Jordanne Menzies was driving home from a modeling interview in Denver four years ago, when she fell asleep and crashed her car near the Clifton exit off Interstate 70.

Jordanne and her friend were not wearing seat belts.

Her friend had minor injures. Jordanne was thrown from the car and landed on the pavement. Head and neck injuries left the 18-year-old a quadriplegic. She has no feeling from the middle of her chest to her toes.

Physicians gave her slim chances of breathing without a respirator. Jordanne proved them wrong.

“I fought it,” Jordanne said. “I’d be on it, and I’d start breathing on my own, and they were like, ‘You have to quit,’ and I was like, ‘Take it off.’”

Now 22, Jordanne talks and breathes on her own. In fact, she operates her wheelchair with her mouth. But she hopes for more.

Jordanne plans to fly to Costa Rica in January for stem cell treatments at the Institute of Cellular Medicine in San Jose.

The stem cells to be injected into Jordanne’s spine will be taken from the umbilical cord of a healthy, live baby.

Jordanne will be in Costa Rica for one week. No follow-up appointments are scheduled at this time, she said.

Jordanne, a 2003 Grand Junction High School graduate, is a sophomore at Mesa State College pursuing a degree in early childhood education so she can teach preschool. She loves children.

“That age makes me feel good, not something different,” Jordanne said. “They are always so curious. They are motivated to want to learn.”

Her Fruita apartment is decorated with an Asian theme, and a ramp connects her apartment with the house of Steve and Deb Menzies, her father and stepmother.

Jordanne’s mother, Catherine Menzies, lives in Grand Junction and spends valuable time helping her daughter.

Jordanne needs constant, consistent care. She needs someone to apply her makeup and feed her. She needs someone to scratch her nose.

“She handles so much of it with grace,” Deb Menzies said.

Jordanne said she would like to be more independent to alleviate the pressures on those around her.

It is easy to see the optimism and hope for Jordanne in the eyes of her family members and friends. But Jordanne is cautiously optimistic about the therapy she will receive in Costa Rica.

“Maybe, if I get my arms back, I can drive the boat again,” said Jordanne, who grew up going to Lake Powell every summer. “I like to drive – cars, boats or whatever.”

“She still is a backseat driver,” joked her stepmother Deb Menzies.

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Melinda Mawdsley can be reached via e-mail at mmawdsley@gjds.com.