Ethiopian Girl With One Arm and One Leg Swims to Success

Dec. 20, 2004 -- -- Adanech Spratlin is an enthusiastic third-grader living in Atlanta. But the happy 10-year-old has already lived through the unimaginable.

"She brings so much life to this school," said her second-grade teacher, Jackie Vadney. "Everyone knows Adanech through her story."

Three-and-a-half years ago, Adanech was being raised by her grandmother alone in a poor suburb in Ethiopia. One day, she went to the store to buy her grandmother a bottle of juice, and on her way home, she was the victim of a devastating accident.

While crossing the railroad tracks, she fell in the mud and was hit by a train. The girl's right arm was immediately severed, and her right leg was crushed; it was later amputated.

It's still too painful for Adanech to speak of that day, but she does remember her hospitalization. "The people would come over and give me a shot to make me go to sleep, but I couldn't stop crying," she recalled.

A children's aid worker, Yonas Kebede, met Adanech when her grandmother, who was sick with asthma, asked for help caring for her. Kebede says he immediately recognized something special in the girl.

"When I met her for the first time, I could see it in her eyes," said Kebede. "She's just brave."

Kebede brought her to Atlanta around Christmas 2001 to be fitted with a prosthetic leg. The aid worker also introduced Adanech to the Spratlin family, who was interested in adopting the girl.

Adanech remembers being overwhelmed when she first arrived in America. "I was afraid of everything," she said. "I was scared because I never even knew where I was and what was going to happen to me. But soon it turned out to be great."

With the blessing of her grandmother, the Spratlins adopted Adanech, and she was quickly welcomed into the family by her two new brothers, Aaron and Ellis, and baby sister, Avery, who was thrilled to finally have the sister she always wanted.

"She is really unbelievable to me," said Avery. "She really didn't understand anything. Her first word was 'Mom', and she really liked saying it."