By Bonnie Washuk,Staff Writer

PORTLAND – Six days after being paralyzed in a ski accident, Monica Quimby, 19, sat up in a hospital wheelchair for the first time. She cried.

Friday was a tiring, emotional day, her mother said. It was a time for Monica and her family “to mourn the death of her legs,” her mother said from a hospital lobby.

On Jan. 28, Monica, the daughter of Nadia and Scott Quimby of Turner, was skiing with her University of New Hampshire ski club at Sunday River. She swerved to avoid a snow boarder. Within seconds, Monica was on the ground with a severed spinal cord, leaving her paralyzed from the upper thighs down.

“Thankfully, it’s low enough so she’ll have full use of her entire upper body,” Nadia said as her daughter slept in the Maine Medical Center.

Monica’s mourning won’t last.

“She’s the type of girl who always finds the good in everything,” her mother said.

On Monday, Monica and her mother are scheduled to be flown to Atlanta, Ga., where the 2004 Leavitt High grad will undergo therapy at the Shepherd Center, the best spinal cord injury facility in the country, Nadia said.

Next fall she’ll be back at UNH, studying and going to frat parties just like before, Nadia said.

At UNH Monica majors in molecular cellular and developmental biology, with a concentration in genetics. “She has a huge passion for this particular science.” As a sophomore, she worked as an intern studying DNA.

A week ago today, Monica was skiing on White Heat, a triple diamond trail at the top of the mountain.

“A snowboarder came out of nowhere towards her,” her mother said. “She swerved out of the way to avoid the snowboarder. She found herself on top of a ski jump, sideways. She went up in the air, did a 360. She fell 20 feet and landed on her right side.”

A man on the chairlift saw what happened. He sprang from the lift. “He was a doctor from Boston, an orthopedic surgeon,” Nadia said. “He skied over to her, kept talking to her, kept her conscious. He stayed with her until the ski patrol got there.”

With the doctor at her side, the ski patrol put her into a basket and brought her down the mountain.

Scott Quimby said the Boston doctor was a hero, saving his daughter from being more seriously paralyzed. “He was unreal. He held her head all the way down. She was screaming.” The pain was like a knife in her back, he said.

Monica was flown to the hospital.

At the time, Scott was working at the NewPage paper mill in Rumford, Nadia at Day’s Jewelry in Auburn. Nadia got a call she needed to come to the hospital. Her sister, Diane Bryant, is a nurse at Maine Medical, so the two went together. Nadia thought her daughter only had a broken leg.

At the hospital she was told Monica had a broken back and was paralyzed.

“As soon as I saw her, she looked in my eyes and said, I can’t feel my legs!'” Nadia cried, then told her daughter she was paralyzed. “We were absolutely stunned.”

Since news spread in Turner and at UNH, people are devastated, Nadia said.

Monica’s room is full of flowers. “We get hundreds of e-mails a day,” her mother said. People are helping. Bob and Beverly Leavitt gave her a new laptop. The Masons in Turner, of which Scott is a member, want to build a wheelchair ramp at the home. Neighbor Craig Young is raising money for the family. Her sister, Sarah, 16, carried in a poster from Leavitt Area High School covered with hearts and well wishes.

Earlier this week, surgery was done to put a rod in her spine to allow her to sit up. Monica is having significant pain, her mother said.

As family members visit, there are tears. There are smiles and hugs, too.

Her parents know Monica has tough days ahead. She’ll be in a wheelchair. But Monica won’t rest until she can move her legs, her father said.

Once at the Georgia rehabilitation facility, Monica will swim, kayak, paint and do pottery.

“At UNH, she extracted DNA from strawberry plants,” her mother said. “We’ll bring some of her plants down so she can continue her research.”

Five years from now, Scott Quimby predicted his daughter will be doing stem cell research. “What happened to her will make her work harder and push other people to find a cure for spinal injuries,” he said. “It’s kind of spooky that way.”

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