By Ann Craig-Cinnamon
The night before Thanksgiving 2013, Mia Carter went to bed a typical, healthy teenage girl, but woke up at 4 a.m. with a backache that quickly led to paralysis.
The Fishers junior high student was taken to the hospital and given an MRI that showed a blood clot pushing on her spinal cord.
After surgery and three weeks at St.Vincent Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, she was transferred to a hospital in Cincinnati where she stayed until February. Her mother, Isabel Carter, said she was diagnosed with arterial ventricular malformation, which is something she was born with. She says she is medically healthy and goes to therapy, but people with AVM do not usually walk again. “But we have hope. We pray. And she has a lot of people praying for her. She’s healthy. She’s young,” said Isabel.
The 13-year-old returned to school, where her mother says people have been wonderful to her. “I can’t say enough about the community and her school and her friends,” Isabel said. “It’s truly amazing and I wouldn’t have met so many great people if it hadn’t been for this terrible situation. So many good people have come into our lives, and to see that so many people care.”
Expenses have been great and getting around with Mia difficult for Isabel. That’s where Pub Theology came in. Founder Daron Earlewine said his organization puts on charity fundraising events around the city in pubs and matches a local company with a local cause. He called it “partying with a purpose.” Earlewine matched Mia with Mo’s Irish Pub in Hamilton Town Center.
“We put this together and hosted a party in April with Mo’s and Mia and then were able to raise $25,000 that night,” Earlewine said. “Then we got connected with Samantha’s House and Van,” which needed a recipient for its van this year and partnered with Mia’s family. The end result was a new accessible van worth more than $50,000 that was presented to Mia and her family Oct. 15 at Mo’s.
A single mom, Isabel said it will make their lives so much easier. “It’s awesome, overwhelming. I carried her in and out of car for last 11 months and this will be so much easier, and we can take trips.”
She said that the family is planning to start a scholarship at Fishers Junior High in Mia’s name to help other families like theirs.
