The family of Presleigh Mills considers their little girl to be a miracle. Just a few short years ago, after a terrifying act of violence that made local headlines, Presleigh wasn’t even expected to live, let alone be walking around.
“Presleigh was born perfectly healthy. She was a perfect baby,” said Tammy Mills, Presleigh’s grandmother. “And in April of 2023, when Presleigh was about two months old, she was assaulted and punched in the head and abused severely by a man who is now in prison.”
Tammy Mills says her granddaughter was not expected to survive and was even removed from a ventilator before she started breathing on her own.
“It’s an absolute miracle,” said Tammy. “She’s doing things that nobody believed was possible.”
Dynamic movement intervention therapy
Those possibilities now include walking and even climbing stairs, thanks in no small part to a positive attitude, a lot of hard work, and a little help from Sanford Children’s Therapies in Bismarck, North Dakota.
“The therapists are amazing at guiding us on what to do,” Tammy said. “Right now she’s wearing certain braces and doing certain exercises. Whatever they assign to us, we continue to try to do. When you see her progress, you know that you’re doing something right and it encourages you to keep on moving forward.”
Physical therapist Hayley Trom has been seeing Presleigh for nearly three years. She says the progress she has seen from Presleigh – especially in the last year – has been beyond her expectations.
“When I first started seeing her, we were working on floor mobility, tummy time, trying to work on some crawling, sitting, those kinds of things. She’s just been rocking,” Trom said. “It took four sessions in a gait trainer before she was walking independently, which is just wild. Oftentimes we’ll work years sometimes on walking and before working on DMI with her, I really wasn’t quite sure.”
One of the new training regimens Presleigh is working on with her Sanford trainers is called dynamic movement intervention, or DMI. With DMI, the trainers place their hands on different parts of a patient’s body to challenge different muscles, as well as the brain, to build strength, balance and control.
“A lot of times when you see kids walk or learning how to walk, people will hold their hands or their hips, but that’s just giving them different support,” said Sami Kraft, another of Presleigh’s physical therapists. “If you move down, they’re having to control their whole trunk as well as their hips. And if you move down to their lower legs, then they’re controlling their knee joints as well.”
Sanford Children’s Therapies manager Jackie Mrachek explained the connection between the body’s work and what’s happening inside the brain.
“I think the greatest thing about DMI that I’m observing is that it pushes kids outside their comfort zone,” Mrachek said. “It creates great strength, but it also challenges the brain to figure out a way to respond and send that message. So there’s also that hope that there’s a level of neuroplasticity taking place. We’re reshaping those neural communications.”
Sanford Children’s expertise and care
Therapists started training on DMI about two years ago. Now, there are 10 therapists at this location certified in DMI.
“I’m so proud of this team and the work they’re doing, and at the end of the day, I think it is so rewarding to be able to see the kids that we’re serving progress and maybe progress further than we ever thought they could,” said Mrachek.
Of course that includes 3-year-old Presleigh. Her family drives 90 minutes each way from Herreid, South Dakota, just to have this therapy done twice a week in Bismarck. But Tammy says it’s not just the therapy that keeps them coming back.
“The specialized care is what brought us here. What keeps us here is the relationships that these ladies have formed, the dedication that they have given to Presleigh, and mostly the encouragement to our whole family,” said Tammy. “We’re not just walking into a facility anymore. We’ve built relationships and Presleigh knows them, and we will continue to be with Sanford even as Presleigh goes into school. We’ve vowed to continue to strive. These people are absolutely amazing.”
Learn more
- Young stroke survivor is now a self-sufficient teen
- Patient with cerebral palsy grows up with Sanford Children’s
- Physical therapy helps young children reach milestones
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Posted In Bismarck, Children's, Rehabilitation & Therapy
