CAS CONNECT 2014

6 ‘Watch Me’ C ertain events during a person’s life are associated with walk- ing: walking down the aisle at a wedding or across a stage to receive a diploma. Mary Beth Davis, a zoology graduate from Oklahoma State University, never really gave those events much thought until a car accident four years ago left her paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors told Davis and her family that she might have to change her career plans and that she may never walk again. “I’m always up for a challenge and I challenge myself personally all the time,” Davis says. “If somebody tells me, hey, you can’t do something, I’m going to be like, ‘Watch me.’ ” AND WATCH THEY DID. On May 10, Davis defied her doctors’ prognosis by graduating as a pre-vet major, and with the use of an Ekso Bionic Suit, she walked across the stage in Gallagher-Iba Arena and received her diploma. Aug. 27, 2010, was the Friday of the first week of fall classes. Davis was in her first semester at OSU in Stillwater, after transferring from OSU-OKC. Driving home to Guthrie, she went off the road slightly, overcorrected and flipped her truck. At the hospital, Davis and her family were told she had broken the C6 and C7 vertebrae in her neck and had also bruised her spinal cord. The road to recovery was going to be a long one, but Davis knew she could not give up. Mary Beth Davis demonstrates the Ekso Bionic Suit at Deer Creek Middle School in Edmond. PHOTO / DAVID M c DANIEL, THE OKLAHOMAN , © 2014 OSU student doesn’t let paralysis stop her STORY BY Jamie Hadwin