ESPN's Victoria Arlen Reveals Relapse of Disease That Left Her Paralyzed and Unable to Speak (Exclusive)

At the age of 11, ESPN SportsCenter host Victoria Arlen fell ill with two rare, and potentially fatal, neurological disorders called transverse myelitis and acute acute disseminated encephalomyelitis She spent the next four years trapped in her own body, unable to move or speak — until a "miracle" recovery. After winning gold at the 2012 Paralympic Games and getting a job as one of the youngest reporters at ESPN, she spent year in physical therapy relearning to walk (something doctors thought she'd never be able to do)— and then dance, placing fifth on Dancing with the Stars in 2017. By all accounts, Arlen had triumphed over her tragedy. And then, last year, she experienced a relapse and found herself paralyzed again, and she thought she might lose it all. She spoke to PEOPLE for an exclusive feature in this week's magazine about her terrifying relapse and the tough recovery that followed: "I have my health back. I thank God every day that I'm here."

Victoria Arlen had just driven back to her West Hartford, Conn., home after hosting ESPN's SportsCenter on March 17 of last year when her face began to feel odd. "The whole right side started to droop," Arlen says. "All my internal alarms were going off. I knew something was seriously wrong." The discomfort soon spread to her legs, and she called a friend who rushed her to the hospital. Told she was having a stroke, she reacted with strange relief: "At least it's not a relapse," Arlen, 28, remembers thinking.

Sixteen years earlier, Arlen had fallen ill with two rare neurological conditions, which caused swelling in her spine and brain and left her trapped inside her own body, unable to move or speak, for four years. Doctors didn't think she would ever fully recover, but she'd proven them wrong. The thought of reverting back to an immobile state "has always been my worst fear," she says. "I feared I wouldn't be so lucky the second time around."

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Soon those fears seemed to be coming true: At the hospital her body rapidly began to shut down. She lost the ability to move her legs and arms and had trouble talking. When her mother arrived and reached for her hand, she couldn't feel it. Arlen wasn't having a stroke, doctors realized. She was relapsing. "They said, 'We have a very short window before you could end up completely paralyzed—or worse,' " she says. "I'm lying there thinking, 'I can't die like this.' I prayed harder than I've ever prayed before. I was like, 'No, God. This isn't how the story is supposed to end.' "

Arlen's story has been "miracle after miracle" from the time she fell ill at age 11 and began her slow recovery from the effects of transverse myelitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, both disorders with no clear cause that, when left untreated, can be fatal. As a preteen in Exeter, N.H., she became so severely affected she couldn't even move her eyes. She persevered, even winning gold at the 2012 Paralympic games and then becoming one of the youngest reporters at ESPN. By 2016, after six years of intensive physical therapy, she regained her ability to walk (and showed off her new skills on Dancing With the Stars soon after), and "my career entered this launchpad," she says. She started a nonprofit, Victoria's Victory Foundation, to help others with mobility issues, wrote her autobiography (Locked In), cohosted American Ninja Warrior Junior and earned her spot in the SportsCenter studio.

"All that could be taken away," she thought as she lay in her hospital bed. "I've overcome all these things. I'm at the height of my game, but I'll be back to square one." But because her condition—which turned out to be a relapse of just the transverse myelitis—was recognized quickly, doctors were able to give her intravenous steroids immediately to reduce the inflammation, a treatment she didn't receive the first time she was affected.

This time it saved her life and prevented lasting paralysis, but her recovery was grueling. "Sitting up was a process again. Just being able to take steps and stand was a process again," Arlen says. Following a week in the hospital and daily rehab, Arlen walked back out in front of the cameras at ESPN three weeks after her relapse. "I really wanted to get back in the game," she says. "I needed to prove to myself that I was going to be okay."

It took a while for her to believe that. "Mentally I didn't feel safe in my body for a long time," she says. "It was a very weird hurdle that I had to overcome." To do so she leaned on her faith—"I keep believing in miracles I choose to have faith that I'm going to be okay, and I choose to have hope that things are going to continue to get better," says Arlen, who continues to suffer from nerve pain. "Some days I'll be at the SportsCenter desk and I feel like I'm being completely electrocuted. But at the same time, pain means you're alive."

And she takes heart in her by her doctors as well. "A long remission followed by another relapse is very uncommon," says Dr. Michael Levy, her neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. "The likelihood for Victoria to have another relapse is now low."

Today Arlen is focused on the positive. She's back to an active life—working out, skiing and, earlier this year, hosting the X Games. "I've been given another second chance, and I make a conscious effort now more than ever to appreciate every single moment," she says. "Because in the blink of an eye, it can be taken away."