Fishers woman competes on global stage following traumatic injury
By Ann Craig-Cinnamon
There’s a lot of strength packed into Aika Yoshida’s tiny frame. The 36-year old Fishers resident has come a long way quickly and courageously from a traumatic spinal cord injury.
Ironically, Yoshida is a physical therapist at Community Health Network at Saxony. She came to the United States from Japan to earn her undergraduate college degree and then received her graduate degree in Indiana.
She has no family in this nation and knew no one when she came here, which should tells you a lot about her. It takes a lot of courage to move somewhere new all by yourself, especially when that place is halfway around the world from home. But the U.S. became home for her and she decided to stay. She has lived in Indiana now for 10 years, the past four years in Fishers.
In July of 2013, her life was forever changed when she fell on her head while doing acrobatic yoga.
“Right after the injury when I was lying down on the grass at Broad Ripple Park, I knew I had a spinal cord injury because of the symptoms I had,” Yoshida said “I didn’t know how severe it was but I knew something was terribly wrong.”
It was severe. Her spinal cord was compressed and she had suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury. Had it been complete, she would have been paralyzed from the neck down. The fact that her spinal cord wasn’t severed has allowed her to regain a lot of mobility, but it has not been an easy path.
“It’s been very challenging,” Yoshida said. “It just seems like an almost endless journey of repetitive exercises and therapy. When one thing gets better there’s always something else to work on. It’s been a lot but I’m very blessed. I have great support from my co-workers and a lot of great friends here in town because I don’t have any family here in this country, so it’s been really great to have support from a lot of people.
“I think you need to have a good attitude. You just have to focus on ability versus what I still can’t do. We need to focus on what we can’t do so that we can get better. I think when I focus on that though it is so depressing. I used to run; I can’t run anymore. I used to do this and I can’t do it. So I think it’s important for me to surround myself with supportive, positive people so I can encourage myself to keep going and continue therapy.”
In just 15 months, Yoshida has come a long way although she does still walk with a limp and has problems with arm, hand and finger function. She said she may continue to improve but will likely never regain all of her former abilities. “I think where I am right now I have probably surprised a lot of the physicians. My neurosurgeon wasn’t even sure if I would be able to go back to work as a physical therapist and I’m not back to work full time but I am working more than 20 hours. “
Climbing is one of the things that have helped her the most. She had been doing it for years before her injury and thought she would never be able to do it again until she heard about Paradox Sports which provides adaptive climbing opportunities for those with disabilities. Aika latched on to it and thrived.
In fact, she did so well that she decided to compete in the paraclimbing nationals in Atlanta in July where she finished second in her category. That led her to compete in the Paraclimbing World Championship in Spain in September, where she received the silver medal. “It was just such an amazing experience for me. It wasn’t so much a competition against other climbers but just to prove to myself that I can still do a lot of stuff. I was so inspired by other climbers who were completely missing arms and legs. It was so neat to see people trying and not focusing on their disabilities,” said Aika.
Climbing is growing in popularity and Aika hopes it will become an Olympic sport someday. She says it has certainly helped her overcome her disability. “If there’s something I couldn’t do last week, but I can do it this week, then I can really focus on positive things and getting stronger. And it forces me to use the right side of my body which was more affected than the left.”
Aika has an important take-away from her life-altering accident. “I don’t wish anybody else having to go through this, but at the same time I think there are a lot of things that I learned from this experience. One is just knowing how kind people are,” she said tearing up. Besides lots of support from co-workers and friends, Climb Time Indy helped her train for the competition and paid for her coaching.
As for the future, Aika has big goals. She plans to compete in the Japan World Cup next May; she wants to walk a half marathon and hopes to climb El Capitan in Yosemite. “I never got to do this pre-injury, so why not now?” Aika said. Why not, indeed.
