DEFYING THE ODDS.

“Let me just try to work on you,” Roskopf, an Englewood-based muscle function specialist, told Van Dyken-Rouen. “I know you can’t move, but I want you to just think about lifting your leg up into my hand. Picture it in your head.”

Roskopf hoped visualizing a contraction would help her move her muscles.

With a close friend watching, Van Dyken-Rouen did as she was told. She couldn’t see it and she certainly couldn’t feel it, but in picturing her leg contracting, her muscles responded. Her friend saw the contraction immediately and had to leave the room she became so emotional.

“They were very light contractions,” Roskopf recalled. “But I was like, ‘Whoa, she’s actually resisting me here. We have big potential now.’”