Student paralyzed in ATV accident walks to pick up diploma
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Audriana Michrina is pictured in her home recently.
Courtesy of Holly Michrina-Wargo
Audriana Michrina sits in the hospital days after she was paralyzed in an ATV accident at age 18. Michrina walked across the stage Friday to accept her diploma at Chartiers-Houston’s graduation.
Courtesy of Holly Michrina-Wargo
Audriana Michrina poses for a picture recently on a trip to a Pittsburgh museum. She plans to attend Duquesne University in the fall.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Audriana Michrina walks across the stage next to English teacher Erin Gasper to accept her diploma at Chartiers-Houston’s Buccaneer stadium Friday night. Ty Mazutis holds Michrina’s wheelchair.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Audriana Michrina walks across the stage alongside English teacher Erin Gasper to accept her diploma at Chartiers-Houston’s Buccaneer stadium Friday night. Ty Mazutis holds Michrina’s wheelchair.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Audriana Michrina accepts her diploma from school board president Richard Hall Friday night at Chartiers-Houston’s Buccaneer stadium.
Less than 13 months ago, Audriana “Bug” Michrina was injured in an ATV accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down.
On Friday, the 18-year-old walked across the stage at Chartiers-Houston’s stadium to accept her diploma.
Michrina’s classmates Ty Mazutis and James Dillie carried her wheelchair up the steps and onto the stage, and English teacher Erin Gasper helped her lock her leg braces.
Then, Michrina pushed herself to her feet, and using her braces and a walker, she made her way to center stage, where school board president Richard Hall hugged her and handed her the diploma.
She received a standing ovation from her classmates and the crowd in attendance, including nearly three dozen people wearing “Bug’s Battle Buddies” T-shirts.
“It was overwhelming, but exciting,” said Michrina.
Michrina said she made it her goal a few months after the May 13 accident to walk at graduation.
“I was determined I was going to do it,” she said.
Michrina was paralyzed on Mother’s Day in 2018, two days after prom, when an ATV on which she was a passenger flipped and landed on her.
Michrina was transported from Canonsburg Hospital to Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, where an orthopedic surgeon performed a 6-hour operation and inserted two rods and 12 screws in her broken back.
Doctors told Michrina she had less than a 10 percent chance to walk again.
Michrina spent 10 days at AGH, followed by 82 days as a patient at Harmarville Rehabilitation Hospital, where she underwent intensive therapy, pushing herself to meet her goal of walking at graduation.
She travels to Harmarville twice a week for therapy, focusing on core and upper body strength training.
“This is her moment to shine. She’s earned this,” said Holly Michrina-Wargo, Audriana’s mother. “She’s amazing. She’s unstoppable. She’s very brave. There were a few nights we laid awake at Harmarville and we talked about the situation, so there were a few moments, but I reassured her this is not the end of her life, the journey doesn’t end here.”
In fact, Michrina’s journey is just beginning.
She plans to attend Duquesne University in the fall, where she has enrolled as an undecided major.
She’s had what she described as an “amazing senior year.”
Michrina was elected to the homecoming and prom courts, and teachers and administrators worked with her to make sure she could graduate on time, with her classmates.
A typical teenager, she attended high school football games, and enjoyed shopping and spending time with friends.
Michrina, who played for Chartiers-Houston girls volleyball team and soccer, is determined to get better.
“I just kind of think positively about all of it. I don’t tell myself I won’t walk again, I say, ‘When I walk again,'” said Michrina, who returned to school in November, six months after the accident. “I tell myself that it might not be the best right now, but it’s the best at this moment.”
Michrina keeps up to date on advancements in science and bionic technology that offer hope to spinal cord injury patients, and she reads inspirational biographies of people like Victoria Arlen, who went from being paralyzed at age 11 to Dancing With the Stars.
She also met surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm to a shark in 2003 at age 13 and was surfing again less than a month later.
Michrina and her mother are grateful, too, for the Chartiers-Houston School District and their family and friends, who have made sure she is not alone on her journey to recovery.
Coaches, teachers and friends visited often when she was hospitalized, and provided emotional and financial support to Michrina -whose father, Frank Wargo, died in 2015 – and her mother.
Her volleyball coach, Sean Cleary, purchased specially designed Nike tennis shoes with a zipper in the back that allow her braces to fit. Michrina wore them to walk at graduation.
Family and friends also renovated Michrina’s home in Stabane, converting the dining room into a first-floor bedroom, and adding a handicapped-accessible bathroom.
“I’m eternally grateful to everybody,” said Michrina-Wargo, who has documented her daughter’s progress on a Facebook page, Audri’s Army. “We couldn’t have done this by ourselves. I couldn’t have gotten through it without everyone who kept me strong so that I could be strong for Bug.”
Michrina experiences severe nerve pain in her legs and gets leg spasms, for which she takes medication.
But she wants to live a normal life and try new things, so when a family friend of Michrina-Wargo’s loaned the pair his property in Maui in January, she went scuba diving and horseback riding.
Michrina said she wants to be an inspiration for other young adults who are paralyzed.
“Now that this has happened, I’m hoping that if there’s anyone who end up in the situation I was in, that they can talk to me,” said Michrina. “I can tell them my experience, how I did it, and they’ll know they will be able to do it, too.”