Rep. Rick West and Patience Wilson
OKLAHOMA CITY – Patience Wilson, a senior at Panama High School, paged for Rep. Rick West, R-Heavener, the week of Feb. 2-5, at the Oklahoma State Capitol.
Patience is the daughter of Rick and Jacolyn Martinez.
Patience, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in an accident when she was seven years old, shared her story with Rep. West during the week she paged for him. She wrote that her doctors believed she would never talk or walk again after her injury. Two months later, she walked out of the hospital without her wheelchair. Several months after that, she was back at school with accommodations.
She said it wasn’t long before her parents realized she was relearning things faster than expected. “They wanted me to have a push, to do more,” she wrote, “but my doctors did not agree.”
So, the family moved from Dodge City, KS, to Panama, OK, for a fresh start. Patience said one of her teachers, Jennifer Toney, looked at her case and tested her ability to see what her needs were, placing her in a regular first-grade class with accommodations.
Since then, Patience said she has been achieving more than was thought possible or expected with her disability.
She’s attained a high school grade point average of 3.96 and is ranked third in her class of 49 students. She’s taking concurrent classes at Carl Albert State College where her college GPA is 3.76. After studying at Carl Albert, she plans to transfer to the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma for a degree in English.
She won a beauty pageant and several Special Olympics track meets and was recognized as the Athlete of the Year for Area 10 in the Oklahoma Special Olympics in 2025. She’s a member of her school’s Quiz Bowl, on the Student Council and Youth Advisory Board and a member of Family Career and Community Leaders of America. She taught herself to play piano using only one hand and played basketball for two years.
Her goal is to become a book editor or an English teacher. She also wants to help people with disabilities “to know that it does not limit them as a person.”
West said, “Patience is a remarkable young woman who has overcome a lot of things in her life. She’s incredibly smart, and she has a heartwarming story to share with others.”
Both West and Patience expressed appreciation for the many teachers at Panama Schools that have helped her reach where she is today. Patience also thanked her mom and dad and her siblings who she said have been with her since day one after her accident.
Rick West serves District 3 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes part of LeFlore County.
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