WATERLOO - It could have been worse.

Leeanne Yearling was just 16 when the truck she was riding in rolled several times on a county road near Prairie du Chien, Wis. The accident landed her in a Wisconsin hospital for several weeks, where doctors told her parents she had damaged her spinal nerves.

The official diagnosis: incomplete paraplegia, a term used to describe partial injury to the spinal cord. Doctors said it was possible she would never walk again.

Yearling's parents, Gloria and Ron Wenger, refused to believe their young daughter would forever be confined to a wheelchair. They were so confident that she would overcome the injury they never told her the extent to which her spinal cord had been wounded.

"A psychiatrist at the hospital told us we would end up making it worse for Leeanne because we weren't accepting of the diagnosis," Gloria said. "We didn't know if she would try as hard to get better if we told her what was wrong."

And to this day, more than 12 years later, Yearling still doesn't know the answer to that question.

But one thing is certain - her recovery efforts and progress continue to amaze everyone around her. Yearling recently received the "Rehabilitant of the Year" award at the 14th annual Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare Rehabilitation Awards Ceremony. Marlene Ciorba, a rehabilitation social worker and Yearling's nominator, said she has always been impressed by Yearling's determination.

"She went immediately back to school, graduated and went on to Hawkeye. She was pulled toward nursing somewhat from her experience," Ciorba said. "The fact that she has continued to expand her education all while raising a family and foster children - she truly has not let her disability stand in her way."

At 28, Yearling works part time in Dr. Farid Manshadi's office while attending school part-time to become a registered nurse. On the homefront, Yearling and her husband, Brad, are raising three children: Brandon, 10, Jacob, 7, and Isabella, 6 months. The couple also has a foster parent license and had cared for several children prior to Isabella's birth. Yearling said she would like to be a foster parent again when her children are a little older.

For now, it's a full-time job caring for her own three children. Despite Yearling's recovery, the accident has left a lasting mark on her mobility. Her hip muscles are weak. She wears braces on her feet and lower legs to compensate for the damage to the nerves that control her ankles.

"Safety is always a big concern," Yearling said, of caring for her children. "I always have to make sure to have them in my sight and close by."

Staying strong

Yearling admits her recovery wasn't always perfect, though few knew of the internal struggles she sometimes dealt with. She spent much of the summer after her sophomore year in high school completing an in-patient rehabilitation program at Covenant Medical Center.

The magnitude of her situation didn't truly hit home until she left the walls of the hospital. During one outing for therapeutic recreation, Yearling and a group of other patients went for a meal at Danny's Diner in Cedar Falls. As a teenager who was already self-conscious about the wheelchair and her condition, Yearling said she really struggled after seeing a group of her peers dining at another table.

"The girls all looked so cute and everyone just looked so happy," she said. "I started crying right there."

That wasn't the only time Yearling let the emotions get the best of her. She can talk freely now about the times she would cry in her room or let her anger with the situation get the best of her.

"I wondered what it was that I did to deserve this," she said. "But I prayed a lot and came to realize this was something that happened to me, and I just had to make the best of it."

Yearling's mother, Gloria, who was with Yearling on a recent Friday afternoon at Young Arena watching Jacob's hockey practice, said this was the first she had heard about the struggles.

"To her father and I, she just showed strength, all the time," Gloria said, holding back tears. "This is a shock to me. We never saw that side of her."

Even now, Yearling says she sometimes struggles with body image issues. As she's matured those personal issues have taken a back seat to the more important tasks at hand, but both Yearling and her mother light up about the one time she was able to wear a dress since her accident. Yearling married Brad in June 1999.

"She was so excited for her wedding. It was a big deal to get to wear that dress," Gloria said. "We even decorated tennis shoes with lace and ribbon to make them look nice for her."

Now, when she's down, she longs for those little things, like skirts or shorts and flip flops or strappy dress shoes. Her mother longs to share a relaxing foot massage and pedicure with her daughter, but Yearling doesn't see the point. The lack of sensation in her feet wouldn't allow her to enjoy it.

But before she can get too down, she is brought back to reality.

There is dinner to be made, diapers to be changed and little hockey players to cheer for.

Looking ahead

Yearling expects to graduate with her registered nursing degree early next year, and while she loves her job in Manshadi's office, she said it's possible she will look elsewhere. Sharon Turner, a registered nurse and Manshadi's office manager, has different hopes for Yearling.

"My goal is for her to take over my job and I will work part time until I retire," she said.

Turner has known Yearling since she was one of Manshadi's patients. She said Yearling's injury gives her a connection with patients most nurses can never make.

"She is very compassionate with our patients and they can relate. They can ask her a lot of questions, like the kind of braces she uses and how they work for her, that I can't give them answers to," Turner said. "I applaud her, I really do."

But Yearling has some other dreams. She hopes to someday work in a hospital rehab unit, offering the same treatments she once received. Knowing her physical limitations, Yearling said she also has begun to look into other areas of medicine that would allow her to rest throughout the work day, like diabetes and wound care.

She also hopes her disability will help her children be more compassionate toward others and help them understand just how strong they can be. So when Jacob or Brandon comes home from school talking about a child who is slower in gym class or can't do something as well as they can, Yearling reminds them they don't know the whole story and that sometimes people probably say those things about her, too.

"It's a good lesson for everyone, not to jump to conclusions about someone until you know the whole story."

Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1570 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.