Brooke Ellison, who after being paralyzed from the neck down by a childhood car accident went on to graduate from Harvard and became a professor and a devoted disability rights advocate, died on Sunday in Stony Brook, N.Y., on Long Island.
Her death, in a hospital, was caused by complications of quadriplegia, her mother, Jean Ellison, said.
As an 11-year-old, Brooke had been taking karate, soccer, cello and dance lessons and singing in a church choir.
But on Sept. 4, 1990, she was struck by a car while running across a road near her home in Stony Brook.
After waking from a 36-hour coma, she spent six weeks in the hospital and eight months in a rehabilitation center.
Persons:
Brooke Ellison, Jean Ellison, Brooke
Organizations:
Harvard
Locations:
Stony Brook, N.Y, Long