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Local girl goes from physically challenged to physically fit
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Meet Julie Perez, a walking, living, beautiful miracle. At 20 years old, Julie was living the life. Although she was born and raised here in the Miami area, Julie moved to LA to pursue her dreams of being an actress and entertainer. For several years she ran around LA like she owned the place. Fast cars, expensive apartments, exciting nights out and the like were no stranger to Julie. But one fatal evening, Julie Perez's life would come to a screeching halt.
On September 26, 2007 Julie was hit by a drunk driver on the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles, California at approximately 3 am. Her car had spun several times and then flipped out of control. After the accident, Julie spent about one month comatose and paralyzed with a traumatic brain injury in Cedars Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills. Her family was told that she may not live. Julie was given a 3% chance of living a "normal" life, if she even woke from the coma. But soon Julie began to slowly regain consciousness. Her friends and family had so much faith and hope and determination. Her father would fly back and forth between Florida and California to pray and be by her side. Her mother, an RN, stood by her side day and night to make sure that everything was done to help her improve. Her sister, Marissa, came to California several times to help out as well. Julie's friends came to see her as often as they could. Lets just say that the popular Miss Perez was more popular than ever. The waiting room at Cedars Sinai was always completely full of her friends and family.
Once doctors knew Julie was going to live, they put her on a feeding tube, a respirator and she had a brain pressure monitor inside her head - all to keep her alive. But now her mother had to decide whether or not to keep her on the machines. Julie was being assessed daily. And even though her condition seemed to be improving, doctors still were not sure if she would live. Julie's mom really needed the support of her family and friends to help make decisions that would change all their lives.
Soon Julie was air ambulanced back to Florida where she spent yet another full month in Sunrise Rehabilitation hospital. She began to get some of her mobility back, but was still paralyzed on her left side. Julie would have to start her life over, in more ways than one. She went through the stages of her childhood again, including wearing diapers, learning how to speak, learning how to control her own body and more. She went from being pushed in a wheel chair to walking with a walker to slowly adding miles to her running log.
Julie's relentlessness, perseverance and determination brought her to Candy Colby's World Fitness Association, where she would study to become a fitness instructor. Ironically, Julie would sign up exactly on the one year anniversary of her terrible accident. She decided that she would enroll in the masters program to become both a personal trainer and group fitness instructor. When Julie first started the program, she was still having double vision issues and going for speech therapy. She was able to do many of the moves necessary for her to begin teaching, but her body would not quite move the way she wanted it to. Her movements were somewhat spastic and slowed compared to the other students. Eventually, Julie began to make progress moving up the ranks and showing signs of becoming a great teacher!
Fast forward another year or so to October 2009. Julie has recently graduated from the Personal Training section of her masters program at WFA. (That means she is now a personal trainer and is ready to train you)! She is still studying to be a group fitness instructor and now is getting into fitness and bikini modeling.
Julie will be competing in the FAME Bikini and Fitness Modeling Show the weekend of November 6th-7th at the War Memorial in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Way to go, Julie! You're an amazing young lady and we'll all be there cheering you on!
If interested in attending the FAME show at the War Memorial in Fort Lauderdale, you can order tickets on line at www.bodyproud.org. There will be VIP seats for $20-$30 dollars and 'free' seats with a two dollar donation in the grand stands. Julie would love to see you there!
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