Just B R E A T H E by Rachel Dawson
An intimidating black line sat at the bottom of a white sheet of paper. The paper was inscribed with daunting medical prose and legal jargon, all of which had been deemed a mere technicality to the girl whose name, Elexa Nosonchuk, was typed beneath the line.
At her unrelenting request, the hospital lawyers had drawn up the necessary papers relinquishing her legal right to sue in the event that her lungs could not sustain the rigors of field hockey competition; in the sad event, that she was injured or died while playing the sport she loved.
Christopher Newport’s sophomore goalkeeper had spent countless hours playing field hockey, devoting most of her time in high school to the development of her game.
Her investment paid off. In 2007, the freshman led Division III field hockey with a .887 save percentage and set a CNU field hockey record with 10 shutouts. Her accomplishments earned her the Virginia Sports Information Directors Rookie of the Year Award.
But it was not the awards that mattered most to Elexa; she prized the exhilaration of competition. Field hockey was everything to her, literally the air she breathed.
But in the summer of 2008, that air became scarce. A CAT scan revealed severe scarring and pneumonitis in her left lung. Doctors removed two inches from the bottom of that lung, leaving Elexa with 23% lung functioning.
And with that 23%, Elexa craved the exhilarating air of her favorite sport. So despite the recommendation of doctors, coaches, and trainers, she resolutely affirmed her wish to play.
It was a foregone conclusion that she would sign the legal papers, confirming not just her will to play, but also her uncompromising will to live. “If I didn’t keep trying, what else did I have left,” Elexa reasons her decision.
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Elexa was diagnosed with a rare and life threatening form of non-reversible obstructive lung disease, called Bronchiolitis Obliterans in which the bronchioles (small airway branches) are narrowed by scar tissue or inflammation.
Typically, the disorder is found in infants or those who have experienced severe chemical exposure. Elexa’s case, however, is part of a rare category of idiopathic development, meaning it arises spontaneously from unknown cause.
The loss of field hockey was the biggest heartbreak of Elexa’s young life. It stung worse than any sporting loss, because she didn’t just lose a game, she lost the game, the game of field hockey, the sport that she loved.
So, she tried to play, because trying was all she had left. But in late October, a radiating pain sliced through her scapula, the pain of a collapsed lung. And in an instant, trying was no longer an option.
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