Updated October 19, 2026, 11:38 a.m. ET
At 27, Jessie Owen loved her life. She was a 6th grade teacher in Seattle. She lived in a “nice little apartment,” went out with friends on weekends, ran triathlons and enjoyed Sunday dinners at her parents’ house.
But in December 2012, his world turned upside down. A snow-laden tree fell on the roof of the car she was in with her parents, brother, sister and brother-in-law. His parents were killed instantly, his siblings were injured, and Owen was paralyzed.
She spent about a year in partial hospitalization and rehabilitation. “I was afraid of being alone,” she said. A revolving door of friends, family and lawyers kept him company, sleeping on the floor of his hospital room.
“I had lost everything. Everything. My job, my apartment, my autonomy, my independence, my parents, my support system, my ability to drive, my ability to make decisions for myself, my ability to brush my teeth,” said Owen, now 41. “It was so much trauma. I don’t think my brain let me completely sink into it.”
At first, Owen thought that if she worked hard enough in rehab, she would regain most, if not all, of the function and mobility she had lost. “Every version of healing I imagined ended with a walk,” she said. But ultimately, that dream faded when she realized the severity of her injuries. Over time, she began to focus on the things she could do and control, like his love life. She began sharing her story online and gained over 700,000 followers on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. His goal? To be the hope she needed as a newly paralyzed person all those years ago.
After all, Owen said, she was able to accomplish so many things she never thought possible during those early days of recovery. To begin with, she never imagined she could become a mother.
She remembers the sonographer first discovering her baby’s heartbeat.
“I cried and I was like, holy shit, this is all I ever wanted. This is all I ever dreamed of, but I didn’t think I was going to get it,” she said. “I didn’t think I could ever be loved. I didn’t think I was capable of having children.”
Then the sonographer threw him another curveball: “And here’s the other heartbeat.”
Owen started laughing.
“Of course we do this the hard way,” she remembers thinking. “It’s just, you know, super on brand for me. And now we have a geriatric, quadriplegic twin pregnancy.”
Dating, Marriage, and Motherhood as a Quadriplegic
In the first few years after his paralysis, Owen began to regain some function in his legs, but said his hands remained the most frustrating part of his injury. She ultimately participated in a six-month clinical trial that required multiple treatments each week, including baseline testing, occupational therapy and external spinal cord stimulation. She said she “went in without much expectation,” but “the possibility of greater independence meant enough to me that I was willing to do almost anything.”
That clinical trial has now evolved into Arc-Ex, a Food and Drug Administration-approved stimulation device that fits on the back of a paralyzed person’s neck to improve sensation and strength in their hands.
“I couldn’t put my hair in a ponytail before this clinical trial. And I still can’t put my hair in a ponytail,” she said. But she can “get closer,” she said, adding that slow progress is still progress in her eyes.
The treatment made her feel like her life had become 5 to 20 percent easier, depending on the day. For Owen, the trial opened the door to the possibilities and hope she needed. This gave him the confidence to keep moving forward. So, she started dating online.
Some people wanted to know his whole life story on the first date, while others didn’t ask him too many questions about his wheelchair. She was always more impressed by the latter.
“I’ve had a lot of really bad dates. But that was the fun part,” she said. “Eventually I met a man with a mustache, so phenomenal. And I knocked him over so hard he put a ring on it.”
She discovered she was pregnant three months after the wedding. Her pregnancy was uncomfortable and she was nervous about being a mom. Owen knew she probably wouldn’t be able to change many diapers herself or even get around in her wheelchair in the morning to pick up her babies when they cried. But her husband gave her no reason to worry.
“He said – I remember it so clearly – he said, ‘It’s okay. I’m so happy to do this because being a parent doesn’t have a lot to do with the physical aspect,” she said. “When you think about who your mom and dad were, do you remember that they changed your diaper? Or do you remember that they came for you, and talked with you, and played with you?”
Today, her boys are 4 years old. She shares what daily life is like as a quadriplegic mother with twins on her social media accounts.
“I would have loved to be able to see someone who went through a journey like mine when I was injured,” she said. “I didn’t know anyone who was paralyzed. I certainly didn’t know any women, and I certainly didn’t know any women who had babies and fell in love after an injury.”
Her platform now allows her to secure speaking engagements and consult with disability advocacy groups. It would be easy to focus on the tragedy she endured, Owen said, but she “always knew how to find joy.”
“This is definitely the life I want to live,” she said, adding that not being able to walk “is really not that bad” – something she never thought she would say when she woke up paralyzed in the hospital. “I get to do meaningful work. I live in a home that I love and that is accessible to me. I have a husband who is obviously obsessed with me. And twins who are mama’s boys. And I’m so happy.”
Madeline Mitchell’s role covering women and the care economy at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
Contact Madeline at memitchell@usatoday.com and @maddiemitch_ on X.
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