BEEKMANTOWN — Sarah Downey has learned to make adjustments on the fly.
The 15-year-old Beekmantown High School student was born with brachial plexus palsy, a condition that disrupts the nerves controlling the arm and hand muscles.
At 3, she underwent an extensive surgical procedure to repair her damaged right arm but has taught herself over the years to become left-handed in most everything she does.
"Everyone asks me if it's hard to do everything with my left hand," Sarah said. "I've grown up left-handed. I've learned how to adapt to whatever."
And she has become very adept at adjusting to whatever life throws at her, including a softball.
"I bat right-handed, but I guide the bat with my left hand," she said. "I catch the ball with the glove on my left hand, and then I put the glove in the nook of my right arm to throw the ball."
Sarah recently completed the spring season with the Beekmantown modified team and is now playing in the Beekmantown summer softball league. She has been playing organized softball since t-ball.
Her interest in softball mushroomed a few years ago when she and her mom, Tracy Downey, attended a brachial plexus palsy convention. There, she met former Plattsburgh State standout Stephanie Zweig, who also has a brachial plexus injury.
"It was the first time Sarah had met somebody who had made such an extraordinary compensation for her injury," Tracy said. "I remember her telling me, 'Mom, I can do something with this.' It made such a significant change in her life."
DETERMINATION WINS
Zweig also sustained the injury at birth, leaving her with limited range of motion in her right arm. Twice, she was named State University of New York Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year, among several other awards, and is now the Cardinals head coach.
Sarah looks at those accomplishments with confidence that she, too, can set attainable goals, even when activities others don't think twice about take her utmost attention.
"I didn't learn how to ride a bike without training wheels until I was 10," she recalled. "I (would) watch my brother speeding by, and I (would) want to do that too. I (would) sometimes fall but ... get up and continue riding."
Brachial plexus palsy is not that common, occurring in one or two out of every 1,000 births in the United States. Many babies do recover from nerve damage within a few months after birth.
The plexus is a trunk of nerves that come out of the cervical area of the neck and branch down through the arms, hands and fingers, sending signals from the spine to the appendages.
Tracy has looked into other options for her daughter, such as a tendon transfer to place healthy tendons from her leg into her arm. That concept involves an invasive procedure that Tracy said she was not ready to put Sarah through.
"When she's older, she can make a decision like that based on what she feels is right."
What does Sarah think about the possibility of the surgery?
"No way," she said.
E-mail Jeff Meyers at: jmeyers@pressrepublican.com
