Twenty
year old Gemma Quinn has been paralyzed from the
neck down for over eleven years. In spite of being
a tetraplegic, Gemma has finished the English equivalent
of high school, written a play for the Paul McCartney
theater in her home town of Liverpool, England,
designs clothes, traveled around the United States
and Europe and is a spokesperson for the U.K. Charity
Spinal Research. She is the recipient of a courage
award and had a personal meeting with Princess Diana.
Gemma is an extraordinary young woman.
When her father, Mike, learned that an unusual
man in London who calls himself a mind instructor
had helped a paraplegic woman walk after all others
had given her no chance to do so, he thought he
and Gemma should explore the situation. They did
and the results have made worldwide headlines. The
BBC reported her progress as “Miracle Steps”.
Miracle
Steps is about Gemma’s remarkable attempts
to regain use of her paralyzed body. We follow Gemma
from the time of her tragic accident to the present
and spend almost two years observing her ups and
downs in a very intimate portrait her quest to walk
again. Our cameras and Gemma’s diary camera
record raw moments of success and failures.
We watch as the mind instructor, Hratch Ogali, a
very unusual man with a clinic in the heart of London
who has no former medical training, is able to help
Gemma move her feet and hands and ultimately feel
pain for the first time in eleven years. The mind
instructor’s work with Gemma can best be described
as very aggressive psycho/physio therapy with aspects
of personal training and healing used to achieve
unexpected results with Gemma and other patients.
We juxtapose Gemma’s story with the story
of another paralyzed patient of the mind instructor
and the stories of two paralyzed young men receiving
treatment at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.
Doctors and researchers at the Miami Project are
employing high tech equipment to pursue and record
the results of similar very aggressive physical
therapy. Their results have also been extraordinarily
encouraging.
Our documentary is hosted by and dedicated to Christopher
Reeve, who received a letter from and wrote to Gemma
shortly after he was paralyzed eight years ago.
Gemma’s story is very timely and is certain
to inspire countless people whether they are paralyzed
or not.
