The doctor who learnt to walk again, using exercise

After a catastrophic car crash in the parking lot of her hospital, Dr Olivia Ong became a paraplegic. But her obsession with learning how to walk again was stronger than her incomplete spinal cord injury.

When Olivia Ong was 28 years old, she had the world at her feet.

She had recently qualified as a doctor, something she had dreamed of since she was a child growing up in Malaysia.

She had married a man she loved deeply, and they were busy building their future together.

Then, everything changed after a car crashed into her in the parking lot of the hospital she worked in.

Olivia now refers to herself as a 'walking paraplegic'.

She spent years working hard to walk again, using simple exercise therapies she discovered in the United States.

Back On My Feet: From Doctor to Patient is published by HarperCollins.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores medicine, university, love, faith, spinal cord injuries, paraplegia, car crashes, from doctor to patient, marriage, love, motherhood, pain specialist, rehab specialist, California, Project Walk, exercise therapy, surgery, wheelchair user, people living with disability, parenting with disability, accessibility.

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