Spring Break
Former swimmer writes book about miracle comeback
Bill Brink
Issue date: 9/16/08 Section: Sports
It took Haley Scott DeMaria three tries, but she finally wrote and published the story of an event that changed her life.
Scott DeMaria was a freshman swimmer at Notre Dame in 1992. On Jan. 24, she was on the team bus coming back from a meet against Northwestern. Driving through a blinding blizzard, the bus was four miles from campus when it hit a patch of ice, skidded and flipped off the Toll Road.
Scott DeMaria suffered three crushed vertebrae and was paralyzed by the time she reached the hospital. Two other freshmen, Meghan Beeler and Colleen Hipp, died in the crash.
Scott DeMaria's life after the crash is an inspiration to accident victims, their family members or anyone who's ever had a goal in life.
Her book about the accident, "What Though The Odds - Haley Scott's Journey of Faith and Triumph," came out this June, following two previous attempts to write it. Scott DeMaria said she's in a place now where she can tell the story.
"What I've realized is that I needed to be at a very healthy and stable point in my life to go back and relive a very unhealthy and unstable part of my life," said Scott DeMaria, who was on campus this weekend for a book signing.
Usually, she said, the men and women traveled together to meets, but this was the first occasion where the women traveled by themselves. The team lost, but swam well, Scott DeMaria, a Phoenix native, said, and was excited to contend with such a good team.
Next thing she knew the bus was upside down in a ditch next to the road, and Scott DeMaria was on her back in the snow.
Scott DeMaria had two operations that night. She said doctors looked for any signs of hope that she may regain feeling in her legs and walk again, but after two days, they told her to begin accepting the reality of life in a wheelchair. She would have none of it.
"Some of it was shock and some of it was being overwhelmed with what's going on but for the most part it wasn't acceptable to me," she said.
Scott DeMaria was a freshman swimmer at Notre Dame in 1992. On Jan. 24, she was on the team bus coming back from a meet against Northwestern. Driving through a blinding blizzard, the bus was four miles from campus when it hit a patch of ice, skidded and flipped off the Toll Road.
Scott DeMaria suffered three crushed vertebrae and was paralyzed by the time she reached the hospital. Two other freshmen, Meghan Beeler and Colleen Hipp, died in the crash.
Scott DeMaria's life after the crash is an inspiration to accident victims, their family members or anyone who's ever had a goal in life.
Her book about the accident, "What Though The Odds - Haley Scott's Journey of Faith and Triumph," came out this June, following two previous attempts to write it. Scott DeMaria said she's in a place now where she can tell the story.
"What I've realized is that I needed to be at a very healthy and stable point in my life to go back and relive a very unhealthy and unstable part of my life," said Scott DeMaria, who was on campus this weekend for a book signing.
Usually, she said, the men and women traveled together to meets, but this was the first occasion where the women traveled by themselves. The team lost, but swam well, Scott DeMaria, a Phoenix native, said, and was excited to contend with such a good team.
Next thing she knew the bus was upside down in a ditch next to the road, and Scott DeMaria was on her back in the snow.
Scott DeMaria had two operations that night. She said doctors looked for any signs of hope that she may regain feeling in her legs and walk again, but after two days, they told her to begin accepting the reality of life in a wheelchair. She would have none of it.
"Some of it was shock and some of it was being overwhelmed with what's going on but for the most part it wasn't acceptable to me," she said.