JEKYLL ISLAND, Ga. – A Georgia girl with spina bifida, a condition causing her to be paralyzed from the knees down, got the chance to meet a paralyzed sea turtle named Bandit.
As soon as she laid eyes on Bandit, 12-year-old Kendall Barfield, who is also an animal lover, was mesmerized by the turtle’s size.
“Oh my gosh, she’s huge!” Barfield said.
Bandit is a green sea turtle who lives at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jeykll Island.
She lives there because she has a spinal cord injury from a boat crash that left her back fins paralyzed.
Barfield’s mom and dad met Bandit two years ago while on a business trip.
They knew their daughter, who also suffers from a paralyzing condition, needed to meet the turtle, and the staff agreed to make that happen.
“This is an experience that we normally wouldn’t be able to provide for her and so to be able to give her the opportunity to make a connection with something that she loves and then to be able to see the impact that she has, so many times she sees what she can’t do instead of what she can and this is one of those wins of something that we can do,” Danielle Barfield, Kendall’s mom, said.
Kendall said she’s grateful for this opportunity and is excited to tell her friends at school about this experience.