The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Perry’s Sines grateful after paralysis scare
Pirates standout endures long road back to softball
For nearly four months, the 17-year-old was paralyzed from the waist down.
As a slugging corner infielder for the Perry softball team, Emalee Sines is used to being in the spotlight with eyes glued to her every move.
But when it happened in mid-October as Sines entered through the doors at Perry High School — doors she has passed through hundreds if not thousands of times over the years — the spotlight and attention was uncomfortable and scary.
That’s because this time, Sines was in a wheelchair.
For nearly four months, the 17-year-old daughter of Ray and Mandee Sines was paralyzed from the waist down as a result of what her mother termed as “an undisclosed neurological disorder” stemming from an adverse reaction to a flu shot and meningitis booster shot her daughter received Oct. 4 as part of her routine annual physical.
So when Sines unloaded for her seventh home run of the season earlier this week, the trot around the bases was done so with a smile on her face because there was no way she was going to take for granted such a jaunt.
No, never again will she do that.
“Oh yes, I have a deeper appreciation for things.” Perry’s Emalee Sines
“Oh yes, I have a deeper appreciation for things,” Sines said. “One thing is I will never take for granted anything again.”
Such as walking up the stairs to go to bed, playing tag around the kitchen in her home with her mother, or simply walking into the cafeteria at Perry High School without being stared at because she’s different.
“I did take things for granted before,” Sines admitted. “Not anymore.”
The morning of Oct. 4, 2017, was just like any other fall morning for Sines, the only difference being a bubbling of excitement because winter ball was going to be starting shortly. She just needed a physical first.
While getting her physical, she and her mother were told she was due for a meningitis booster shot. When asked about a flu shot — something Sines had never had before — the family figured why not?
The answer to their query was revealed later that night.
“I was watching TV and my face started getting tingly and numb,” Sines said. “I went downstairs to get water and had to stop because I was dizzy and nauseous.”
Twenty minutes later, she had lost all feeling from her shoulders down. Panic ensued. Over the following days, weeks and months, a myriad of tests were performed.
Every path they took was a dead end.
“I have (Multiple Sclerosis), and she was showing a lot of signs of MS,” Mandee Sines said. “It’s hereditary. They did find a couple of spots on her brain. Given the family history of it, I was adamant. But it wasn’t that.”
After bouncing around to different doctors, each of whom had their own theory of what causes Sines’ paralysis,
the staff at the Cleveland Clinic diagnosed it — as Mandee Sines described it — “an undiagnosed neurological disorder, leaning more toward the flu shot and meningitis shot and a bad reaction to them.”
Sines was coming off a sophomore year in which she hit .472 with a dazzling .911 fielding percentage at third base, and here she was confined to a hospital bed and wheelchair.
“The first time they called me, they said they were going to miss some hitting (sessions),” Perry coach Joe Medlen said. “Then when I started going to therapy with her at the hospital, I had to leave because I was bawling like a baby.”
Most everything changed. Without the ability to walk, Sines needed help with the most menial of tasks. She did everything she could for things to be normal, including
sliding up the stairs at home on the seat of her pants with her arms doing all the work — just to go to bed.
“When I was downstairs, they put me in a wheelchair to get around,” she said.
Her biggest fear was not being able to play softball anymore. In particular, she was set to take part in a softball camp at Florida State — which she calls her “dream school” — and was heartbroken she was wheelchair-bound.
Her family surprised her with a trip to the camp nonetheless. A moving video was shared on social media by Flosoftball.com at the camp.
All the while, Sines worked tirelessly to get back not only to play — but simply to walk again.
Her support network was vast, from the Perry coaches and players — “my second family, 100 percent,” Sines
said — and even a group from neighboring schools such as Kayla Preziuso and Lexie Leggett of Chardon, Alyssa Rose of Madison and Sami Ange of West Geauga.
“Seeing my friend in a hospital bed and wheelchair, I broke down in tears,” Ange said. “I had to wipe them away and be strong for her. It was very emotional, but at the end of the day, I had to wipe the tears and be strong.”
Ange has been through difficult trials, too, tearing the ACL in her left knee twice and the ACL and meniscus in her right knee once. She said Sines was there for her in the toughest of times.
There was no way she would not reciprocate.
“There were times she was worried and concerned (if she’d walk again), but when we were talking, it always turned to a game plan of how he could come back and play again,” Ange said. “It was more of how she was going to do it, not ‘Oh, I’m never going to walk again.’ ”
The target date was Feb. 19, the day Perry had softball tryouts. Although the allleague player had no chance of not making the team, that was her target date to find a way to walk again.
Physical therapy sessions were long and grueling, up to 10 hours per day. And when she returned from the sessions, she worked on her own.
“By this time, we’re well into January and tryouts were in February,” Mandee Sines said. “She was pushing herself real hard.”
Come Jan. 24, Sines decided that was the day she was going to find a way to push through. At a physical therapy session, she stood on her own for the first time since Oct. 4.
“My dad doesn’t show much emotion,” she said, “It’s something I hadn’t seen before. I never saw my dad cry as much as he did that day. He couldn’t believe his eyes.”
Mandee Sines, who admitted she cried herself to sleep many nights, said she hid from her daughter the fear she might not walk again.
And now she stood on her own.
Slowly the motor skills came back. Medlen remembered a time in the hospital he would throw a ball to a velcro pad on Sines’ hand, and she was unable to move her hand to “catch” it while standing up with the help of a harness.
Now she was making strides again.
“It was absolutely a miracle,” Medlen said. “Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I was there. I saw her cry. I saw her have seizures. I pray to God and thank Him every day because it’s a miracle — it really is.”
Heading into the weekend, Sines leads Perry in batting (.519), home runs (seven), RBI (38) and has stolen six bases. She jokes her stolen bases total is a little lower than what she’d like, but considering where she was in mid-January, she’ll take it.
When Sines launched a three-run home run against Geneva earlier this week, her mother leapt to her feet and cheered loudly as her daughter trotted around the bases with a smile on her face.
Never again will she take something for granted, such as trotting around the bases or even just walking from the on-deck circle to the batter’s box.
You don’t know what you’ve got, Sines said, until it’s gone.
The appreciation for the gifts God gave her, along with the newfound feeling of being different, will forever stick with her.
“Being looked at differently sucks,” she said. “Being judged because you’re in a wheelchair, I hated it.
“How far am I back? I’d say about 80 percent. But it’s very fun. It’s amazing to be back on the field doing what I love again I won’t ever take that for granted again.”