'When she moves, she'll move you': North Jersey teen athlete battles back from paralysis

Melanie Mejia is determined to walk across the stage when she graduates from Lodi's Thomas Jefferson Middle School on Wednesday morning. She just isn't quite sure how she'll do it.

Will she use a walker? Forearm crutches? Or maybe just the plastic-and-metal braces that keep her legs steady? She could even use the back stairway for the ceremony at Felician University, out of sight of the audience, and be in the wings when her name is called.

The 14-year-old wasn't sure last week. But she's succeeded again and again in the pool and at other adaptive sports, despite a condition that left her comatose at age 8 and with lingering muscle weakness in her legs and feet. All that extra effort has been practice for her latest goal: walking across the stage to receive her diploma.

The eighth-grader with the metallic smile and a pink scrunchie holding back her long black braid has already changed the path of her life in ways even her family never envisioned.

A lifelong swimmer, Melanie has qualified for multiple races at the Move United Nationals to be held in July in Hoover, Alabama. The competition is expected to draw about 400 athletes with physical, visual or intellectual disabilities from across the United States. Melanie will also compete in archery and throwing events.

As an 8-year-old, Melanie was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder in which the immune system attacks the nerves, causing weakness throughout the body. She was completely paralyzed and in a coma for several days, ultimately recovering mobility only from her head to her hips. The disease may have also triggered dermatomyositis, another rare condition, which causes inflammation and skin rashes and which Melanie has battled since December 2021.

Since second grade, she's been in physical therapy, seeking to restore full functionality to her body. A couple of years ago, a therapist recommended the New Jersey Navigators, an adaptive sports club that holds practices in Bayonne and Rahway.

Melanie attended an adaptive swim meet at the Cranford YMCA. Seeing other kids with disabilities proved inspirational.

"That was the day I knew not to give up on your dreams," she said softly. "It feels like I'm not alone anymore."

'Don't give up. Keep going'

Melanie seemed destined for the water even before she was born. Her parents, Alexander Mejia and Soledad Carrasco, met in Peru in 1997, and they immigrated to New Jersey two years apart.

Alexander Mejia's hometown, Paramonga, is on the Pacific Ocean, and he and Carrasco grew up swimming in the waves. In 2008, when Carrasco was almost nine months pregnant with Melanie, the couple went camping at Cheesequake State Park in Old Bridge. Her mother did flips in the lake. A couple of months after Melanie was born, they took her back there.

As a toddler, their girl tried to jump into the deep end of a pool at a Wildwood hotel. She already knew how to float, and Mejia taught Melanie to swim at the Jersey Shore.

She was learning stroke technique when she got sick.

"Everything stopped for us," her father said, but he eventually brought his daughter back to the ocean to battle the waves again.

"She told me, 'I want to stop everything,'" Mejia said, tears glistening. "I said, 'No, your life continues. The games continue. ... You continue. You never stop. You do more waves, the big ones. I push her not to stop. I'll be strong for her. But inside me, I'm destroyed."

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Mejia and Carrasco have grown accustomed to putting their own challenging feelings aside to keep Melanie motivated, particularly when a lung issue kept her out of the pool for a month earlier this year. Navigators throws coach Jullian Santiago, who has spina bifida and sometimes uses a wheelchair, has focused on keeping young athletes like Melanie competitive and social.

On the track, Santiago wants Melanie to try every event in a racing wheelchair. He also encourages her to walk at home, either with crutches or unaided.

"I tell her, 'Don't give up. Keep going. This is just the beginning,'" said Santiago, a Bayonne resident. "I give them that little extra push that maybe some other coaches might not have the time or know-how to do. I'm really focusing on encouraging them to want to do better and be better, and just stay active. Being in the chair, it's really easy to fall back and get down and depressed."

A soccer player in Peru, Alexander Mejia convinced the Navigators' coaches to let him try para-archery alongside Melanie. Father and daughter sometimes practice together in the backyard, though Melanie lamented it's not large enough for shot put or discus.

"It's better than therapy," Carrasco said. "At therapy she's bored. She's tired. She doesn't want to go. It's always the same. In this group, she's doing exercise and enjoys it."

Aiming for the bull's-eye

A ballet dancer in early childhood, Melanie has also found her way back onstage.

Her home-care nurse, Julissa Cruz, is also a professional dancer and dance instructor. Last spring, she choreographed a performance for Melanie and her young cousin to Rachel Platten's "Fight Song" as part of a dance school recital. On June 11, Melanie was invited back to perform a solo to "Need You Now" by Plumb at the George Frey Center for Arts & Recreation in Fair Lawn.

"When she wants something, she hits that bull's-eye. She'll make a way," said Cruz, a licensed practical pediatric nurse in Little Ferry who accompanies Melanie to school. "She's not a person of many words, but when she moves, she'll move you."

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Melanie also loves to paint. The light-pink walls in her bedroom are covered with brightly colored images of beaches and the solar system, so many canvases that she isn't sure where to hang the new ones, since they don't match the living room decor. She plans to sell her paintings on Instagram and Facebook, but she said, "I don't have time because I'm very busy with sports, getting ready for Nationals."

Melanie enjoys writing poetry in her English language arts class. "I'm starting to write my own story," she said, "but I still need a title."

In mid-April, Melanie was surprised with a $2,500 grant from the San Diego-based Challenged Athletes Foundation. Her family was invited to the New York International Auto Show at the Javits Center in Manhattan. Melanie and her Navigators teammate M.J. Catuncan of Union were called onstage and presented with oversized checks.

Melanie plans to use the money for extra training and the trip to Nationals. The family will make the 15-hour drive from Lodi to Alabama next month.

Melanie hopes to someday be invited to USA Swimming's junior para-national team. But that's just another milestone on her list, like walking across the graduation stage.

"My goal is to keep progressing, day by day and week by week, as long as I'm not going back," Melanie said. "I just want to keep going forward."

Jane Havsy is a storyteller for the Daily Record and DailyRecord.com, part of the USA TODAY Network. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis, subscribe today.

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This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Melania Mejia, adaptive athlete from Lodi NJ, beats paralysis, coma