand on her skates.
In early October, Riley was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder that causes a person’s immune system to attack their nerves, causing weakness, numbness and sometimes paralysis.
“I couldn’t walk properly, I’d fall down. I couldn’t run without tripping and falling and hurting myself. It was hard to do certain things and I was really scared that I wouldn’t be able to play hockey anymore,” said Riley, who has played hockey for four years.
Riley’s father, Adam Scorgie, said the first symptoms were subtle. On a trip to visit her grandparents in Park City, Utah, in August, Riley complained that her legs felt “jiggly” while walking around a zoo.
Her father said they initially dismissed her complaints, but troubling symptoms continued to mount, including falling over while chasing her brother around the house.
Back in Edmonton, when the pair were out to lunch, Scorgie panicked when he noticed one side of his daughter’s face was drooping and rushed her to hospital.
After a battery of tests, specialists at the Stollery Children’s Hospital diagnosed her with Guillain-Barre syndrome.
“I just about started crying in there because they had her walk … It was like she was drunk, she couldn’t do it. She kept falling,” said Scorgie.
While Scorgie worried abut his daughter being able to walk, her only concern was for her upcoming hockey tryouts.
The youngster was determined to get back on the ice, focusing on her treatments and building back her strength and balance.
She was back on her skates in a matter of weeks, but was still experiencing weakness and balance issues when she pushed her parents to let her go to the last day of tryouts.
She made the team, although at a lower division than she had hoped, but fell in love with her new teammates and coaches, inspiring her to continue her progress for the good of her team, the Edmonton Girls Hockey Association Ice Guardians.
Now symptom free, Scorgie says his daughter has had a “tremendous” season.