The end of a school year means more than the promise of Summer vacation. For high school students, it means the opportunity to attend prom. Teens that have special needs face additional difficulties that must be overcome in order for them to attend. A lung transplant made it possible for a teen in West Virginia to attend her prom.
The end of a student’s senior year of high school is filled with plenty of stressful situations. This is when teens need to make decisions about where they are going to college, (and how to pay for tuition). They face a series of final exams, some of which could be standardized tests that must be passed. There is a transitional period from been a high schooler to being an adult in “the real world”.
For many teens, the biggest worries on their mind at the end of a school year is about prom. There is usually a certain amount of anxiety about whether or not they will find a date, and how they will manage to pay for the gown and the limo. There are a lot of teenagers who have dreamed of attending their senior prom since they were little kids.
Teenagers with special needs have additional difficulties to conquer before they can attend prom. Earlier this year, I wrote about an eighteen year old high school student named Kevin McGuire who feared that the side effects of his cancer treatment would mean that no one would want to attend prom with him. An attempt was made to have Taylor Swift to go to prom with Kevin. The two didn’t end up attending prom, but he was invited to attend the AMC awards with her as her date. Sadly, his health wasn’t good enough for him to go.
Victoria Chakwin is an eighteen year old high school senior who lives in West Virginia. Three months ago, she was near death. She had been battling pulmonary fibrosis for most of her life, and this has left scarring in her lungs that caused her to have extreme difficulty breathing.
She was diagnosed with it when she was in sixth grade. Most people who have pulmonary fibrosis only live for three to five years after the diagnosis is made. The disease made it difficult for Victoria to attend school. The last full school year she was able to have was in eighth grade. Everyone knows that colds and flus tend spread from student to student. Victoria was getting severely sick each time a new “bug” was going around.
Like many high school seniors, Victoria did want to attend prom. However, her health issues made that pretty much impossible. Luckily, she was able to receive two transplanted lungs this year. This high school senior is going to be healthy enough to attend prom after all!
Image by SOCIALis BETTER on Flickr