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5-year-old quadriplegic gets her wish

photo contributed

Hayli Parlier, 5, a quadriplegic, snow tubes down a hillside at Glade Springs Resort, WV in late March as her family and paramedics look-on. A few Burke County Emergency Medical Services paramedics planned the trip when Parlier told them she wanted to see snow.

By Julie N. Chang | The News Herald

Published: April 9, 2009

Morganton - Hayli Parlier, 5, had only one request this winter: she wanted to see snow.
Hayli, a quadriplegic, had expressed this thought to Burke County Emergency Medical Services paramedics Tim Branch, Victor Puckett, Alexis Clarke and Joey Autry.
So the paramedics, on their own, planned a trip to Glade Springs Resort in West Virginia. Hayli's mother, Starla Parlier , and her brother went along, also.
But how did this story begin?
Hayli was injured at the age of 3 years when she was involved in a car wreck, Branch said.
Puckett said a few of the paramedics who tended to Hayli at the wreck have continued to be involved in her life.
Branch said the paramedics usually transport Hayli to her appointments, whether in Hickory, Charlotte or in between. And over time they have all fallen in love with her.
After hearing that Hayli wanted to see snow, Puckett thought of Glade Springs because his mother-in-law lives there.
The paramedics, along with the help of their churches, managed to raise the money needed to get Hayli and her family to Glade Springs and set the date for late March.
"We took her tubing and took her swimming because they had an indoor swimming pool and she went bowling," Branch said.
"We had a ball," Puckett said. "We put her vent and her oxygen tube in one snow tube and put her down in another snow tube and tied them together."
"She absolutely just grinned from ear to ear," Branch said.
"She's really touched me," Puckett said.
The trip was such a success that the group hopes to make it an annual event, Puckett said.
Additionally, Hayli has attended church with Branch, gone fishing with Puckett and the paramedics are lining up a trip to the beach later this summer.