HARTLAND, Wis. — Thirteen years after a life-altering accident left her paralyzed from the waist down, Laura Dwyer is competing in the Paralympic wheelchair mixed doubles curling trials this week, hoping to represent Team USA at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Italy.

TMJ4'S Charles Benson first met Dwyer weeks after a large tree branch fell on her during a windy day of landscaping. She suffered multiple broken bones and damage to her spinal cord, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.

"Do you remember that person?" Benson asked Dwyer as they watched her original story together, a rush of emotion still raw 13 years later.

Laura Dwyer was paralyzed after a branch fell on her

"Same person with a lot of belief, a lot of heart, trusting, trusting that things are happening for a reason,"

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