After A Freak Sledding Accident, One Of The Vertebras In Her Back Burst Into Tons Of Tiny Pieces And She Was Only Given A 5% Chance Of Being Able To Walk But She Beat The Odds

Austin, Texas. To kick off the new year, a young woman by the name of Jessica flew from Austin, Texas, to Colorado to go on vacation with her boyfriend Nic and his family.

Sadly, Jessica got into a freak sledding accident not that long into the vacation, that caused one of the vertebras in her back to burst into tons of tiny pieces.

“The trip got cut short unfortunately when I got into the freakiest sledding accident you could think of,” Jessica wrote on a GoFundMe page.

“Nic’s mom ran to me and held me for 15 minutes while the ambulance came and when the paramedics arrived, they loaded me up and asked me all of the questions.”

“I was terrified, as anyone would be, because I had no idea what was going on. The paramedics took me to the nearest hospital where I got x-rays and an MRI.”

“The scans came back showing I had a ‘chance fracture’ in my T12 vertebra, which basically means it burst into a bunch of pieces.”

Jessica feels incredibly fortunate that she hasn’t become paralyzed since the bone fragments were so close to her spinal cord, if they had come any closer it would have certainly left her unable to move.

After Jessica got to the hospital in Colorado, they airlifted her to Albuquerque, New Mexico, which was where the closest trauma center happened to be.

GoFundMe; pictured above is Jessica

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While in Albuquerque, Jessica underwent surgery to fuse her spine with six screws. Jessica’s grandma and mom drove overnight from Austin to Albuquerque to be by Jessica’s side when she woke up from surgery.

Hours after she had her spinal fusion surgery, Jessica was able to get up to use the restroom with the help of one of her nurses, which is an encouraging sign for her recovery.

“I was so surprised I could, especially after hearing I had a 5% chance of walking again after my accident and I walked the DAY after my surgery,” Jessica explained.

“I am so proud of myself for that. Following that moment, I had visits from PT and OT nurses and was discharged a few hours later.”

Currently, Jessica is back in Austin recovering at home with her family. Her family is dedicated to helping her heal, and she’s now trying to help them cover the costs of her medical bills.

“If anyone reading this knows me, you know how badly I want to help and how much my heart hurts that I can’t do more,” Jessica said.

“Of course, I wish it never happened, but I can’t turn back time. The only thing I can do now is stay positive (thanks Nic for hammering that motto into me every day) and work on getting back to where I was before.”

“This has been the hardest week of my life, mentally, emotionally, and physically, but I am so thankful to even be moving after what happened – I try to remind myself of that as much as I can.”

If you would like to help Jessica with her medical bills, you can do that here.

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